Shout "Protest"

This Sunday's YCC Drag Race involved twelve short races. There were two of us in Laser 1s, a Laser 2 and the RS400. 4 Lasers from a CNV course with teenage helms and their coach in his inflatable made a welcome addition to the fleet half way through. 

The regatta was useful for two things: starting practice and learning how to make a protest. Both are important aspects in gaining advantage over competitors in races. The first for obvious reasons. A good start gives you a huge advantage. The 2 races that I won out of the 12 were down to a combination of a fast start combined with being at the favoured end. The 10 races that I didn't win were due largely to catching dirty wind, mistiming the start and getting into irons, which is easy mistakes for Laser novices like me to make. 

Knowing the rules can give you an advantage as it could help to raise your ranking  - depending on relative positions (see below). I had to avoid Julie helming the RS400 who was on a port tack at the start and called "Protest". I then filed a Protest after the race - Julie and I sat in front of the panel (Rob) and were duly informed that the Protest was invalid because I had not marked the number of the race and the time it happened. According to Rob, the absolute minimum for the protest form is that you describe the incident + the time + the place where it occurred. At club level, it would be sufficient to state that it was "race 27, 2nd leg, shortly before reaching the zone of the windward buoy". 

How do you remember which it race it is? Take a white board and marker with you. If I had managed to file this info, I would have climbed from 4th to 3rd perhaps (as yes, boats on a port tack should move out of the way of those on a starboard tack). Julie quite rightly wanted to file a Protest against me for my port tack approach at the upward mark. She had hailed "Tribord" but not "Protest" after I had not moved out of the way quickly enough. She was allowed to file a protest, but this protest too would have been found "invalid" in the absence of not hailing "Protest". Like me, had known the right procedure, she could have gained some extra points (relative to me). 

Other highlights of the day included the boom smashing me square on the forehead...end of race 12, I lost concentration. 

Thanks to Andrea for helping us rigging the Lasers ...to Rob and Ricardo for organizing the day - putting out buoys, recording races, awarding points, taking registration fees, judging... 

So I finish with Rob's pointers to Julie and I in a mail from today Minimum requirements for lodging a protest: 

On the water: [RRS 61.1a] 

- hail "protest" 

- if hull > 6 m: show a red flag 

- if hull > 6 m: fix the red flag in the rig until the finish On land: - protest must be in writing - "the incident, including where and when it occurred" [RRS 61.2b] 

 Notes: - if you realise you break a rule (protest or not !) then immediately sail clear of other boats and take the penalty turns (1 turn if you touch a mark, 2 turns for all the rest). 

If you do this, you can't be penalised further 

- if you don't, you risk being disqualified.

- if you protest or are protested, then do not discuss on the water, do not ask questions, do not answer: only 1 word is used, "protest" 

  - if you decide to file a protest, beware that you can't gain, but can lose, when you protest a boat that finished behind you and in front of your nearest rival in the series ranking list ! If you win your protest, your nearest rival will move up one place. In addition, you can be disqualified as a result of your own protest (this is not uncommon).

Link to Sailing World article on Protesting

Europa Cup on Mic Mac

Over four days from last Thursday through to Sunday, Mic Mac took part in the Europa Cup. The crew was Ariane McCabe, Charlie Mueller and Ursula Vogel all of whom have a lot of experience. I skippered the boat having, recently passed my SU test and came 8th in Semaine du Soir last month, so ready to take on the best of Lake Leman. Here are some impressions to share with the club from a novice skipper, racings at a high level for the first time.  Pictures show Mic Mac and others heading out in Bft 6 on the last day (Pics: Moby Dick)

Secrets of success This month's Skipper magazine gives several secrets of success for Surprise racing including a clean hull, avoid healing more than 10 degrees, have a crew that gets on with one another (as then you can train a lot), follow a good boat, practice starting.

 A clean hull When I arrived at CNV for the registration on Thursday morning, three boats were lined up waiting to be lifted into the water. One crew member was polishing his already shining hull. Having finished last in a race on Thursday, Charlie and I took the magazine's (and Rob's) advice and jumped in the lake and cleaned the hull with a new sponge. Not much in the way of algae came off but we enjoyed the swim. The next day we managed a finish 6 places higher, but I think this was due more to working the spi well and getting a good start. Anyway, the satisfaction of having 5 boats behind us was immense. ---

A crew that gets on This advice makes sense – there was plenty of banter and laughing and when the time came for racing we focused on that. Many boats were made up of young crews who must have spent a lot of time training together. The winning boat Mirabaud 3 was made up of a 50 year guy (who works with Alinghi) skippering and what looked like his 16 year old kids. In fact, the awards ceremony consisted largely of sunburnt teenagers collecting prizes.  

Follow a good boat This advice seems as useful and telling a sprinter to follow Usain Bolt. I lined up Teo Jacob and Mirabaud 3 a few times at the start but they shot out faster than us, presumably having time timed their speed better, avoided having boats closer to their lee (and other mystery factors which I am still trying to work out).  

Practice starting (and shout a lot) This was not Semaine du Soir. The main feature of the starts was crews shouting at their starboard boats to luff up (“get out of the way” to land lubbers). This started around 1.5 mins before the start and crescendo to near screaming at the gun. Similarly at the upwind buoy, we could hear (from distance) crewing shouting at oneanother. We met a previous European champion on the committee whose advice was never to give way at the buoy. I guess he had a friendly insurance agent. Same story at the downwind buoy – shout “de l’eau!” Our starts improved a bit over the four days. There is a trade-off between starting at the favoured end and getting clear wind i.e. not having boats within a length lee of you. I aimed for the middle of the line but it was still congested and can’t say I have found a formula yet. My 10 year old son Tom recently won an Optimiste regatta in Versoix, but has not offered advice on starting. Sailing in a gale on Lake Léman Sunday, the last day of the Championship, we arrived at Port Choiseul and a gale was blowing. The meter in CNV restaurant read Bft7. Halyards were screaming and flags flapping hard. The lake was choppy, dark brown with white sea- horses everywhere. We agreed to go out and toyed with the idea with taking the motor. Our neighbouring boat Indigo from Cannes said “mais pourquoi? Il y a du vent”. I guess this was a basic Mistral for him. We got away from the moorings, bore away (let the kicker out!), headed downwind for a few seconds towards where the ynglings are moored, tacked and beat upwind to the entrance, turned about and flew out of the port on a beam reach. The start was an accelerated version of the last three days – no meandering around, jostling for position, but flying down the start line. The upwind beat meant sailing into waves, bearing away in the trough. Downwind, we took advice not to fly the spi (no point getting an extra two knots at the risk of broaching which a leading boat did). With the main not reefed and flying a jib in place of the genoa, the boat still planed on top of waves at around 10 knots which was exhilarating. Less so, was nearly broaching as we turned the mark. At the end of four days, my concentration had faltered. We got back to port. At the bar, the ex- champion slapped me on the back and said “Bravo, ton baupteme!” Finally thanks to Michal for assigning me a boat as skipper and Rob for coming down to adjust the rake of the mast and providing lots of advice.