Andrew Campbell

Melges 24 North Americans Review

November 2nd, 2008 in Regattas.

What a great week we had in Annapolis sailing the Melges 24 North Americans. Extremely windy conditions greeted us early in the week with freezing cold temperatures. But as the regatta wore on, we sailed in better and better temperatures and lighter breezes. On the practice day before the event the fleet was forced to stay on shore in nearly 40 knots of breeze across the Chesapeake. The first day of the regatta saw all of 25 knots, as well as a few wipe outs. The last couple of days saw a more classic light-air Annapolis. We had something going on during the breeziest day with the rig very tight and most of the fleet in survival mode. We squeaked out a 3rd in the opening race just ahead of the ultimate winners of the regatta sailing with Terry Hutchinson. The middle part of the regatta saw ups and downs. With my friend, former Harvard All-American Vincent Porter on the helm, we had some great angles as well as some tough lanes. We had some brilliant starts, and some crosses that ended up being a bit too close. We had some 720s where we lost ten boats, and some great runs where we gained ten boats. And in magic fashion we ended the regatta with another great race taking a 5th. We managed 19th in the series out of almost 50 boats, a fair result for a first-time helmsman, and four crew who had never sailed all together or done much if any Melges racing for the most part. We did have a blast, just check out the shot above (lucky me, the tactician has the best ride hanging off the back in big breeze!) Here are a couple shots of our group from the week:

One of the good runs, out ahead of locals Hutchinson and Larson, chasing down Ullman:

One of the good starts, bow out on JoeFly (we’re bow 32, sail 649):

Here’s an example of how not to douse after you come into the leeward mark a little deep past the layline.

There were certainly some good lessons learned from the week of sailing. More to come in Monday morning’s column about the week on “Missfitz.”

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Melges 24 NA’s Windy Cold Day 1

October 29th, 2008 in Regattas.

The first day of Melges 24 NA’s started today in Annapolis. The wind was up and the temps were down, 25+ knots and less than 50 degrees for most of the day. Drysuits were prevalent across the board. Sailing with Vincent Porter on the helm, Gabe Jostrom on spinnaker and jib, and Jackie Schmitz and Kate Chaney on the bow we had a baptism by fire today. We managed a great day barring being knocked down before the start during our first hour of sailing together. Vincent picked up the groove quickly with the boat upwind, and the downwinds were ripping. Here’s a classic clip of our firs t mark rounding with Chris Larson, Morgan Larson, and Terry Hutchinson. The commentator asks: “Who are those guys in Missfitz?” That’s us!

We’re making moves tomorrow. We’re tenth after today.

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MOB Drill in Annapolis this Weekend

October 19th, 2008 in General.

This weekend autumn finally caught up with us on the east coast. We were racing in Annapolis at the Eastport Yacht Club on Saturday and practicing Sunday with Stu McNay’s new (to him) Melges 24. We sailed with US Sailing team members Dave Hughes and Brian Boyd as well as former Georgetown women’s team captain Jackie Schmitz covering pit. All in a given weekend, we had good tacks and bad tacks, good sets bad sets, we hooked a crab-pot so badly that we had to douse the spinnaker, go head to wind, and back down to get the darn thing off, we even saved a guy. No joke, we actually saved a J80 sailor’s life. The breeze was up in the teens, and the first cool dry air of this fall made for some blustery and chilly conditions. The J80 fleet had finished ahead of us and we were just pulling the spinnaker down after the finish when we saw something in the water just ahead. I could barely get the words out to Stu before we almost ran over the guy, “Turn right! There’s a guy in the water!” Somehow one of the J80’s had lost a man overboard. As we luckily missed him we understood very quickly that he was in trouble. “Help me!,” he screamed as we slid past still in the process of taking the chute down only fifteen seconds after finishing the race. We realized that the J80s were circling unsuccessfully to pick the guy up and we immediately jibed onto port and tacked back towards the target. It couldn’t have been more than twenty more seconds after we went past that we had him along side and he clawed onto Dave Hughes’ arms on the mid-bow. We handed him off to the low-scoop transom of the Melges 24 and hauled him aboard. After a cursory scan for bleeding we asked the guy’s name: “Jim.” That’s all he said for the next ten minutes. I made sure to keep a hand on him in case he keeled over. The guy was shaking, not so much from the cold as from shock. The water was nearly 65 degrees, but we had no idea how long he’d been in the water, and without a lifejacket and in full foul weather gear, there was no doubt Jim had been in the water far too long for his comfort. Judging by how heavy he and his water-logged gear was when we pulled him aboard, I’m not sure he would have been able to swim much longer. We offered him some gatorade and another jacket and then waved the mark-set boat over to us. We couldn’t figure out why that boat hadn’t picked him up until they tried to make a landing on the Melges 24. We finally came side by side the whaler and helped Jim off our boat onto the committee boat, with instructions to take him directly to the dock. We sailed by Jim’s boat “Puffinator” and informed them that the guy was clearly in shock and possibly hypothermia and that we’d told the committee boat to take him in. Not entirely sure they’d understood, they sailed off towards the dock and about a minute later, just long enough for us to figure out what had just happened, much less ready us for the next race, the five minute gun went off and we were back racing.

