Optimist Racing E-Book

Steve Irish

• Herausgeber: Fernhurst Books Limited
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

The Optimist is the most popular junior sailing class worldwide, with thousands of young people actively racing them and hundreds attending the major events in the class. It has been the nursery for most of the top racing sailors in the world including all the Team GBR gold medallists at the last 2 Olympics (Sir Ben Ainslie, Hannah Mills, Saskia Clark and Giles Scott) – the same will be true for most other countries. Optimist Racing is written for those sailors, parents and coaches who are looking for success in this competitive class. In it you will learn what it takes to win, including how to achieve blistering boatspeed through technique and tuning, perfect boat handling and tactics as well as covering the mental and physical requirements for success. There is also a section for parents and coaches describing how they can best support their young sailors. Originally written by Ben Ainslie's Optimist coach, Phil Slater, this new edition has been completely updated by top international racing coach, Steve Irish, who can be found coaching Optimist and other sailors worldwide. This book is the up-to-date handbook for sailing an Optimist fast.

Leseprobe

THE AUTHORS

INSPIRATIONAL COACHES & SAILORS

Steve Irish is a world-class professional sailing coach. He has worked for the British Sailing Team, Turkish Sailing Federation and Thailand’s 49er team. This has included coaching a variety of youth and junior squads, enabling 470 sailors to progress from development to Olympic-level funding – including Hannah Mills and Luke Patience – and leading 29er and 420 sailors to international success at championships such as the Youth Sailing Worlds. He coaches Optimist sailors regularly both in the UK and around the world.

He is the coach of choice among the UK national champions entering the Endeavour Trophy (the UK’s Champion of Champions event) each year.

Steve’s own sailing has encompassed a whole range of classes from junior and youth sailing to Olympic double-handers and high-performance skiffs. As a top Optimist sailor, Steve represented GBR internationally. He went on to become a 420 world champion and then crewed 470s, finishing 5th at the Europeans. He also sailed 49ers and Tornados internationally and subsequently competed in the twin-trapeze RS800 class, winning the national title two years running, while also claiming a podium finish at a 100+ boat RS200 nationals.

Phil Slater was a successful sailor having captained the University of London Sailing Team and won the Firefly National Championships. A doctor in Falmouth, he has been described as a ‘local sailing legend’ by Ben Ainslie.

Phil and his wife Jill set up a programme to encourage the local children into sailing in Optimists at Restronguet Sailing Club. Part of this group was a young Ben Ainslie, who Jill taught to sail and then rapidly progressed into the top group, run by Phil. Soon the group was one of the top Optimist fleets in the country and Phil became an RYA Optimist Racing Coach. He was the UK Optimist Team Coach at numerous championships.

He was Ben Ainslie’s first sailing coach, training him to win the UK Optimist National Championships and compete in 4 Optimist World Championships. This was the start and foundation for Ben Ainslie’s amazing sailing career, including winning 4 Olympic gold medals, multiple world championships and the America’s Cup as tactician.

Phil still races his Firefly with Jill as well as racing a Falmouth working boat and cruising with friends around Europe.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

PART 1 SPEED

Chapter 1 Speed Basics

Chapter 2 Sail & Rig

Chapter 3 Upwind Speed

Chapter 4 Downwind Speed

PART 2 BOAT HANDLING & TACTICS

Chapter 5 Basic Boat Handling

Chapter 6 Tactics

PART 3 EQUIPMENT & TUNING

Chapter 7 Mast Rake

Chapter 8 Fast Gear

PART 4 WIND & CURRENT

Chapter 9 Seeing The Wind

Chapter 10 Understanding Current

PART 5 MIND & BODY

Chapter 11 Mental Fitness

Chapter 12 The Perfect Body

Chapter 13 Physical Fitness

PART 6 PARENTS & COACHES

Chapter 14 For Parents

Chapter 15 The Perfect Coach

Resources

FOREWORD

I will never forget my years in the Optimist class. My family didn’t have a background in sailing and so, with endless support from my parents, it was the dedicated coaches in Wales who got my sailing career started. Just as Phil and Jill Slater did for Ben Ainslie.

The competition, the camaraderie and the fun of sailing an Optimist helped develop my love of sailing and with it the results started coming, culminating in being the first girl to win the UK Optimist National Championships and the first Brit to win the Optimist Girls’ World Championships. Very proud moments for any Optimist sailor!

