Lessons learned!
The weather in Miami, and many other places, follows a pattern: one day looks like the next. The weatherman calls for southeasterly winds of 5-10 knots, but it's calm in the morning. Then, as it gets warmer throughout the day, the land heats up, and the sea breeze kicks in. The wind on the water is affected by local topography, where land, buildings, and other structures block the wind and create turbulence. Also, there is usually a big difference between the highest and lowest wind speeds. We refer to this as puff and lull. Today, the puffs (gusts) were considerably much stronger than 10 knots. In reality, after the fact, when we all know what happened, it was more like a 7-15 knot day.
We started the day in the classroom. The coaching staff quickly determined we had enough skippers for five RS Fevas. Five of the kids had more sailing experience than the other five. Some of the skippers had a preference for who they wanted to team up with for the day. The teams were established, and we went sailing. Coach Mo set up a windward-leeward course near home. It soon became apparent that some capsized more than others. The lesson learned is that crew weight is hugely important. It is moveable ballast. You need a large partner if you are small, and vice versa. Let's avoid making that mistake again.
Check out pictures and more below.
Lining up
Lining up when sailing is basically how a sailboat race begins. Each boat must hold its lane and keep the wind clear while sailing parallel to other boats on the same tack. Competitive sailors have three modes: one pinch mode, where they can sail closer to the wind but not as fast as in normal mode; the low mode, which is faster, at the cost of losing gauge or upwind gain. Imagine taking a picture of two or more boats overlapping to windward. Every face would be seen as long as the boats were sailed flat. Let’s practice this next weekend. It’ll be fun and worthwhile, ! promise.