Malaysian Match Racing Championship 2009 Monsoon Cup Qualifer Day 4

Day 4

We lost the semi-finals in straight sets to Hazwan, with this lost natuarally comes the question of how we did we lose it?

Before the answar ,we won the petite finals and came in a reputable 3rd in the Malaysian Match Racing Championship.


We were complacent I guess, the semi-finals were one of those days where you just couldnt keep up with the boat speed of your opponent. I believe all sailors have expericen in that, that your boat just couldnt keep up the pace.
Besides boat speed and boat handling I do attribute part of our lost to a bad strategy.


What could we had have done differently?


First mistake was picking Hazwan as our semi-finalist opponent, for reason we know that the first part of the day at Pulau Duyong is going to be light wind, and still we chose an opponent lighter than us.


Second was picking the wrong boat, the boat did served us well in the Round Robin 1, but we did reported a leaking keel then, and the result do shows it was a bad idea to use it again.

On the Petite Final we chose a different boat and we felt less vibration compared to the first boat and won the race without having too worry too much about boat speed.

And another mistake on boat picking, was that in these event, sponsors comes and goes, new sponsors do means new spinnaker.



but a big congratulation to Hazwan for winning the Malaysian Match Racing Championship 2009, their boat speed are fast with very good boat handling skills by the crew,


Big Thanks to

AC Law (http://www.aclaw.my/) our Main Sponsor

Gareth Cooke/SubZero Images, for all the amazing picture taken of us!

T-Best and RURRUM Commnunications for forwarding us an invitation and organising such a great event that places a dream on young sailors of Malaysians.

Royal Selangor Yacht Club - Sailing Committee and all members of the yacht club!


With this lost, We are very detemine to come back stronger next year!


Cheers
Sean

Malaysian Match Racing Championship - Monsoon Cup Qualifier Day 1 to 3

We are through to the semi finals!!!
Koo Racing Team - AC Law are in the Semi Finals!

Day 1,

Having not sailed together as a team before, there is some concern how we will work as a Team.
In fact we only got our first team photo on day 1 ! and we have been out of the match racing scene for 2 years now.

We only managed a match on day 1, where we go against putrajaya 5 O. They are a relatively a new team. Therefore we managed to win comfortable with them having a blag flag after they failed to do the second penalty immediately after the start.

The black flag gave us lot of time to work on our boat handling,moves and team work, which we needed very badly.


Day 2.

We were quite confident at the end of the first day but we were put firmly back to the ground on the first match of day 2 against Team Navy 1. We lost the match, but I personally see it as wake up call for us. This is how they beat us to the line, pre start we gave them a penalty, then they started in front of us, a few tacking duels, we kinda screwed up one of the tack, they surge ahead.

No spinnaker allowed, so it was basically a tight reach back to the mark, after that match we felt were very disappointed and very restricted of not having a spin to fly.

we went back to the drawing board, rectifying all our mistakes after the defeat and then bounced back immediately to win all the remaining matches in day 2 and joint top the leader board with Sail Putrajaya.

Day 3,

We carried the momentum from day 2, continuing winning all our races convincingly and finish top of the round robin 1 leader board!





We will face Team Taring Pelangi in the Semifinal tomorrow!

out
sean

HELP Sailing Club - Sailing Day !

Last Saturday 17th October was fantastic day for me, I was invited by Ai li to go sailing with her bunch of Help Sailing Club members and that kinda gave me a reason to wake up on a Saturday Morning.


It was a great day! For the sun was kind and the wind was blowing. There were lots of them,like around 15-ish people, and the lucky three who managed to go onboard with us are Jeff, Fred and Wei Wen.

We are suppose to instill sailing interest into them for this is their first time on board a sail boat! And what better boat to do just that than our Platu where everyone have to be involve to sail the boat.

All three of them didn't take much time to learn the basics of tacking and jibing maneuvers. Wei wen was on the main sail trim, while Fred and Jeff were taking care of the front sail.

On our way back we even managed to spot some dolphins,
and that really made my day, for all the time that I have sailed at port klang, this is actually my first time spotting a dolphin here.

Sean

Built up to the Malaysian Match Racing Championship 2009 - Monsoon Cup 2009 Qualifier

I have been thinking..

Ever Since we completed our registration for the Malaysian Match Racing Championship I have been trying to fill in the remaining 11 slots of Teams, trying to figure out who is going to compete with us the get the qualifying slot for the Monsoon Cup 2009.

For Teams that I am certain we will see..

1. Team RSYC/99°/View Point - Skippered by Rolf Heemskerk ; I will rate Rolf's Team as one of the favorites. I personally sailed with Rolf before, and he is a very a good helmsman, whats lacking in the Team are the Match Racing Experience, other that than that I am sure they will have a great time at the qualifying

2.Team RSYC- Skippered by Tom(Rizal) - I have known Tom ever since I started sailing and that was 14 years ago, and I can tell you guys, that he is good, he was the Malaysia's Sea games Representative for platu in 2007 ; and I will say he definitely have a chance at the Championship.

