Racing - the ultimate zen exercise (yeah, right)

This is the wind graph for Saturday's Cog & Leaf Gorge Cup. We had a pretty decent forecast (15-21 in the afternoon), a sponsor (Sailworks - the cog part of the equation, and Roberts, hence the leaf), awesome trophies (commissioned by Bruce and created by MacRae, who is a metal working wizard and whose steel art is pretty cool), as well as arrangements for post-racing dinner (Mexican).

And a little after 3, the breeze came up. We all got on the water and checked out the course (same as last time, except the marks were more in a straight line, which would open up all kinds of tactical options downwind). Unfortunately, it died (with a vengeance) before we could even get a sequence started. As the day wore on and the wind continued to no-show, Bruce joked that the minute the first burrito was broken into that night, the breeze would come up.

Sure enough, at about 5:30 or so, with reports of no breeze anywhere within a 100-mile radius and completely flat pressure gradients, the race was called, sailors derigged and loaded their gear, Amy arrived with the food (yeah!), beers were cracked open - and the water started to show some texture. Darren and Scotia were game to run fun races as long as wind and light held out (thanks!), so a bunch of us got on the water (properly fortified with excellent Mexican food) to run fun races (since the event had been called, these couldn't count - so those excellent trophies are still waiting for a good use).

We got to run two quick heats before the wind got too streaky. On the first start, I started starboard with just a few others as most of the fleet expected the usual port favor and just wanted to get into the still-fast river current to take them upwind. I decided against that at the last second because of the northerly slant to the breeze on the Washington side and the big hole near shore (right around where you'd tack before hitting the eddy-line - the big current masked that hole, and I just sort of discovered it sailing around before the start). This worked out great, as the port starters, after clearing us, got knocked like crazy. I made it to the windward mark in first by quite a margin because of that and held on to it. With the streaky conditions, I was glad for my 10.8 and the big Finworks LT; not sure how Bruce managed to get his 9.1 around the course and get second- he must have some sort of anti-gravity device to get- that, or he really worked it, as he sat out the next one and let one of the juniors use his rig.

Second heat was different, as the breeze started filling in at the south end - so it was back to port starts. I ran the line for a bit to get away from the pack and have a nice pocket to leeward to accelerate, then came up over the line about 1/3 of the way in (Nikoka, on the RSX, was kind enough to keep the rather eager pack stacked above/behind her from spilling onto the line, so I got a clear lane). The first few Starboard starters, led by MacRae, cleared me easily, but when they tacked, the current and better breeze in the middle had already given me enough of a lift to where they were lining up with my wake. Jay got second, followed by (I believe) Mac Rae. And then it was time to finally bag it for the day.

As I talked to my 8-year-old on the phone while derigging the first time, her comment was that "it just wan't meant to be." Great perspective, I guess. I'm glad we got our little spurt of fun-racing in at the end, as that made me feel a little better about the total of 11 hours spent in the car that day. Hopefully, over the course of the season, the driving/sailing time ratio will improve a bit. Considering that the PWA guys all flew to Korea for a big slalom event and got completely skunked for a whole week with not a single result, this just goes to show that this sport will teach you some form of zen - whether you want it to or not.

Check that UJ tendon!

After one of the heats at the Gorge Cup a couple weekends ago, I went to move my mastbase forward a bit. Looking down at it, with the pressure from the tackstrap and the angle of board to mast giving a fortuitous bit of visibility into the recesses of the lower base cup, I noticed that rip you see in the picture. Mind you, this was my back-up base (I tend to use a different one as a matter of preference), and I had replaced the tendon late last season as a matter of caution (I do that at least once a year). As I couldn't get my hands on one of those original (yellow) Streamlined tendons at the time, I got this one at a shop in the Gorge. Didn't worry about it too much - hey, it's urethane, not much to it, right?

I checked my main base (which I reverted to for the rest of the days' racing) - its Streamlined tendon (which had seen probably three times as much use) was still fine, with no cracks to be found even upon close inspection.

