When you go to CORK, you know you are going to see some of the best competition you can find in any Eastern Ontario regatta. I mean, that's why we go to CORK, right? To be challenged by the best you can find and to measure yourself in competition that matters.
For me, CORK this year is a critical learning step to the Worlds next year. It is a chance to sail a Radial in a strong fleet-stronger probably than the one I will encounter in the Grand Master Fleet at the Worlds next year, in fact. Each race, each leg, each rounding is being filed in the memory banks for next year. And I will continue to plough away at this CORK despite everything.
Everything includes some pretty bad results and some pretty good ones. In the qualifying, which included six races, I was, like Ottawa, up and down. In marginal hiking, I was terrible, 32,35,45. In hiking breeze, I was great; 4, 4, 1. As clear as day, I can see where my worst sailing takes place. And I can be satisfied that I did some of my best in the hiking breezes.
In all the races, I was obsessed with getting good transits. All of my transits in qualifying were excellent. I knew exactly where the line was. My routine is to go up to the inside of the committee boat and sight along the line. If I can't see the pin, I'll sail down the line from there until I can. Then I get a read from the other end by looking through the pin to the committee boat. I then go inside the line again, line up my committee boat transit, and look back at my pin transit to confirm that I got it right.
But getting a good transit is only part of the process. Once you have one, you have to trust it. In the first race, I had a sweet transit, but I didn't trust it. I was about 4 from the pin, and lined up with everyone else, when a guy comes down the line. I looked at my transit to see how much room there was to the line, and I didn't recognize the shore. I got confused and hesitated. That was just enough for the guy to drop on top of me and roll me at the gun. If I had trusted my transit, I would have been able to easily block him and hit the line hot. But I didn't. Lesson learned and a 30s placing to go with it.
But if the lack of trust didn't get me, boat speed in marginal hiking would have anyway. It is no fun to feel heavy, watching 130 pounders hiking out, flying by you while you are sitting on the rail. Now I know how Joe Van Rossem feels when I do that to him in a full rig!! I was slow whenever the wind was below about 10 knots, which was the three races with the bad results. Just sucked.
So I talked to a few people, and think I have found a couple of things I can do to get a little faster in those conditions. They mostly involve getting more locked into the boat by putting my feet under the lee grab rail and using my upper body to get the boat tourqued around better. I need a bit more draft in the foot, and I need to believe!! That may be the hardest part.
But then it blew in three races, and I was clearly going well. In the race I won, the wind was blowing maybe 12 to 15 knots, and I just hiked hard, went left and got hooked up downwind and that was about it.
So the qualifying is over, and I am 29 in the gold fleet for now. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
Rob Koci races in both the Laser Full-Rig and Laser Radial fleets around District 3. Currently, Rob is the District 3 secretary and maintains a frequently updated race diary on D3Laser.com. Rob's home port is St. James Town Sailing Club in Toronto, Ontario.
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