I guess, if Jim or anybody from the Eastport YC is reading this, Stu, Brian, Dave, Jackie and I are curious to make sure that Jim’s alright. We never saw the boat when we got back to the dock. I just hope the guy gets a decent life jacket for next time he goes out racing. Who are we to say, but I’m not sure that the guy would have been picked up had we not nearly run him over and then spun round to get him. All of us and sailors in general should be a bit better trained in our MOB drills and have a protocol in terms of throwing a life-jacket and then getting into a position for pickup as fast as possible. I never thought that a weekend racing series would demand that kind of seamanship, but I’m glad that Stu and the rest of our team had the wherewithal to recognize what was happening then the skill to get back and get a hold of him in such short order.

More to come from this weekend and how the racing actually went. Hopefully we hear something from Jim and we’ll be able to get back to you about his impressions.

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Charters Filling Up

October 17th, 2008 in General.

Both of my Lasers have been chartered for both the upcoming Orange Bowl, 2009 Miami OCR, and one has been chartered for Laser Midwinter East. If you have interest in a charter please have a look at the my schedule below. Please also see the right hand side of the website for items still for sale, including compasses, sails and complete boats.

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Morning Light Opens Friday October 17th

October 15th, 2008 in General.

Click here to see where it opens in one of more than 50 nation-wide theaters.

Check out the trailer:

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Morning Light Annapolis Premiere: Success!

October 10th, 2008 in General.

Last night I was invited to attend the Annapolis premiere of “Morning Light,” Roy Disney’s production following 15 sailors and their pursuit of the Transpac race last summer. We were greeted with a full house, young and old, sailors and non-sailors alike in the theater to enjoy the film. After a short introduction we were treated to an incredibly shot film full of amazing sailing, great characters and plenty of emotion. It was an honor for me to be on the selection committee all those months ago to pare down the team from 500 applicants to 30 at the tryouts and then only 15 for the training period of the movie. Watching some of my close friends go on this amazing journey was a lot of fun to say the least. I sat beside my buddy Charlie Enright during the movie and he gave me the scoop about how much fun they had making the film. If I didn’t have the Olympics to chase after I would have loved being with that great group.

I’d recommend anybody to go and see this movie. I have a certain amount of emotion invested in the film as the crew is filled with some great and long-time friends, but the cinematography is spectacular, the training and race was truly fun to watch for both sailor and non-sailor.

Afterwards, we had a question and answer session with a panel of producers Leslie Demuse, Roy Disney, sailors Jeremy Wilmot, Charlie Enright, and Kit Will, and selection committee members myself and Robbie Haines (pictured below left to right). Kids from all of the youth sailing programs in Baltimore and Annapolis were full of excitement and questions, and the guys were able to give some fun answers. The mayor of Annapolis closed the evening last night, giving it her stamp of approval.

Click Here to go to the Morning Light website.

Click Here to see where there’s a theater near you.

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“Morning Light” to Open in Theaters

October 8th, 2008 in General.

Disney’s “Morning Light” movie has had its premiers in California and is set to open nation-wide on October 17th. Tonight and tomorrow on ESPN2 there is an hour special at 8pm (est) on the making of the film including the team selection trials held in Long Beach a year and a half ago.  

