Last week I had the privilege and pleasure of helping out with the 2009 Knickerbocker Cup (KCUP) a sailing match race. The total event was from August 24 through 29. To bend analogies a bit, match racing is to club racing as polo is to trail riding - the basic skills are the same but the speed and intensity are turned way up.
This is a little retroactive diary of the week. The full regatta website is:http://www.manhassetbayyc.org/Default.aspx?p=DynamicModule&pageid=227670&ssid=76747&vnf=1
Day 0 minus 2: Preparation
The KCUP has been held since 1982. Edward du Moulin and Arthur Knapp, Jr. - legendary sailors - instituted it at the venerable Knickerbocker Yacht Club (KYC) in Port Washington, NY. Sadly, KYC closed in 2008 and its near neighbor Manhasset Bay Yacht Club (MBYC) agreed to take it on. I learned that a regatta like this is nothing if not a production, and where better to produce than New York?
The KCUP has been sailed in many different boats down the years, most recently the Colgate 26. By today’s crazy standards, the C26 is underpowered, the jib and spinnaker are only what we oldsters used to call normal. But it has very sweet balance and nice crew handling attributes, and (at least I think) is plenty fast enough.
Four C26s are chartered from Colgate Sailing School at City Island, NY and three are borrowed from gracious local owners.
I helped with preparing five of the seven on Monday. This involved removing the sails and all gear, putting everything in jumbo trash bags labelled by boat, hauling it up to the junior shed, bending on the newly purchased main and jib, taping everything that could possibly loosen, putting number flags on each boat and things I’m forgetting. This may not sound like much, but it took 10 hours.
The C26 has a bow pulpit, no stern pulpit over the open transom, and what I would call “side pulpits” the length of the main part of the cockpit, made of very heavy tubing. The bow and side pulpits connect via a single intermediate stanchion and lifelines. The stanchions and lifelines are removed for this event. This makes for a very nice environment I think - the crew can propel from the low to high side at scary velocities in a roll-tack and slam into the the heavy tubing side rails with much less bodily stress and better momentum-effectiveness than if the whole boat were lifelines. And since they love weight forward, the open space where the lifeline and stanchion would normally be works great for hiking and moving freely with the kite handling.
Day 0 minus 1 - The Clinic
As has been done in the past, a match racing clinic was held the day before registration. The attendance was shaping up to be sparse, and the organizers (nicely) badgered me to join. I could just picture what a fool I would make of myself, but I finally decided that this was likely to be an opportunity I’d regret missing, so I attended, and for once my instincts were right. What a great experience.
Dave Perry ran it. Dave: literally wrote the book on the racing rules; is an expert sailor and match racer; a sailing sportsman/gentleman of the first order; and finally is a great teacher, especially sensitive to engaging new sailors.
Anyway, he created the structure, but because some teams came in a bit early, he included a number of the racers. At that point I knew none of these people, but Rueben Corbett (http://www.blacksheepracing.co.nz/) and Phil Robertson (http://wakaracing.blogspot.com) from New Zealand and (if I remember correctly) the whole Swedish team joined five junior sailors and three “mature” sailors. Dave did an overview and video and then did a great job of drawing out the team skippers to speak to major themes, situations, etc. on the white board - with magnetic boats and marks.
Then we adjourned to the water, where we used the club’s Ideal 18s; these resemble adolescent children of the Colgate 26 - same open transom, fin keel, underhung rudder, but 18 feet instead of 26. Dave, amazingly, was both umpire and videographer in a Whaler, a feat I didn’t fully appreciate until the main event started. Our skipper was Bjorne - I’m sorry I can’t remember his surname - from Sweden; a wonderfully friendly, patient and energetic guy. Like all Swedes, his English was perfect, but he had a bit of a hard time doing sailing-speak in English at high velocity as we sailed. Amazingly he told me never skippers in match racing, but has very deep and wide sailing experience for 28 years old and clearly understood the nuances of match racing better then I ever will. Our junior, Nick, is one of a pair of brothers who are excellent young sailors. He had a bit of a rough second race with a foul; I was going to skipper the third race, but I decided that the sailing world didn’t need me in the future, but it could definitely improve by having Nick be uplifted and stay with the sport.
Day 0 - Registration and weigh-In
I enlisted for a number of committees, including hospitality, I figured no one ever wants to do registration. Actually, there is a loyal cadre of highly skilled ladies who do like to do registration for this event and do it effortlessly. So I was assigned to weighing the sailors. How tough can that be, I thought, so I just showed up. Well, to do it well requires more preparation than I gave it.