I then moved on to double-handed sailing, first in the 420 and then the 470. I won the World Championship in both, with Steve Irish coaching me to the 420 World Championship title. At the start of my time in the 470, I was also lucky enough to be coached by Steve. He is a fantastic coach, who is patient, knowledgeable and passionate about what he does.

Good coaching is fundamental to success in the Optimist class and it is brilliant that Steve has been able to work with Phil updating the original Optimist Racing book, which I remember from my time in the class.

This book will show you how to sail an Optimist fast. It will teach you about techniques and tuning, boat handling and tactics – it will also offer you a lot of guidance on the physical and mental side of being a great Optimist sailor. I would highly recommend it to any Optimist sailor, no matter what level you are at in your sailing career.

Good luck in everything you want to achieve, enjoy the racing, push yourself when you are out of your comfort zone, but most importantly have fun! I hope that you really enjoy your Optimist racing and it is just the start of a really successful lifetime of sailing.

Hannah Mills, MBE

Olympic gold & silver medallist (470), World Champion (470, 420, Optimist), UK National Champion (Optimist)

INTRODUCTION

Some people look on the Optimist as a bit of a joke. It’s a curvy box that kids learn to sail in! But it is numerically the biggest sailing class in the world, and ex-Optimist sailors have won many gold medals in all the dinghy classes at the Olympics. The boat is, in fact, a remarkable design – an easily-controlled thoroughbred racing dinghy that provides superb one-design racing and responds to and rewards the highest skills of top sailors.

The Optimist is sailed by more than 170,000 young people in over 110 countries. Fantastic events take place all around the world, with racing of the highest standard and great fun ashore. Each year there are open meetings, national championships, area championships and a world championship for as many as 259 sailors from 65 countries.

International Optimist racing is an adventure! It offers the chance of making lasting friendships with top sailors from other countries and representing your country in major international competitions. This book will get you into the action. Its aims are:

• To help competent Optimist sailors develop handling techniques and boatspeed. They should be able to analyse performance, coach themselves, and develop a positive psychological attitude to the stresses of competition to get to the top in national and international racing.

• To help parents analyse their own motives for supporting their children’s sailing, and to avoid actions that might have a negative effect on their performance and happiness.

• To help coaches develop competitor / parent / coach relationships, to understand the constraints of children’s development, and to develop race training programmes and techniques.

Performance depends on physical fitness, mental fitness, boatspeed techniques, boat handling skills, theoretical knowledge, rules knowledge, racing experience, good equipment, parental support and good coaching. Read on to find out how to achieve all these goals.

Steve Irish & Phil Slater

CHAPTER 1

Speed Basics

Sailing fast is the aim of all top sailors! It’s great to leave the start line and feel the boat drawing ahead, looking back and knowing you have the speed and the other boats are not going to catch you. But how do you gain such speed?

Some people seem to sail fast naturally, while others never get a top ten result. The single thing that will help you go faster is to spend as much time as possible sailing. Get to know the feel of your boat – how she responds to changes of wind strength and wave state. You will begin to feel when the boat is balanced, when she sails herself with only small movements of the tiller. You will recognise how the balance is changed by trim, mast and daggerboard rake, sail sheeting and, upwind, the relative value of sailing fast and free or pointing higher and going a little slower.

Learn the skills of sailing upwind and down in light, medium and heavy weather, in smooth and rough water, on lakes and the open sea. Learn to sit at the boat’s pivot point, leaning back, balanced, allowing your upper body to float freely as the boat moves easily through the waves. Learn efficient boat handling, power hiking and bailing. Seek to gain automatic reflex boat control. Allow – trust – your body to do the sailing while you keep your mind busy monitoring sail trim, tactics, tides, stress, etc. Learn to sail in a state of relaxed concentration, get ‘in the groove’, ‘slip into the fast lane’…!

Speed! Feel it, live it and spot anything that might damage it.

Balance

A boat is in balance when it virtually sails itself with the rudder pointing along the centreline, producing minimal drag. A balanced boat is a fast boat; always seek balance.

