CampbellSailing.com

2nd Place Finish at Ficker Cup

June 15th, 2009 in Regattas, Monday Morning Tactician.

I just arrived back in DC after a weekend in Long Beach racing the Catalina 37s for the 2009 Ficker Cup. Six other teams took part in the Grade 3 Match Race regatta held as a qualifier to the Congressional Cup also held at LBYC every year. The format for the three days of racing was three round robins, that’s it. I was calling tactics for Dave Perry in sort of a match race debut, especially in the heavy keelboats. Needless to say, I learned a ton about momentum during the weekend. We came out of the box well winning the first two races in very light air, but finished the first round robin with three bad starts and a couple of careless errors that would come back to haunt us. The rest of the series went quite well. As the sun came out and the breeze filled in, our more experienced crew-work showed to be an advantage going 5-1 on Saturday and winning all three races on Sunday, including a nailbiter with Sally Barkow’s team in the last race. Even with that win, Sally and the girls’ boat sailed a wonderfully consistent series and were able to stay ahead of us in the win column even as we were going on our tear Saturday and Sunday.

Here’s a link to some great photos and a description of the weekend:

http://www.sail-world.com/USA/Barkow-makes-history-at-2009-Ficker-Cup/57887

The game of momentum was the biggest concept that I took away from the weekend. So many of the races were over and done with about 2 minutes to go before the start. Often the first boat up to speed was the boat that won the race, especially in the lighter conditions. In the final race of the regatta, Sally had a better start than us, taking the left and forcing us into traffic, splitting right. By the time we came back to them halfway up the beat, they were 5 lengths ahead thanks to a lefty and more solid pressure. We rounded the windward mark behind and immediately gybed. Instead of conservatively matching us or beating us to the gybe, Sally’s team extended on port toward the starboard layline. The turning point of the race was halfway down the first run when Sally’s boat didn’t pick the layline correctly into the leeward mark. Even with a 5 boatlength lead, the race was immediately in our favor. Here’s why:

When Sally gybed inside of the starboard layline, she was forced to make a crucial decision: 1. Sail normal VMG and risk two quick gybes at the bottom of the leg, or 2. Sail lower than normal and lay the mark at slightly slower speed. She chose to soak low and that bleeding of momentum ultimately cost them the lead one leg later. We crossed her breeze once as she was low and slow already, giving her a touch of bad air, and then gybing on a layline for full speed into the mark. She rounded 4 lengths ahead but did not get up to full speed by the time we got the mark and rolled into a tack. She tacked to cover and we went right back forcing her to make a decision to cover or split. We went tack for tack 5 or 6 times up the beat, each time not letting her get up to full speed before we tacked back out of phase. We were able to put a close duck with Sally’s team about three lengths shy of the starboard tack layline and then got a piece of them on starboard going into the top mark. The race was by no means over, we battled it out, gybing three times and then luffing her before gybing back to the finish line under jib alone to snag a last race victory.

The biggest lesson that I took away from this weekend’s racing, beyond more bow work than I ever knew a tactician had to do… was the effect of consequences of events that happen long before they make an impact. Being downspeed at a leeward mark, if properly antagonized can make a significant impact on the race 6 minutes later at the next mark. One downspeed circle in the pre-start can lose an entire race before it even starts. I’m excited to learn more about the match race game as I get more into it. This regatta turned out to be a great experience in the 37s. Congratulations again to Sally and her team!

36 comments.