[J22-Fleet 1] Sailing Lake Ontario at Rochester New York - From BERT

[Carmella Foster]

Hi J22 World Championship Attendees,
 
As most of you know, I sailed in the Disabled World Championship at
Rochester Yacht Club last August, and had quite an experience.  The sailing
there was completely different in many ways from what we are used to on Lake
Minnetonka and/or sailing the coastal waters like Newport, Miami, or St.
Pete.  I thought I would share with you some of the things that I learned
with the help of our US Disabled Sailing Team coach, Betsy Alison, and our
private coach, Gordy Bowers.  Some of this may or may not apply to a J22,
and may or may not work for you, so take what makes sense to you and ignore
the rest.
 

1.	Rochester/LEFT-chester.  For whatever it's worth, the nickname for
the Rochester Yacht Club is Leftchester because, under almost all
conditions, when in doubt, go left.  This seems to apply whether the wind is
offshore or onshore, or parallel to the shore in either direction.  The
German national champion almost won the Disabled Worlds at Rochester by
starting every race at the pin and going left.  He is an outstanding sailor,
but not particularly fast.
2.	Current.  There is current in Rochester that develops from the river
coming out, and the water piling up from having blown from across the lake,
and can be from either direction along the shore.  We sailed only 1 to 1-1/2
miles off shore, and I suspect you may sail 5 or 6 miles offshore, which
will lessen the effect of current.  It would be good to check the current,
and the way we do it is to take a few apples with us, toss one by a fixed
mark, like a starting line buoy, and see how far it travels, and in which
direction, in 60 seconds.  We know that 5 or 10 feet is very small current,
and that 3 boatlengths is a whopper.  We usually were able to pick up our
apple to avoid any controversy over tossing "garbage" overboard.
3.	Big waves, Light air.  Like ocean sailing, you can have long rollers
leftover from a dying sea, and light 4-5 knot breeze, which is something we
NEVER have on Minnetonka.  Sailing in that condition is not terribly
difficult, except for the extreme need to keep up boat speed -- bow down.
4.	Light air, square waves.  We had 2 days of this at our regatta, with
an onshore breeze, and a sudden shallowing-up near shore which caused the
waves to form a terrible square pattern.  Instead of being smooth rollers,
you would go up 2-4 feet to the crest, then suddenly drop off the crest with
the bow slamming into the trough, and stopping you like anti-lock brakes.
We also had the problem with the Sonar that its hull is shaped like a Laser
with a relatively flat section up front that wanted to slap on the next wave
and really stop the boat badly.  We had a rule on Captain Hook that we never
want to slap the bow, and that we avoid that by heeling it up a LOT, causing
a more knife-edge, deep-V shape going into the next wave, and less effect of
slapping, and more effect of cutting through.  However, with the square
waves, we could not figure out how to prevent the slapping, even if we went
bow down an extra 10 degrees which, of course, is losing way too much gauge
to windward.  We also had difficulty, as the boat pitched rather
significantly, in trying to figure out how to trim the sails.  So, a call to
Gordy at day's end was quite helpful.  You can't do anything about the
slapping in those flat wave circumstances, and what you have to do is trim
the sails so you have maximum power going in, up and over the next wave.  As
the boat is pitching rather violently, the sails seem to luff really badly
as the boat is pitching DOWN, and your tendency is to want to trim out the
luffing.  The opposite is what needs to be done, because the luffing occurs
due to the apparent wind going forward as the boat drops off the wave, the
mast going forward in the top half rather quickly, causing the apparent wind
to go forward, making the sail luff.  There's nothing you can do about that,
and what you want to do is EASE the sails as you go down the violent pitch
forward (which is counterintuitive) so that as the boat slows down going
into the next wave, and the mast stops its violent moving forward, the
apparent wind comes aft, and you want the sail OUT to give you laminar flow
to go into and over that next wave with maximum power.  You can't trim the
luff out of the sail going down and then ease the sail to get it right going
into the next wave, because the pitching motion and the movement of the mast
is so rapid that the trimming can't keep up.  So it is necessary in that
condition to at least get the trim right for powering into the next wave,
up, and over.

 
The Rochester Yacht Club is a wonderful place to go, has a very strong
racing tradition, and has great food, a great bar, and a whole lot of fun
people.  The immediate past Commodore is a double-leg amputee Paralympic
sailor, Keith Burhans, who went to Sydney, Australia in the 2000
Paralympics, where I think his team bronze medaled.  If you see him, don't
hesitate to say hello from Bert and Carmella.  The current Commodore is Skip
Shumway, who is the owner of the Sonar mold, the manufacturer of the Sonar
and the Ideal 18, and the owner of Shumway Marine which is adjacent to the
Rochester Yacht Club, and where you will probably be parking your trailers.
If you see Skip, say hello to him for me, as I bought Captain Hook from him
and have been working with him over the last couple of years.  Also,
encourage him to bring his Sonar to the Star of the North Regatta at the
wonderful Wayzata Yacht Club on the last weekend in September.
 
And last, but not least, try to hook up with Anthony Kotoun, who was J24
champion a few years ago, Team Captain Hook's private coach at the
Paralympic Trials in Newport last October, a really good guy, and, one of
the most highly regarded coaches in the world.  (And Carmella says he's cute
as a bug in a rug.)
 
Have fun and sail fast.
 
Regards,
Bert Foster, Skipper
Paralympic Team Captain Hook
Home:  952-473-2240
Office:  952-544-1100
Cell:  612-281-9999
 
PS:  There was a wonderful volunteer at the Disabled Worlds, a RYC member,
who was extremely helpful to Team Captain Hook in getting us whatever we
needed.  Ernie nicknamed him "Bob Who Knows All".  If he's there, ask him if
he remembers Bert and Ernie, get on his good side.  With 105 boats at your
regatta, any name-dropping you can do, knowing someone who can pull a string
or 2 for you if you need it, can't hurt.
 
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