• Weather helm is present when the tiller needs to be pulled to windward to keep the boat sailing in a straight line

• Lee helm is present when the tiller needs to be pushed to leeward to keep the boat sailing in a straight line

• If the rudder is needed to keep the boat on course, it is slowing you down

Too much weather helm

Too much lee helm

Balanced helm

However, a little weather helm can help upwind by generating lift and this can outweigh the added drag but be really careful it isn’t too much! Aim to have the tiller so it has a slight pull and if you let go of it the boat would slowly head up. It shouldn’t feel like a fight to steer. If your tiller arm is starting to ache after being on the same tack for a while you definitely have too much weather helm!

Right amount of weather helm

COR Versus COE

The Centre of Resistance (COR) is the point under the boat where the combined force of water pressure on the hull and foils (daggerboard and rudder) resisting sideslip or ‘leeway’ is centred. It is typically slightly behind the daggerboard.

The Centre of Effort (COE) is the point in the sail where all the sideways forces are centred.

• If the COE is aligned with the COR, the boat is balanced.

• If the COE is forward of the COR, the boat’s bow will bear off from the wind. This gives ‘lee helm’.

• If the COE is behind the COR, the boat’s bow will turn up into the wind. This gives ‘weather helm’.

Mast Rake

Rake is important in the search for a balanced boat. If the mast is raked back, the sail’s COE acts behind the COR, and turns the boat into the wind. If the mast is raked forward, the sail’s COE acts forward of the COR, making the boat bear away.

Daggerboard Angle

When the daggerboard is fully down you can use the elastic loop (attached to the sides of the daggerboard case) to hold it vertical, raked forward or raked aft. When the daggerboard is raked forward, the COR moves forward. When the board is raked back, the COR moves back. If the boat was in a state of balance with the daggerboard vertical, raking it forward would give you weather helm and raking it back would give you lee helm.

Centre of Effort in front of Centre of Resistance

Centre of Effort behind of Centre of Resistance

Centre of Effort over Centre of Resistance

Centre of effort is around the draft (deepest / most powerful point) of the sail. This has some force to leeward as well as driving the boat forward.

Centre of resistance is around the helm weight and aft edge of the daggerboard and this opposes the forces driving the boat to leeward.

Helm.

The effect of the Centre of Effort and Centre of Resistance

Daggerboard Height

In heavy weather you may need to lift the daggerboard to decrease the heeling moment and cut down weather helm. As the underwater portion of the daggerboard decreases, the COR moves up and back towards the rudder.

The COR moves up and back when the board is lifted

To keep the boat in balance, the mast can be raked back as the daggerboard is lifted. Lightweights will find it difficult to keep the boat flat in heavy weather, so keep balance by lifting the daggerboard with the mast upright or forward which reduces the weather helm and makes the boat easier to sail.

Sheeting The Sail

As the sail is sheeted in towards the centreline the COE moves back and makes the boat head up into the wind. This can be used to tack a stationary boat – you simply pull the sail in slowly, and the boat will spin through the wind. Similarly, balance changes when the sail is let out in gusts.

The COE moves back as the sail is pulled in

Sail Shape

Due to its cut or the way it is set, sail shape can also considerably affect the balance of a boat. An over-tight leech moves the COE back, while an open leech has the opposite effect. The sprit and kicking strap (vang) are important, because of their effects on the leech.

The COE moves back as the leech is tightened

Heeling (Lateral Trim)

The asymmetric underwater shape and, in particular, the effect of water pressure on the submerged lee bow, causes the boat to turn away from the immersed side. Heel can be used on all legs of the course to balance the boat and sail more quickly. For example, you can heel to windward on the beats to balance weather helm; on the run, heeling to windward balances the rotational force of the mainsail; bearing away around marks is much easier if the boat is heeled to windward.

Allowing the boat to heel will make it want to turn

Fore-And-Aft Trim

The two aims in trimming the boat fore-and-aft are to try to prevent the bow from hitting the waves, and to try to prevent the stern dragging too deeply in the water. This is achieved with the boat sailing with its sheer line level. Lightweights will have to sit well back in moderate to fresh winds to prevent the bow from dipping.

Heavyweights have to strike a happy medium, accepting some stern drag while keeping the boat dead flat which allows the bow to lift as high as possible.

