There are times we need to get out of our heads. Not crazy-like out of our heads, but out of our familiar pattern of thinking. My chance came when Harri Palm invited me to join the Snipe class for its Canadian Championship in Hamilton July 3rd and 4th. For the first time in a long time, I would get the chance to hear another voice than the one in my head that haunts, encourages, berates and cajoles me while I go 'round and 'round alone in my Laser.
That other voice was volunteered by James Belfrage, a member of the Ontario Masters Racing Team. We picked up the boat from Guelph on Friday, and blew the cobwebs out in a stiff breeze in Hamilton Harbour that afternoon. Our boathandling left something on the table, but we got as ready as we could.
I can't tell you how pleasant it was to have someone to discuss strategy with as we sailed to the course. There was certainly plenty to talk about. The wind was not only a solid 12 to 15 knots, it was shifty and gusty as well. Gains and losses were available across the course and you really had to pick your spots. There were shifts you had to dig into and shifts you had to tack on as soon as they hit. When you hit your marks, it was beautiful. When you missed them, you hurt.
We went right in the first race and saw former Canadian Snipe Champ Jack Mitchell and Simon Leung cross us from the left by a mile. We did, however have the weight to keep the boat flat and fast, which covered our terrible boat handling, so we rounded second, and kept it to the finish.
Two familiar names in the Laser class, Kyle Dakin and Francisco Perez, had a gear breakdown in the first race and struggled to a fourth place, but fixed the problem and played punch and counter punch with us for first and second for the entire second race. It came down to a choice of ends on the finish line, and I chose wrong. Kyle sailed to the committee boat on better angles and stronger breeze, and I wallowed to the pin to lose by about four seconds.
In the third race, our hiking stick broke, and the fleet bunched up (the first two races were stretched out quite a bit), which left us with a cluster of five boats closing on the downwind finish in a line fighting for 2nd through 6th. Jack was just ahead and to leeward of us in 3rd sailing on a run on port when he jibed about 50 yards from the finish, called starboard on us, and luffed us hard. I was caught napping (and with no hiking stick), our jibe was a mess and by the time Jack bore back down to cross the finish, we were pushed back to 6th while he retained his 3rd. I got to tell you, it felt like a dirty move, and I expressed my frustration across the water, but knew I would have done the same thing. At the time, we and Kyle looked like the key contenders, and Jack was just being competitive. I shouldn't have let it happen.
The incident was valuable in proving to me how powerful the inside line on a downwind leg is, especially when the wind is biased to the port side of the course (looking downwind). When you round and jibe inside, you have two things right away: potential buoy room and the opportunity to jibe and be starboard boat, and-if the boat you are attacking jibes-leeward boat. It's a pretty good place to be in. The only challenge is to decide how deep you take your inside line before you are sailing too long a course to make it worthwhile. I have seen the likes of Joe Van and Peter Sidenberg go wide right and smoke an entire fleet that was fighting for that inside line. You have to count the cost also of sailing under the starboard tack layline boats after you jibe. In a big fleet, that can be expensive.
The final race was the most satisfying for James and I. I sailed with a rope tied to the rudder for a hiking stick and the wind continued its howling ways. There were times when, even with our weight, the main was fully luffed. A few boats DNC'ed to escape the conditions so there were only seven boats left on the line. We got off the start midline and without too much fuss, then rounded and stayed first. The results on the day were Kyle and Francisco: 4-1-2-2 for 1st place, Jack and Simon: 1-3-3-3 for 2nd place and James and I: 2-2-6-1 for 3rd. A nice tight fight.
James and I knew we had lucked out on the breeze and that, if it lightened, our lack of experience in the Snipe would put us in trouble. Sunday was as nice and gentle a breeze as you could ask for, still from the Northwest (system breeze). We headed out early and again, discussed our strategy. There was a mark halfway up the course that was not a mark of the course that worked as a waypoint for us. It seemed that below the mark, the best place to be was somewhere to the left, and then above the mark, you needed to be to the right, close to the north shore. We started close to the pin, found the little header we expected, and tacked up the left side toward our waypoint. As we approached the middle of the course, our position looked better and better. In fact we didn't need to take the line all the way to the shore because we lifted nicely toward the mark before we came close to the starboard tack layline. Our strategy held and we rounded well (can't remember exactly, but much better than we expected in the lighter air). Downwind was unspectacular, and the second beat was notable only for the fact that I allowed Jack to get inside of the port tack lift that in the previous beat has given us such a good place. He was ahead at the mark by a bit as we headed to the finish line.
And then we saw the thermal. Too busy watching the breeze we were in, we missed the fact that the back half of the fleet was mired in a hole created by the system breeze being killed by a southeast thermal blowing 180 degrees from it. Four boats (Kyle among them) were still at the bottom half of the beat when we turned to run to the finish. By the time we were 100 yards downwind, they were sailing in a full breeze downwind towards us! We hit the hole correctly and snuck to 2nd place ahead of Jack before the race was blown off and the race committee instructed us to head to the start line again and wait while they set a completely new course. Another 10 minutes and we would have crossed in 2nd, dropped our 6th and been in sole possession of first place overall. Such is sailing.
The sea breeze, more bad boat handling, very average boat speed and another minor breakdown completed flummoxed us. I knew that local knowledge said we needed to go to the coal stacks (right), but the left filled in on the first beat. We saw it and went left, but our breakdown tore a hole in already suspect boatspeed, and we slid to 6th again, while Brad Anderson and Molly Kurvink took their second bullet (they would finish 4th), Jack was 2nd, and Kyle came 5th. Going into the last race, Kyle and Jack were a point apart, and we were out of the running.
Kyle and Francisco declared their superiority on the day when they poured out of the right side well ahead on the first beat and never looked back. The rest of the fleet looked like circus elephants, nose to tail, parading around the course. There is not a lot of difference between fast and slow in a Snipe, and I can understand why bunched fleets are not uncommon in Snipe sailing. I'll confess to discouragement, and subsequent discord in our boat by this time, and so a 7th was all she wrote for us.
As bad as the second day was for us, we hung on to our 3rd, and I was not in the least unhappy with the learning I had done in the two days. It was refreshing. James is a thoughtful sailor with a very different vision that I was glad to have access to. His willingness to consolidate rather than take a flyer was right most of the time, and I'll keep that in mind. He is as stubborn as I, but then, we sail Lasers mostly, so that's hardly a surprise. His knowledge of the fractional sloop rig was superior and his patience with a big fat, generally slow boat bordered on religious. If my goal is to be a better Laser sailor, I don't think I could have spent the weekend more wisely.
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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