Check out the trailer and information here. www.disney.com/morninglight

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Olympic Team White House Visit

October 8th, 2008 in General.

For whatever reason, George Bush thinks it’s a great idea to keep inviting the Olympic Team back to his house for a visit. Yesterday morning, in the cool October sunshine on the south lawn of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, President Bush spoke to a crowd of some 500 people with the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Teams standing behind him. As I wrote about last time we were invited there, the House and grounds are something to behold, and the support of the Bush administration is much appreciated by the USOC and the teams. Certainly regardless of political inclinations, the respect for the office takes everybody a bit by surprise, and wandering around the halls of the house really does make you appreciate that the White House is indeed the people’s house. The art work and decor may change with the tastes of the incumbent’s family, but the greatest thing about out democracy is the fact that the White House gets returned to the people’s custody every four years. Here’s what the President said.

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Sailboat Racing, Winter Charters, Boats for Sale

October 6th, 2008 in General.

In an effort to transition this website into a more useful tool, I am going to begin to enable links and information channels to my upcoming availability for racing, coaching, speaking, charters, items for sale, as well as the standard regatta reports, updates and Monday Morning Tactician columns.

Below is the newest version of the upcoming CampbellSailing.com Calendar. To purchase boats, sails, compasses, please check the FOR SALE link on the right column and email campbellsailing@gmail.com. To charter either of my two available Lasers please email as well. Two boats are already chartered for Orange Bowl. Only one boat is left for Miami OCR and Midwinters East. See Calendar for availability.

My personal racing calendar for the winter is beginning to fill up as well. Please feel free to email if you have any questions.

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Monday Morning Tactician: 29 September 2008

September 29th, 2008 in Monday Morning Tactician.

I made it back on the water this weekend on Long Island Sound racing aboard Rima2 a Reichel/Pugh 55 based out of Stamford, CT. Having spent some time on boats of that size, I certainly knew what to expect, but in reality it was one of the first times I had been given total responsibility for tactical decisions and no more. Not having to worry about helming thanks to owner John Brim, and not having to worry about navigation and timing thanks to Ed Cesare and Molly Baxter, I was able to just put my head into the tactical challenge of getting a boat faster than the rest of the fleet through slower traffic.

The 55-footer was slightly bigger and better equipped than most of the boats in our class, so we spent much of the weekend racing against the clock, which is certainly a concept I’m not all that accustomed to. Getting off the starting line very well twice and clearing nicely in the third race, I was quite pleased with the fact that we got the boat pointed in the direction we planned to go each of the three first beats. The difficult part of racing is then to get the crew and the boat re-focused on getting into the speed groove, minimizing the number of turns, and staying out of traffic as much as possible so that we could maximize our time spent at full-speed. In one-design racing, tactical decision-making is so often focused on positioning and boat to boat interaction. Both of those ideas balanced with a focus on boatspeed make one-design racing the multifaceted sport that we love. IRC and PHRF racing is an entirely different animal where ratings become such a large part of the mentality that it can be hard to switch the rounded tactical mindset into one centered on positioning the boat in places where it’s speed can be maximized. It took me a few legs to realize that was the biggest factor.

The breeze was light as we headed out and quickly built to about fifteen knots ahead of forecasted rain. Unfortunately, the boat’s mast was tuned for the forecasted range of 4-8 knots and in the first couple races I think we were slightly slow because of the complacency to stay with that setting instead of hurrying to fix it. Regardless, we got off the line well in the first race, pulled out to leeward of the group, tacked, crossed and centered up on the racecourse ultimately making a commitment to fewer tacks and the upper right side of the racecourse. Unsure of the layline capabilities of the boat, I let Ed call the first couple laylines and tried my best to confirm his calls. A small left in the last few hundred yards to the mark really left us pinching into the first top mark. We sailed the starboard tack header down the run and ultimately gybed a bit shy of the port tack layline and had to sail deeper than optimal for the last bit of that leg as well. We corrected the mistake for the next lap, but overall had great boathandling from the group allowing me to make calls through the traffic of the other two fleets and finish very close to the next two boats on time. I learned very quickly how sailing those less-than-optimal angles for any amount of time can be detrimental in the IRC/PHRF formats. For the rest of the day I felt the need to be a bit more conservative and go a little deeper before committing to tacking. Ultimately, sailing fatter into marks was a better play for the boat, but learning that nuance took a racing context to really understand.

