Racing for a Cause!

2007 Windy City Match Race

I was fortunate enough to be asked to sail on board Heartbreaker for the WCMR. I was to replace Wally Cross, not an easy feat for me at all. Wally has been one of the best in the Farr 40 class since its inception, proof by the reason why I replaced him.......he is in Copenhagen trimming mainsail on Warpath for the Farr 40 Wold Championships.

The regatta was put together by a great group of people from Chicago including a customer of mine Rick West and he awesome wife Liz Ware. They along a group of sailors came up with the idea to hold a match racing regatta in Farr 40's and also couple the event with a great cause to raise both money and awareness for the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation.

On Friday night there was a reception held that featured two pretty cool events. First there was a silent auction with some really incredible items that were donated and raffled off. As I told Liz, I kept looking for the "poor sailmakers" Auction table with items starting at $1.50! The one I really wanted was the Porsche driving school experience. But it went for more then I can handle.

The second thing that was pretty cool for the people at the event was that Tucker Thompson came and gave a little video show of the high lights from the 32nd America's Cup. He did a nice job with it and the public quite liked it.

One touching moment happened in the opening minutes of the night when a young lady, IIRC, of 13 got up and gave a moving speech about what it is like to be a child living with HIV/AIDS. It really showed why it was important to to be involved with this regatta.

The weekend was great for sailing, not enough wind maybe, but the skies were clear and the competition was tough. The team that won was a full professional match racing team which feature a pile of BMW/Oracle sailors and Cameron Dunn from Mascalzone Latino.

It was great to sail against such talent and also to have a little of that on our boat as well. Our Tactician was none other then Dave Dellenbaugh! Dave was the tactician for the German AC team in AC 32 this year.

We finished 3rd out of the 4 teams and we are also the only team to beat EWM and that was a satisfying race as we led the whole way around and extended to a real big margin on the final run.

I really wish that we could more of this format of racing. Match Racing is so much fun and so intense that more people should try it.

I look forward to seeing what Rick and Liz do for next year, they say they are going to keep going and build it for the next several years. I look forward to racing in it again next season.

Check out the website and please feel free to donate to the worthy cause!
Cheers

Tac

Wheel of Fortune!

This is a little article that I wrote about a year ago for D1D. I just thought I would throw it out one more time as the season is well on its way and maybe some of you drivers and tacticians are having the same issue at this time. Sorry for the regurge but I think it is a good way to look driving.
Cheers

Tac

The Wheel of Fortune

I have found myself doing ton of sailing lately, with the two Mac races, Harbor Springs, the Brian Jackman Farr 40 regatta in Chicago and now I am at a MUMM 30 event in Cleveland OH.

Over the past month I have sailed on many different boats and various levels of crew. It is a great learning experience each time I sail. Here is something that I have learnt over the past few months of summer.

I am pretty blessed with my job in the fact that I get to sail on many boats with great people. One boat that I have been sailing on this season is Team LaSalle’s Farr 40 in Chicago. LaSalle bank the US arm of ABN AMRO has sponsored a Farr 40 for two seasons in Chicago, this season I am calling tactics on the boat. In the two seasons we have had two full time drivers and a part timer this past weekend.

All three sailors have been dinghy sailors and making the transition is not as easy as some think. All three of them have been good drivers for the most part and with some time on the boat I think that have become quite good and I enjoy sailing with them.

But over the past two years, (I was the mainsail trimmer last year); I have been in the back of the bus and noticed an interesting phenomenon. Having been a dinghy sailor a long time ago I kind of forgot how you drive one. Usually with a Laser or a Vanguard you are moving the tiller a bunch to “work” the boat over waves, create lanes and get out of sticky spots. Well when the dinghy driver comes to a boat that has a wheel you generally get what I have termed “Wheel of Fortune”. The dudes are spinning the wheel like they are on a game show!

Great big turns on the start line, rudder moving all the time upwind and downwind because their experience is working the rudder over, under and around waves with the dinghy so in their mind then need to do the exact same way. Well boys that is slow!

When you watch the best drivers in the fleet they are barley ever moving the wheel at all. They find the sweet spot and just sort drive with a movement that rotating your wrist allows. It is quite a difference in performance between the game show contestant and the smoothest drivers in the fleet.

On the keel boats like the Farr 40 moving the rudder a whole bunch just adds turbulence and drag hence slowing the boat down. So if you get the chance to move up from a dinghy to a keel boat please remember to hold that wheel as still as possible. Your tactician and mainsail trimmer will thank you!