– Great to get to the boat early though we spend a bit too much time getting ready to go once there.  Suit up and roll!  Five minutes parking lot max.

– Re gear: This is really a hard one to get used to as a day perfectly fine may turn ugly in a second and sailing wet and cold is no fun.  This and trying to cut down on the weight of unused gear is the balance that must be struck.  Leave the keys and wallets behind in favor of some protective gear.  I usually pack a layer, something light that will keep me warm and something I can throw on to keep me dry.  Remember, when the wind picks up, there is more water on the rail and more butts on the rail.  A simple pair of foul weather pants are kind of key.  If it’s cooking hot, who cares, get wet and it’s kind of a relief but those are the things to think about.  Loose the weight, pay attention to the forecast, and keep your body happy.

– Starts: This is related to gear.  Everyone needs to know the time.  Get a cheap watch or someone figure out how to set it on the tack tick.  I need to know the time and it helps if I can focus on driving rather than my watch.  5 minutes, 4, 3, then every 30 until 1 minute, then every 15 seconds until, 10,9,8…Go!

– Starts part two: Good looking out for traffic.  The info coming from you all is great.  Whether on Port or Starboard, we need to know who’s coming at us.  Look for movement of crew members on other boats – even if they are on our board, sometimes the crew broadcasts the movement of a boat before the boat moves and there are lots of quick moves during the start.

– Starts part three: Try to figure out who is and who is not in our class by checking the scratch sheet, boat name, or flag flying.  If we are in sequence and another class boat is in our way, tell them to get gone cause we’re starting.  If they are in our class, try to name them by name, by boat type, or color.  “‘J105’ / ‘Sunnyside Up’ / ‘big blue boat’ tacking onto starboard three boat lengths in front of us.” Stuff like that. As to position and rules at the start, feel free to learn them!  But for now, I really just need to know what another boat is doing and the time and for you to trim and slow the boat when I say.

– On that note: Slow us down, means ease the jib and the main.  Stop us, means backwind the main by pushing the boom out by standing up and pushing it away from the boat.

– Boat handling as I mentioned is improving.  There is some confusion about what happens when, and really there are a few moving parts to this thing and the names get a bit confusing, so don’t worry if it seems complicated at times, especially when things need to happen quickly.  Slow down, picture it in your head, talk it out, and then when it comes time to execute, we should be fine.  As long as we talk through the moves and all try to know our individual roles in addition to the bigger picture the move is trying to achieve, the better we’ll sail.  And keep watching this video till you see it in your dreams:

– There is some talk of how we are doing in the races and though I think it is important, it’s not really the point.  For the first few years on Iris’ boat, I had no idea where we placed on the Thursday night races.  The only thing we tried to do was sail the boat as fast and as well as we could and reflect after the races on how to improve on it.  I’m not saying we’re not racing against other boats because no shit that’s what we are doing and if we don’t keep that in mind, then who gives a damn how we improve – but ‘getting around the course’ and ‘sailing our own race’ and ‘having good boat handling skills’ are the major concerns, and our place in the race should not be a distraction.  Indeed, there were races on Deviation when I thought any position we had to win was lost; but we just focused on our race, dialed it in, and at the end of it were glad for our skillful recovery (which often times also meant a better place on the podium.)

– Things to do: – fix the stern light, fix the tack tick, organize tools, lighten up the boat, trimmers read up on sail trim, which control does what.

– Totally liked the focus last night though.  Everyone was ‘racing’ and I thought it was great.  You were focusing on trim – tricky in those light conditions – feeding me back information and to each other about the position of other boats, talking through the maneuvers before they happened, and recovering quick from gear failures be they motor mount or spinnaker shackles.  You all just seemed into it and I am grateful as hell for that.

Cheers