If you sit too far back, the transom drags due to eddies and turbulence

If you sit too far forward, the bow hits the waves and stops you

TOP TIPS

• Hold the tiller extension like a dagger, little finger nearest the universal joint.

• Hold the mainsheet in the same way, little finger nearest the block – thumbs up!

• Hike leaning back, knees and feet together, pulling the sheet with your elbow high.

• Keep the boat and rig balanced, and the rudder on the centreline. Try not to fight the rudder.

• Don’t let the bow hit waves. Bail as soon as any water gets in the boat and sail to keep the boat dry.

PRACTICE IDEAS

Steering Without The Rudder

Using the rudder always slows the boat down. You can steer the boat without the rudder, using the following techniques:

1. A boat with lee helm can be balanced, or a balanced boat may be made to luff (turn into the wind) by:

• Heeling to leeward

• Bringing the COE of the sail aft – by raking the mast back, sheeting in the sail more or tightening the leech

• Bringing the COR forward – by raking the daggerboard forward or moving yourself forward

2. A boat with weather helm can be balanced, or a balanced boat can be made to bear away (turn away from the wind) by:

• Heeling to windward

• Bringing the COE of the sail forward – by raking the mast forward, easing the sail or opening the leech

• Bringing the COR aft – by raking the daggerboard aft or raising it or moving yourself towards the stern

Lash the tiller in the centre with elastic hooked around the toestraps; then practise the techniques described here.

Sailing with the tiller lashed

CHAPTER 2

Sail & Rig

The sail and rig are vital components to boatspeed, so it is important that they are clearly understood.

Sail Shape

Sail shape is the key to pointing high and sailing fast.

Pointing depends on the sail’s entry, which is the angle between the front of the sail and a line from luff to leech. If this angle is narrow (A) the entry is said to be flat and the boat will point high without backwinding. If wide (B), the entry is full, and the boat will point poorly.

The point of maximum depth of a sail is called the ‘maximum draft’. The power or drive of a sail depends on the depth and the position of the maximum draft. Generally:

• Full sails are more powerful than flat ones

• A sail’s power increases as the maximum draft moves forward

• A well-shaped sail has its maximum draft 40% to 50% of the way back from the luff (C)

In sail setting you are seeking the best compromise between pointing and power.

In smooth water the boat is not being slowed by waves and can maintain maximum speed with less power. Thus, pointing ability is most important, so set up with a flat entry, fullness further back and a flatter sail.

In rough water wave impact slows the boat and maximum power is needed to keep the speed up. Set up with the maximum draft forward, a wide entry and a full sail.

The maximum draft moves towards the relatively tighter side of the sail:

Different sail shapes

• Forward if the luff is tightened (e.g. if the cunningham is pulled on)

• Aft if the leech is tightened (e.g. if the kicking strap (vang) is applied or mainsheet pulled harder)

• Down if the foot is tightened (e.g. outhaul pulled in)

Sail Drive

The drive from a sail is due to the pressure difference between the windward and leeward sides. The forces trying to push the boat sideways are cancelled by the force of the water on the daggerboard and rudder foils. With a properly trimmed sail more of the forces are driving forwards.

Hooked Leech

At no time should your coach, when following straight behind your boat, be able to see the leeward side of your sail. When the leech is hooked in towards the boat’s centreline, the driving force from the leech works backwards which is not good!

With a correctly trimmed sail – with the leech parallel to the boat’s centreline – the boat drives forward

With an incorrectly trimmed sail – which hooks the leech towards the centreline – the driving force from the leech is sideways and backwards

A hooked leech is one of the most common reasons for Optimist sailors going slowly, but how does this come about?

• Excitement and over sheeting

• Not knowing what a sail looks like when it is ‘just right’

• Too much sprit tension – failure to readjust the sprit for falling wind strength, so the leech tightens, and the boat stops in the lulls

• Variable wind strength – setting the sprit up for the gusts rather than the lulls

• Too much kicking strap (vang) tension – none is required upwind in an Opi, except when spilling wind

• Foot of the sail too slack

• Luff too slack or badly laced

It helps to look at the top batten. Keep this parallel to the boat’s centreline when close hauled. If it angles towards the centre, the leech is hooked. Beware! Leech telltales do not always tell you the leech is hooked.

A hooked leech – one of the most common reasons for going slowly

Rig Controls