Lessons:

1. Not all UJ tendons are created equal - it appears that there's more to making a urethane tendon than one might assume, and that Streamlined has it figured out better than the other guys.
   
2. Check that UJ tendon - the crack was not readily apparent when inspecting the base visually; it was only when it was loaded and extended that there was enough distortion that you could actually see the crack, which was otherwise hidden by the base cup. So really get in there to see - don't just rely on it probably being ok.
   

Gorge Cup DQ Dip'n'Dash

My first Gorge Cup for this season, the Dairy Queen Dip 'n' Dash took place May 31 at the Event Site. Derek Nielsen lined up Dairy Queen as a title sponsor for the event (way to go, Derek!), and he got to choose the course accordingly. On the left you can see what he came up with (according to Derek, that happened in the wee hours of the morning...).

It was a quick course, and I'd think the most apt description would be FW slalom - our regular upwind to mark A just off Well's Island, followed by a quick sprint around marks B, C, the start pin, and a reach to the finish - 4 jibes in all. Conditions were typical early season Gorge - pretty brisk breeze (especially up high near the windward mark - we could have easily raced slalom on 6.0's up there), and quite a few holes down low (which made any thoughts of actually switching to slalom a moot point). The current out in the channel was ripping, which together with the strong breeze and monster gusts made for really lumpy water up there (following Bruce around the windward mark in the first race was the first time ever I detected a hint of hesitation in his jibing; mind you, that was a "hint of hesitation" compared to the rest of us, who were flailing quite a bit). On the inside, there was quite a bit of back eddy, resulting in really smooth water.

Tactics were pretty straightforward - start on port, get into the current as quickly as possible, and then switch into slalom mode. At no point was I really pushing for downwind angle (even the broadest legs were not "free" in that way), so downwind tactics were what you would do in a slalom race - how to pass/cover on straights and in mark roundings (which, when traveling at mach speed on OP'd formula gear, can be extremely interesting). The rough conditions put a premium on board and sail handling and smooth transitions; the big current and shifty (both up and down and oscillating) winds made reading the layline at the top challenging.

Most racers were on 9's; I used my trusty 9.9 (since I chose not to have a 9 this season - hmm, maybe I need to reconsider that...), which resulted in serious handling challenges at the top.

Derek stepped up and performed great, being one with the course he had specified - he clinched second overall for the day behind Bruce (all bullets except race 7, which he sat out) and ahead of me by 1.3 points. I found that upwind in the smooth stuff, I was very much competitive on angle and speed, but that I hadn't nailed it in the lumpy stuff (I was losing angle on Bruce there). I also made a couple of errors on laylines - one such error ended up being rather costly - in the 7th and final heat, I thought I had the windward mark but missed it narrowly; the raging current moved me past it on the wrong side, so I had to sail a big circle around it. All that maneuvering in big overpowering gusts and large irregular chop and swell caused me to flounder badly for quite a while, losing 4 places in the process - very annoying. In hindsight, I should have been more conservative on calling my layline, or just given up on pushing for it a little earlier and just let the current take me up on the proper side of it (it's hard to beat around 5 knots of true VMG provided courtesy of the river with a couple extra tacks); but that just didn't compute in my at that point somewhat addled brain (wrestling the big sail around for seven heats had clearly taken its toll on my mental acuity).

Results at the VMG Events website - another well-organized race, a fun bbq afterwards, and a good time had by all. One thing this day made clear is why Formula sailing works so well for making sure you get a good event. Sure, at the windward mark, conditions were beyond what's reasonable for formula racing - but it wasn't dangerous, just suboptimal. And as a result, we had a full day's racing. We could have run slalom - and had a truly mediocre day's racing due to the large holes at the bottom of the course. It would have been no less challenging - but the stories told afterwards wouldn't have been epic tales of survival at sea (excuse the hyperbole) but lots of grumbling about not being able to plane through the holes at the lowest jibe mark. I'll take holding on over that any day ;)

Twisted

Check out these two pictures (courtesy Emmett MacDonald) - same sail, same amount of downhaul, taken within 3 minutes of each other at the Friday Night race in San Francisco in April.