3 & 4 .Navy1 & Navy 2-I am not sure about Navy2, but I am very sure that Navy1 will be skippered by Razali, Razali's Team was the finalist in 2007 and the semi finalist in 2008.

Teams that we could see,

5. Perak Sailing Team- Skippered by Nurul Ain. Last Year Winner! Ayin, have told me that she intends to compete, but nothing is confirm yet, but if she turns out, as the reigning champion, she is automatically one of the favourites.

6 MYA KFC Team-Skippered by Razman. Last Year finalist, I have not much info on this guy but after some google'ling I found out he is quite active and have been winning some platu races. Since he was a finalist last year, and he was quoted as the team to beat by the Navy in a recent Newspaper cutting, we will just put him as a favourite.


Other Teams we may see.

7.Sail Putrajaya skippered by Elia, She was crown the most promising sailor in the recent Monsoon Cup Sailing School at putrajaya, I rate her as having a chance at the championship.

8.Team Asian Yachting skippered by Ayin from RSYC!. This year Asian yachting.com is sending a team and will be skippered by Ayin form the Royal Selangor yacht Club!.I rate her as having a chance at the championship.

9. Duyong Heritage Sailing Team - Since they were one of the teams who went for the Monsoon Cup Sailing School at putrajaya, I believe we may see them

10&11, Team Johor and Team Terengganu, these 2 teams have been part of the Malaysian Match Racing Championship since 2006, lets hope we see them too.


Finally our Team
12 Koo Racing Team-Ac Law, Skippered by Jeremy Koo.

thats all =P
more posts coming up

regards
Sean

Sunday 14th Cruiser Race !

Sunday 14th , was looking really over crowded when there was a total of 12 crews available for Mat Hari, we managed to trim it to 10 but on Sunday we ended with only 7 .

It was then I had a feeling we are going to have a very good workout today with Vincent on the helm, Gwen, Nurul Ain and her sister Ngah on the Trim, Yew on the Main, Wai li on the pit and me me taking care of the foredeck.

It was Nurul's First time on Mata Hari, therefore Yew moved to main to give a her bigger learning space as we gear up towards Raja Muda Selangor international Regatta.

Race 1, Current was strong at about 2-3 knots from the west, Wind coming from north west. The start of race 1 was rather straight forward as we only 3 tack to reach the first mark. After Mark 1 we were on tight reach with the spin, I made a mistake of changing the down haul too early, and as the wind swung to the front we needed to hoist the front sail back. I scrambles to put it back on and that most probably cost us the bullet as we finisht joint second with Martin while the U20 took the bullet.

Race 2, we were really slow off the starting line as the wind begins to die off, still we were first off the line, and as the race progress the wind picks up to about 7-8 knots. We lead from the start and caught every possible shifts we could. It was a race without much or any mistakes and we went home with a bullet on hand.


To sum up the day we went berbuka puasa with nurul at port village restaurants and had a really heavy dinner.

Our Current Confirm Crew List for RMIR now includes Nurul Ain and Wai li,

Sean

Sunday 6th September, Sailing Day!

We had another awesome sailing day, and this is how we got it...

Started the day at the Royal Selangor Yacht Club, wind wasn't blowing in the morning,
this worries me a bit as we will be sailing with six today with pik yi coming on board,
and to add, there is a change to the sailing plan, Jeremy Camps our club Sailing Secretary decided that we should do some match racing too.
Off we go, Today we have Vincent on the helm, yew on the Trim, Pikyi and Simon sharing the pit, Hoe on the main and me as usual on the foredeck.



Race 1, fleet race - Wind went up to around 10 to 12 knots , and the left side of the course looks favor with its shallow water, current is about lets say 2 knots . Wind and current both from south east.

We started well but Jeremy camps had the best start, with the strong current everyone was heading to the shallow water first. Those who didn't got left a little behind. Nearing the Windward mark, we are one of the 3 boats in contention to round the windward mark first. We had Jeremy but somehow Tom managed to sneak passed us rounding the mark first with us close behind. Down at leeward mark, we tries to get room, Tom some how had some problem with its spinnaker. We capitalize on it and never looked back.

Race 2, Match Racing - Us against Ayin's Team, Ayin will be taking helm for Team AsianYachting.com for the Malaysian Monsoon Cup qualifier later this year, we were on port side, Ayin was late coming into the line, we sailed pass her and went straight behind the committee boat, and then we were circling each other by doing tacking and gybing. Hoe needed the warm up as its has been quite sometimes since he trim the main this much. Ayin was too into it, and didn't realize the time, we started ahead, she made a mistake of going to the right side of the course first instead of getting into the shallows first. We won the race.

Match Race 2, we were on bye, as we rested we observed the other teams. All of them rounded the mark on starboard as oppose to port as written on the Sailing instruction. Though Match Race are normally done on starboard rounding, it is not at all unusual to do port rounding. Always read the Notice of Race and the Sailing instructions. I received the NoR for the Malaysian Qualifier the other day, perhaps I shall share it here another time.

