A weekend of Race training

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Last weekend the Wayzata Yacht Club (WYC) hosted a two-day on-the-water racing training session with world class sailor and coach Andy Kerr. The idea is brilliant, but in reality it was a bit tough for us because we could not get our regular Thursday night crew together, as they often have weekend obligations. And our weekend 36.7 Kestrel crew sail on other WYC boats while at Minnetonka. So, we gathered a merry band of sailing friends, and had a go. Everyone learned tons and had a great time.

Friday started it out with a pizza party, and several hours of boat-vs-boat discussion. A great way to get our heads back into the game after a long winter.


Saturday broke cool and calm, but the wind was forecast to build to 8-11 knots SE, a perfect breeze for training in Wayzata Bay. After some coffee and a quick talk, we headed out to the boats where Andy came boat to boat and offered rig tuning advice and thought on boat dynamics.



Andy had great ideas on how we should handle kite launches with a short crew. He suggested always using the front hatch, and place quick release pins to hold sheets and halyard in place until needed. 


Then it was off to the water. Because we were not able to draft a proper bowman, I filled the roll. I drove until we hit the layline, and then handed the tiller over, and Donovan came back a position to do main. It worked.... at least we didn't break anything! Here we are approaching the windward mark.


I now know why extroverts like doing bow. Its the most photogenic place on the boat. By far.


The new kite and pole really pulled the boat along downwind. We cannot wait to see how it does in a real race.



Andy threw in different types of rounding at the bottom. We got the pole out, and flew the kite without the pole until we knew how we had to round. Now we know, so it's time to rip this baby from the sky...


It was a lot of work. As the crew was new, we spend a lot of time on mechanics, when there was not a lot of time to go around. It was actually a bit frustrating. When we could settle for a minute, we dialed in and got rumbling.



We did this drill-drill-drill routine until 1:30pm, and after lunch I asked the group if they agreed that we could get more out of some dedicated time working on trimming, and not trying to survive maneuvers. Everyone was for it, so we headed out for a great freelance session on our own, working on sail trim on all points of sail. We rotated through positions, worked on trim and adjustments, and as a treat flew the reaching asym home. Back to the dock in time for the chicken dinner.





Sunday was a 2 hour wrap up and video review, followed by what was supposed to be our kick-off tune-up race. But after a nice 8 knots on the way out, the breeze died and the race was canceled. But we got in a spin hoist-gybe-drop, and the crewwork was great. Can't wait until Thursday!


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