The obvious difference is that one of them is upwind, with the outhaul fairly tight, and the other is downwind, with the outhaul cracked off a bit, going deep. These two pictures tell the story as to why today's formula sails are so insanely rangey - upwind, there's good drive, w/o the leach going all soft and soggy; downwind, if you get hit with a gust or the board hits a wave and decelerates a bit, there's enough twist to prevent you from being pitched over the handlebars when the leach catches.

Earlier generations of big race sails were huge advances for their time - but there was a lot less range, and twist was a lot less refined. When I started racing in 99, the big sails could be tuned with low downhaul tension, resulting in great performance upwind but a scary ride off the breeze. Or they could be tuned with enough downhaul tension for the leech not to catch off the breeze, which resulted in great speed all around but horrible angle upwind.

Mind you, that night I was on a 9.9 when, reasonably, a 9.0 would have been much faster and more appropriate for all racers on the course except Big Ben Bamer (who later also confessed to his 10 feeling a little big at times...). With all that range, I can realistically get a away with a two-sail formula quiver. My 10.8 is powerful enough for racing in what, for West Coast standards, is stupid light air, while my 9.9 is raceable even when it starts blowing like stink. Sure, there are tradeoffs (I didn't much care for the lower upwind angle the bigger sail forces on you in survival conditions at this particular Friday night race, or in the last two heats of last year's Nationals) - but unless you race in the Bay Area a lot, it's hard to justify a 9.0 anymore, and unless you race in Florida or Europe, the same holds true for a 12. Guess it's time to buy Bruce a beer this weekend when I go down for the Gorge Cup.

Olympics - FOD?

Starboard has finally officially announced their bid to be the supplier for a one design class for the 2012 Olympics. If they are successful, that would end the RS:X debacle (which was a great example of many well-intentioned actors creating a compromise so bad it's almost laughable...).

My understanding of the rules for the 2012 selection process is that it has to be a One Design class, and it has to be established by 2008. The question is whether FOD (Formula One Design) can actually establish itself as such a class - it's hard to see formula racers flocking to it, and the Olympic racers are a bit busy right now.

What I think Starboard got right:

• Yes, full planing racing is more exciting, simpler, less costly, more representative of the sport, etc. - just like they claim.
• Yes, the equipment exists (unlike the RS:X, which was just a bunch of proto-typed gear at the time of the selection - and the production stuff came in way heavier and with huge consistency and quality issues)
• Yes, Formula is the most successful racing format around - and for good reason, as it's fun, challenging, and strikes a good compromise between those aspects and the feasibility of getting events to actually happen. Longboard racing is lacking on the former aspect; slalom is lacking on either the second or, if taken to the extremes of light-air slalom in 8 knots, the former.

What I think they got wrong:

• Anyone else bothered by the assertion that with a 3-cam 11m, a 75% carbon mast, an alloy boom, and ONE standard fin, we'll have quality racing for a broad band of competitor weights in conditions spanning 6-25knots? I think it's safe to say that's over-selling the point a bit. To wit:
• 6 knots is highly marginal even with 12.5m rigs and super-powerful fins on today's wide-tailed boards. Even 8 knots is a bit sketchy. And since race committees tend to be somewhat liberal in interpreting minimum wind threshold requirements when there's a big event at stake. For China, given the conditions there, the 6 knot threshold will probably mean that they'll start racing as soon as the anemometer on the start boat comes up over 5 knots a couple times - and that would make for horrid formula racing (it makes for horrid racing on RS:X, too, but at least they didn't promise anyone exciting performance in that wind range, just that it would be doable).
  
• On the other end of the spectrum, that 11 with a fin big enough to get going in under 10 knots will be a real handful in true 20 knots, and somewhere near uncontrollable for even most pros at a true 25 knots. So for a small surcharge on the equipment (a second rig and fin pale in comparison to the cost of travel and training for Olympic hopefuls), we could instead have real competition over the whole range. Seems penny-wise-pound-foolish to me.
  