One of the big lessons I learned by simply being in the tactician role was to be louder and more vocal to the rest of the crew as necessary. On board our boat, the helmsman’s role was one to make the boat go straight and make its maneuvers as quickly and smoothly as possible. There was very little need for any coaching through the turns, even in traffic. But once I had thought the next few moves through in my head, consulted the navigator, and talked over the helmsman’s shoulder so he could start visualizing what was going to happen, it was then my role to relay those plans to the rest of the ten guys forward so that they could have time to work out their next move, ask questions if necessary and properly prepare for the upcoming maneuver. We had a choice at one point to go with a flatter reaching sail for a triangle course that the race committee set for us instead of the regular windward-leewards. In the only boat-handling issue of the day, that sail went up with only the head and tack attached leaving the sheets slack on the deck and the clew whipping out to leeward as we burned off our speed down the first reach. Knowing that I had to be in a more vocal role, it was my position on the boat to call the mast man to “Hold” before dropping the jib, allowing us to at least have two sails up for the rest of the time down the leg before we could pull up the bigger spinnaker.

We had a couple of classic, tactician v. helmsman conversations through the weekend where I asked him to put the boat through a gap that he wasn’t sure we could shoot, or tacking across a boat he wasn’t sure we could cross, but all in all it was a very satisfying experience where the boat went where I knew the boat could go. One situation in particular impressed me. We were approaching the windward mark in the midst of a J122 clump. We were on the port layline with the leader of their group, just ahead on the starboard layline. Making the call that we could not lee-bow effectively, I pushed the team to hold on port, and follow the transom of the J boat into a tack. As soon as we tacked, I snuck down to leeward to get a view of the afterguard of the boat ahead. With about 200 yards left into the mark, he motioned to me that he wanted us to go through them to leeward so that we wouldn’t roll them or be hoisting directly on top of their breeze as we both turned down the run. Considering he was leading his group, I would have wanted the same thing. I love when rational people can successfully communicate with each other with one wave of the hand. When I came back up to the rail and let our helmsman know the next play, he took a double take and asked me if I was serious. I let our jib man know we were going to crack of and foot to leeward of the boat ahead. We broke through their bad air in about a boatlength’s time, and rounded the mark just bow-ahead.

In another case, we had been sailing on starboard for quite some time and two slower J44s were going to cross us from the left side of the racecourse. From a long distance out, I could see that they would be in play, but that their crosses would be close. The last thing I wanted was a short lee-bow from a J44, the last thing the driver of the J44 wanted was to have to leebow a 55-footer and get rolled, or be forced to take a massive duck. To ease his tensions about the close situation, I made eye contact from a few hundred feet out and waved them across. Only at that point did I tell our helmsman that there were a couple boats coming across our bow. There was never any need for change of course on either boat, but often hyper-tension at the wheel leads to irrational action. The boats crossed without trouble and we were able to keep the boat going upwind at optimum VMG.

Monday Morning Tactician Says: It’s always good to have a bit of conversation going between competitors around the racecourse. Often sailboats only talk to each other when there is a foul or in some tense situation. I find that most of the time its worthwhile to have the other boat know your intentions, more often than not they are parallel to your competitor’s.

The quick summary of the weekend is that I was impressed by the cohesiveness and fluidity of the crew onboard Rima2. I think the group was well rehearsed and well prepared for the situations that we got into, and in that sense it was great to be able to step into the tactician’s seat. There were some communication items that we overcame as well as some improved understanding of the rating-style of sailing, but all in all a good experience for me. I’m really looking forward to more sailing like it, next step is finding somebody who’ll have me on board.

Photo from this weekend
(I’m behind the helmsman with the brown hat)

Next on the agenda is the move up the hill here in Washington DC to a slightly bigger place. Next week the entire US Olympic Team has been invited to attend a reception at the White House, I guess now that Mr Bush has submitted his version of the market-recovery-plan, he’s just going to host the team for the next couple of months until he’s out of office. Looming on the horizon is the Melges 24 North Americans to be held in Annapolis at the Eastport Yacht Club. Can’t wait to get racing there.

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