The weight limit for this event was 770 lbs or 350 kilos. A team should be assembled of course for their skills but also such that their total weight nudges but does not exceed the limit. First off, most of the sailors thought in kilos. Second, I vaguely realized there would be negotiating but didn’t bring a pencil, only a pen, and no calculator. Next time, I will have a laptop with a spreadsheet with columns for pounds and kilos, each having running team total and red/green delta to limit.
So the very first team was Laurie Jurie from Australia. I got to know them a bit as the week went on and in addition to being very nice, they were very funny. (I think to some extent they and the Kiwis laid on the downunder aphorisms with a trowel for the benefit of us gullible New Yorkers). I quickly realized I was in trouble with my ball point pen and slow math. They were overweight, and immediately started shedding clothing. I later learned that I’d overlooked the paragraph in the race instructions which limits how many articles of clothing you can take off to make weight. Sadly for them but fortunately for me, they didn’t break the top six so my faux pas didn’t matter, but I won’t make that mistake again. So they made weight when all in their boxers, which brightened the day of the ladies of the committee.
Several other teams were shaky in making the limit, one ladies team (which are allowed five for their total) had to play tennis in sweats for two hours to make limit, but their plan worked.
I ended up being there until 6 pm because Chris van Tol worked a half day in Detroit, which I would have done had I been him, but I wish I had known it as I would have gone out and helped fit out the last boats instead of pacing around near the scale.
In total there were twelve teams representing 7 countries/territories. I can’t say a bad thing about any of them, all were enthusiastic and polite. But a couple bear mention: Jakub Pawluk from Poland only won one race but was just as earnest and nice as could be. I gave him my personal prize for coolest sailing shirt - Maritime Center of Bahrain. I also gave him my prize for most dazzling pre-start maneuver - at one point he initiated a tight spinning dual wherein I lost count at twelve - the crews must have been dizzy - such spinning has to be seen to be appreciated, 12 metres can’t do that stuff. Similarly Juan Grimaldi from Argentina - very quiet, but very polite and earnest. He seemed to attract fouls, we of the on-the-water crews really felt badly for him. Anna Tunnicliffe (http://www.annatunnicliffe.com/), who won 2008 Olympic Gold in Beijing in Laser class was amazing - keep an eye on her in the sailing scene, though she ended up “only” sixth, she is a superb sailor and athlete. Keith Swinton (http://blackswanracing.blogspot.com/) from Western Australia, never seemed to be ruffled, is I think the best ranked of all these racers in the ISAF.
Day 1 - Startup and “Owner’s Rep’s”
Thursday was the first official day of racing, the big skipper’s meeting, drawing of order of matches, etc. Having met them at the clinic, I struck up a conversation with Rick Fornander and his team from Sweden at breakfast about our trip this spring on the Göta Canal, and found they are all from Gothenburg, which was our point of embarkation for the canal trip.
Gothenburg is a really lovely city; we hit it on a cool, low humidity, purple sky evening which was unforgettable as was the restaurant “Tvåkanten” http://www.tvakanten.se/ which I mentioned in my Scandinavian trip post. But we didn’t see the sailing side of the city - from talking to these guys, sailing is bigger proportionately to the population than in Annapolis or Newport by several orders of magnitude. I do want to go back and see that.
They were just trememendously friendly and nice guys and deeply experienced racers. They also got my award for sartorial excellence at the gala dinner; most of the sailors were in matching sponsors’ fleeces or golf shirts, but Rick and his guys wore beautifully tailored blazers of the Royal Gothenburg Sailing Squadron, matching white shirts, designer jeans, and canvas shoes - they needed a photog from GQ.
But to return to Day 1 - I drew pin/leeward mark boat duty on a Whaler. The club has the ubiquitous and gas-sipping Honda 50s on the Whalers. I think there were a total of 8 or 9 on duty including the umpire boats.
A word on the umpires - this being a class 2 event, the umpires were international in origin and certification. Umpires and referees are at best underappreciated in every sport the world over of course. Match racing umpires not only have to understand the nuances of the sport to the core of their being, but have to be able to drive their own Whalers at reckless speed in order to judge the all-important “gauge” between boats at critical times (yes, that term derives from parlance of naval warfare in the great age of sail).
Setting marks is tricky when the wind is shifty. MBYC Commodore Sue Miller served as PRO (Principal Race Officer) as she has done for the KCUP for the last several years and many other events with great skill. The PRO basically runs the race course. We borrowed 16 radios from West Marine, received a dispensation to “own” Channel 19a for the week and gave those radios a good workout. We used two windward marks, one active and one standby for dynamic changes in the wind shifts. Some regattas use three, which can thus accomodate all but the most extreme wind shifts. One of my boat’s duties was to zip up to the leeward (lower) mark with the change flags, whiteboard and horn to officially notify the racers that the windward mark for their next leg had changed.