• What's up with the alloy boom? Trying to show some cost savings? Racing this gear at anything like an Olympic schedule, that boom will come up for replacement a fair bit - why not be honest and just spec carbon? Again, penny-wise...
  
• And yes, the gear is cheaper and less complicated than the RS:X, but does anyone truly believe that the claim of useful hull lives of 4-5 seasons truly apply for Olympic hopeful-level use? Reality still blows away the RS:X on economic terms - why oversell?
  
• Yes, there'll be less pumping than with the RS:X - but that's not saying a whole lot. Meanwhile, by enforcing one-size-fits-all and cutting off the big rigs, you can be sure that there'll be a ton of pumping if there's any racing anywhere close to the 6knots they're promising the organizers.
• Oh, and then there are semantics - Formula originally referred to the notion that equipment was regulated only by numbers - Formula 3/1 meaning one board/three sails, etc. - with the intent being to strike a compromise between keeping cost reasonable while also enabling innovation and spanning a large range of conditions and sailors weights/sizes. The result is that at the last FW Worlds, the 1st and 2nd placed sailors (Antoine Albeau and Steve Allen) are almost 20kg apart in weight, yet they were racing very competitively - don't expect that if they both have to use the same size fin and sail. Formula One Design, on the other hand, is a bit of an oxymoron.
  

Don't get me wrong - I think this is a breath of fresh air. If windsurfing is to be Olympic, and if it has to be One Design , then something like this is the ticket. I find it ironic, though, that one of the slides refers to FW as one of the feeder classes (along with FE and Techno293) for FOD - it's more likely the top FW racers will keep racing FW (since the competition is fairer and the racing will be at a higher performance level in a broader range of conditions), but will "downgrade" to FOD for trials and Olympics-related competition.

On the whole one-design requirement, I'd have to say that it's pretty hard to swallow that one - it's not like every skier or bike racer has to be on the same equipment for fair competition. In the sailing world, one design is the accepted norm, so I guess as long as we're under their umbrella, we'll have to play by those rules (unless we somehow get the numbers and internal funding infrastructure to write our own meal ticket). Still doesn't make any sense if you ask me, though... ;)

Lunch is served

For non-windsurfers, a liquid lunch is an understandably suspect proposition; for our little tribe, though, it's an art to be perfected if you're trying to live your passion while also having a career and a family. The ingredients are simple - a bit of flexibility in your schedule (it helps to be productive), gear readily accessible, a nearby body of water, and a bit of breeze is all it takes.

Unlike the other kind, this kind of liquid lunch can actually be a big energy and productivity booster - I usually have such a buzz going when I get back to working that I swear I'm functioning at a higher level.

Formula SUP...

Windsurfing Mag had an article in the latest issue making the point that windsurfing "ain't pretty" - or as my wife puts it, it's the ultimate surrender sport (as in it will teach you to let go of your attachment to the illusion that you have control over things). Last night was an excellent reminder of that.

I was stoked when after a good productive day at work, I found myself with hours of light left and a good southerly breeze - perfect formula conditions. I got out on the bay on my 10.8 and instantly ran into a bunch of weeds - way more eel grass than you'd expect this time of year. After a half hour of spending more time clearing weeds off my fin than actually sailing, I found myself a clear (albeit narrow) lane and started tacking upwind - I'd almost gotten to the point where I could see this as great tacking practice (yep, we're really letting go now...) when I noticed a big squall coming up the bay fast. Two minutes later, the wind died, and another two minutes later it started pouring rain, followed by hail. And the wind? Never mind that...

At this point, I was in the middle of the bay, with NO wind (no, not light wind - no wind...). I bobbed around for a half hour or so, looking for signs of texture on the water anywhere - none. All smokestacks in sight sent their plumes straight up, and calling the different wind talkers around the area confirmed it - I was stuck smack in the middle of the convergence, with no hope of any breeze anytime soon. So I derigged my stuff and started paddling with my mast. Since the water was completely flat by now and kneeling was less comfortable, I paddled standing up; don't know if this officially counts as Stand Up Paddling, and it sure didn't feel like the 'Sport of Kings' to me, but hey, after well over an hour of this, it got me back to shore where I launched (the Coast Guard came by when I was a hundred yards out and asked if I was the windsurfer being stuck that they'd been called about - nice to know people are watching...).

Are we letting go yet? ;)

Black and fast

This is my first season riding Exocet boards (thanks for getting me on the program, Pepi!), and since I've actually had a chance to ride them a for a bit now, here's my take on how they're working so far, and what I'm expecting from them this season.

My slalom board for this year will be the Warp 67, which is a known entity (the shape's carried over from last year) and proven fast. I got to ride one last summer and instantly liked it - very rangy, fast, point-and-shoot, and just the perfect size for a one-board slalom quiver. More of an unknown, however, was the Warp Formula - if you've been following the chatter on the web, there's been lots of speculation about this one. Some of that was fueled by the unconventional look (to save weight, and probably also to distinguish it from the competition, the board's bottom is not painted, resulting in that sexy black carbon look - very distinctive, for sure). I've had the chance to take mine to the Bay Area and test it a bit, mostly in stronger conditions. Here's my take so far:

• It's very light - all that gram-shaving is paying off, and it's not just a matter of looks. This thing is engineered beginning to end to save weight, from the straps (every bit the equal of Starboards race straps) to the non-finished bottom and the thin shape. To ensure it doesn't blow up on a hot beach, it comes with a canvas bag - which I'll surely use at the Event Site.
• It's responsive and stiff - I was a bit sketched out about the low weight. At this point, I'm convinced that it's not achieved by skimping on materials. There must be a major amount of carbon in this board, as even with its rather thin shape and in big nasty water off Crissy Field and Treasure Island, it feels every bit as stiff as the best custom boards I've ridden. That came as a huge relief to me to see that Exocet had followed through on that promise.
• It handles big winds and nasty water really well - this being one of the new breed of Formula boards with super-wide tails (83cm one foot off), I was a bit concerned whether this shape would work well overpowered and in choppy water. Sailing it at Crissy Field and in the central SF Bay off Treasure Island on strong ebb currents allayed whatever misgivings I had - this thing is a pleasure to run off the breeze even in nasty voodoo chop, since it's so responsive. You can always find a smooth line and follow it with rather tiny steering inputs - very user friendly.

So how does it perform? As far as I can tell, it's competitive, but that's based on rather scant evidence so far. Lining up with the Berkeley racers (always a good benchmark, as those guys are really well tuned even this early in the season), I found that I had good angle and speed going upwind in the lower part of the bay - this covered the range of 9.9 being reasonably to fully powered, with waterstate anywhere from reasonably smooth to pretty choppy. Only when we got up to Treasure Island (and I had a hard time hanging on to my big sail while they were all able to take advantage of the better pointing from their 9.0's) did I have to foot off a bit. But even then, the extra speed I gained offset the loss of angle (not at all to be taken for granted in those gnarly conditions), and that was my first session of actually lining up with anyone.

At the Friday night race at Crissy, the board had really good speed upwind (my angle suffered from being oversailed) and was fast and deep off the breeze.

So at this point, I'm pretty stoked on the board. It seems like it's a really good fit with my Finworks fins, and it appears pretty tuneable. It definitely performs well in powered and over-powered 9.9, and the Europeans on the forums are raving about how it does in light air (something that I'm definitely willing to believe - you can just tell by feel that using a more powerful fin and bigger sail will be a good combo with this platform).

What I've found comfortable so far (but haven't been able to really test out as to whether it's truly the fastest way to go):

• Base at about 135cm from tail (+/- 1, based on waterstate)
• Straps 2nd hole from the back (for both fore and aft straps)
• Boom about eye height (I'm 6'1"/185cm and 205#/93kg)
  

Crissy Friday Night Racing

At the end of my week in the Bay Area, I got to do the Friday night race at the St. Francis Yacht Club. If you've never done one of these - they're something special. The St. Francis is a rather well-appointed, big-time racing yacht club, but throughout the season, they let in both kiters (who have a Thursday night series) and windsurfers. I believe one of the reasons there's so much depth in the SF Bay Area fleet is that they get to race every other week. Note that half of the top ten formula racers at the 07 Nationals were racing on Friday.