In the afternoon, I was advised that as a participant in the clinic, I would be an “owner’s rep” for several races. I had heard this rumored but couldn’t believe it would actually happen.
Moi with Chris van Tol - photo courtesy of Andrea Watson
Day 2 - Starting to Take Shape
Photo courtesy of Andrea Watson
Tight quarters - photo courtesy of Andrea Watson
Anna and crew getting psyched - photo courtesy of Andrea Watson
The days are split basically in two. One group stays on shore swimming or nosed into their computers, while the other sails. It can be tough to time when to bring the 2nd group out. Right after lunch the 2nd group was standing on a float covered with sea gull droppings, with nothing to sit on, in the rain, for a long time. We on the leeward mark boat made an executive decision to take them to the permanent committee barge which has some chairs, a porta-potti, and cover. So I had 12 in a Whaler with life jackets for 3. The motor was groaning and it was very hard to steer with the throttle open a good bit (since my great fear was that we would be called on to move a mark and were fooling around looking to the comfort of the sailors). One of Laurie Jury’s crew said - “hey let’s play left-right!”. I asked him what this was, and he explained that in middle school in Australia they would try to get a school bus up on two wheels… thankfully he was only kidding this time.
At the end of the day, one of Sally Barkow’s crew “threw out” her back and was in a great deal of pain. She could barely walk, but amazingly only sat out one day. For that one day, a young collegiate sailor who’d come up through the Knickerbocker junior program and was helping on our Whaler stepped in as her replacement. Boy was she thrilled.
Danielle Powers filling in on Sally Barkow's boat - photo courtesy of Andrea Watson
Day 3 - Quarter Finals
I shifted from Whaler driving to the committee boat on Saturday, day three. I did flag duties on the flybridge in the rain. It could have been hailing in 30 knots and I would still have been happy as it was just a terrific view. On the water in the Whaler we had a very good view, but only from a certain angle; here we could see everything in the pre-start.
Shortly after I got on the boat at the dock, a fellow said “Hi, I’m Steve Colgate”; after a moment’s thought I realized he must be the founder of Colgate sailing schools and the owner of the chartered boats. He is a delightful man, soft-spoken and pleasant. It was the first time he’d seen the boats match raced and he was very interested in how they performed in the hands of experts rather than beginners.
The day ended with a heartbreaker - the Swedes lost a position in the semi-finals by four seconds, I could see some of them shed tears, they had come from behind to do so well.
That night was the gala dinner, as always very well done by the club, but ran a bit late as the sailors in the semi-finals perhaps a bit surprisingly were not partying and wanted to be asleep by 10.
Taylor Canfield intense before the start - photo courtesy of Andrea Watson
Swedish team - Bjorne our clinic teacher in orange jacket - photo courtesy of Andrea Watson
Day 4 - The Finals
Tropical Storm Danny was a non-event at this end of the island, but left still, humid weather on Sunday morning. The crews were very frustrated by floating around sweating for hours. We had a birthday luncheon at Louie’s during which I was fidgeting , but as it turns out my timing was perfect. About 1:00 we hopped the launch for Dawn Treader, fired up the diesel, and arrived at the race course just as the sky cleared, temps lowered, and and a nice northerly filled in . Because time was drawing short, it was decided to advance those with the best records. So we motored around for about three hours, during which time Dave Perry and Reuben Corbett worked their way to the finals. These would be best 3 of 5. And they went all the way. Dave had a small rooting section in the spectator fleet while Reuben and his team of course were 14000 miles from home, dark horse/black sheep with low expectations, and no one rooting. So I made a point of putting the pedal to the medal on my boat to come up abreast of them just before they came into the box, pre-start to say “you can do this guys, you can win it”; maybe it made a difference, I don’t know. The last race was a very close start, I wasn’t optimistic for Reuben, but he played a shift on the first upwind leg, which as I said earlier they seemed to be very good at, got to the upper mark first, and the rest was as they say, history.
I was so happy for them on the winner’s podium. They are in Detroit now as are about 6 of these teams, then on to the King Edward VII cup at RBYC in Bermuda in October. Tough life this sailing.
Finals - Perry-Corbett - photo courtesy of Andrea Watson
Finals - Perry-Corbett - photo courtesy of Andrea Watson
Reuben and crew at the finish line - photo courtesy of Andrea Watson
Reuben and crew at the awards ceremony - photo courtesy of Andrea Watson
“Only the America, may it please Your Majesty.”
“Which is second?”
“Ah, Your Majesty, there is no second.”
Happy Sailing.