The logistics on these events are pretty smooth - show up, pay your $15 drop-in fee, race. Start/finish is run from the deck of the St. Francis around stationary marks, and they run something like 5 quick WW/LW courses (sometimes with jibes required right off the deck to entertain the RC) in about an hour. The whole thing is then capped off with being able to use the club's facilities (showers and sauna - always welcome after a cold evening on the bay) and dinner in the grill room.

It had been a while since I'd raced one of these, and it was windy - the locals were all on 9.0's (except Ben Bamer, who at 230+ used a 10). Since I don't have anything smaller than my 9.9, I had to go down a fin size to my 68 to keep any semblance of control (it got a little wild at times...). Jay, by the way, decided to run his 7.2 slalom sail on his formula board since he, too, didn't have a 9.0 - this from the guy Pepi used to call "the Manimal", so it's safe to say it was windy... Several times, I had the whole board out of the water, holding on for dear life, and I was counting my blessings at the end of the night for only bobbled one jibe and having dropped my sail once.

The combo of a too-big sail with a too-small fin had the expected effect - I was going pretty fast, but couldn't point all that well. For the Friday night races, there's a big premium on getting an inside lane on port (everyone starts on port due to the geometry of the line) due to the lift on shore; footing off for speed is costly. I managed to compound that with being less-than-brilliant in my pre-start maneuvering (there's a lot of current there, and a lot of sailors milling about, and I was trying hard not to hit anyone).

I managed to pull out a fourth overall - mostly because of really good speed upwind (enough to make up my pointing deficit), pretty reasonable tacks, decent tactics, and pretty solid downwind performance (good speed and angle, and I managed not to blow up and take aggressive lines in several jibing duels). Overall, it was great fun and good racing. Of the three guys who beat me, two had done so in last year's Nationals (Seth had been 1st and Eric 3rd), and I managed to beat Ben and Al , who had both beaten me in the Nats (they placed 5th and 7th then, respectively) - so I'm pretty happy with where I am this early in the season.

Full results at the CalCup site (I was driving back home the next day when the locals were duking it out in their first CalCup of the year). Thanks to the St. Francis for hosting, the locals for being welcoming and competitive, and those who volunteered for RC duty (which surely had nothing to do with them wanting to sit out a windy one this early in the season, right?).

Tropical @ Crissy

It's shaping up to be an awesome week. I'm in the Bay Area for a professional conference and decided to take my gear down with me to take advantage of the opportunity. So far, my week has been a geek's dream come true - get up early, get some productive work done, spend all day geeking out about databases, reporting applications, development tools, etc., then duck out for a session in the late afternoon, return, stretch, get some more work done, sleep, repeat. And the temps down here are feeling downright tropical compared to home (those 5 degrees extra air and water temps make a huge difference).

Jay Salzman is down here as well. We got some great slalom sailing on Monday (way juiced up 6.0 in choppy water - very pleased with how well the relatively big Warp Slalom 67 is handling those kinds of conditions). Tuesday, it was 7.2 slalom sailing (downright blissful), and then I just couldn't help myself and had to get out my new Exocet Formula Board despite the big gusts and nasty chop. Nobody else was silly enough to run formula gear in those great slalom conditions, so I didn't get a chance to line up with anyone, which meant I could just focus on getting used to the new ride.

I'll get a more detailed review of the board together once I have some more data to go on, but first impressions are good - it handled the chop well (surprisingly well for such a wide-tailed board, actually), felt light and responsive, and was fun to sail. Once it started flooding, the baord showed that it has really great glide. Seems like a good match with my Finworks fins, too. I'm stoked.

Now back to scaling out data warehouses...