Race 3, Match Race, Us against Tom, Tom is a very good sailor. He will be one of the entries for our club, is it not known whose his crews are, I do hope he gets to bring his own crew.

We started against them with a dial up, he move from the dial up and made a mistake of sailing to the port side, the pin end. we bore off fast and tried to keep him on the pin end, yet we were slow and we started circling, moments passed and we were push to the middle of the starting line by the current. 1 minute left, we were both on starboard tack, we were the leeward board, we had overlap and tried to push him off the line, but then the wind swung towards the east backfiring our plan, and he started ahead of us with us following closely, we only mange to caught up in the leeward mark, where we managed room, and got ahead after that, but Tom was sailing really fast with them taking the lead back on the windward mark. But he had no idea wind swung again to the east, now the wind is blowing north east. He made a mistake of gibing first to take advantage of the current. Vincent realize the wind condition and asked us the hold as we are on a tight reach to the finishing pin already! Tom realizing his mistake and gybed back. But it was too late as we took the 3rd bullet of the day.


4th Race - Fleet Racing - Its a sail back to the club, it would be a spinnaker run back to the club, but the wind had been swinging to the north. therefore it could be too shy to fly the spin.

We started with Jeremy below us and Tom above us on windward, he was the first the hoist the spin as we decides to wait. Bad idea, Jeremy and us immediately pulled ahead, with having to sail a few degree lower than us, half the course, yew decided its time for us to hoist, by this tim Tom have already downed his spin and trying to sail high. We hoisted , and Jeremy pull away sailing higher, yew reasoning was, we sailed the shorter course. Anyway we caught at the erm..river junction to the club. now we are both on a square run, starboard tack with us covering them with the wind and current favoring us.We went ahead and ends our day with another bullet!

Still talking about the mark rounding after the race.


We Improved our leads to 3 points!!

I had the wind behind my back..3 months of updates

I know I have not been writing for the past months, I have been in a somewhat an overdrive, where I have been committed to sailing , work , family (mostly to uncles and aunties if you're reading this, Reese ) and also my social life. But this blog is about sailing, So this what I have been doing ,

Heritage Bay Cup (June 2009)
I was thrilled when I was invited by Mira to become a casual coach for the heritage Bay Cup, personally I am not a very good coach, communication isn't really my forte, so there is something to be learned in this trip to Pulau Duyong. And yes I learned heaps in dealing with new sailors from Dave Mills, not only that, I went back to the basic of sailing and strengthens it.

I also caught up with Nurul Ain, 2008 Malaysian Match Racing Winner! Managed to put some interest in her to join us, Mata Hari for Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta this coming November 2009 and from I last heard she is very likely to join us as our Trimmer.

Phuket Race Week 2009 (July)

This time I sailed with Niels on Pheonix, and then we have Pik Choo, Martin, Alex, Pierre and also Ai li on board, we came in third overall in our class. The highlight of this trip was my performance on foredeck which was good as I avoided all major screw ups, kept the skipper worried free of the foredeck and also my stay on Cateleya a 40ish footer cruising catamaran. It was fun staying on a boat, but it can get really boring for I am basically stuck there as it is anchored out in the sea. But nevertheless I had really good fun racing! Thanks to Niels and Pik Choo for the invites!!

Matahari 's Delivery 2009

Kinda ashamed to say, that this is my first delivery for Mata Hari having sailed on her for the past 4-5 years. So I got to do this, and luckily for me this delivery turns out to be a cruising trip.
It was fun and it was really tiring as we got in on a Monday morning and I went straight to work!

We started out with Vincent, Mat Nor and me, Our first stop is Penang, where we picked up Gweyn and Mel, then we continue through the stars and storm. Next Stop Pangkor, we arrived in the afternoon, stayed a night, big dinner and start sailing again the next day to Port Klang, not much wind, kinda slowed us down, but rewarded us instead with a beautiful sunset.

In between then and now, I was in a few club races, some highlights are we manage to have Sing hoe back sailing with us on platu, and we are leading the current platu series with Vincent taking helm. And on the last platu race on Sunday 23rd August 2009, it was really fun with us reclaiming the series leads after taking 2 bullets.

I am looking in to updating this blog more frequently now, with more details into our platu races.
and also more updates on our team development for the Malaysian Match Racing qualifier , we are proud to announce we have just confirm our participation after missing out last year.

RSYC Platu Series 31st May 2009

Today we have Wilson and Kok Fu with us, Wilson is a first timer while Kok Fu have had a few outings with us before, then we have Simon, yew and me. So with pik yi out of the picture we have an all guys crew, something we have not been for quite sometimes. I was thinking of a few bullets today; but we only got one out of three races

Race 1, The wind was blowing south west with windward mark at bearing 240; Wind was at 5-6 knots, but gusty at 8-9 knots,It was a bias starting line at boat; After screwing up a strings of starts 2 weeks ago; we were determine to get our record right; we had Tom barging from windward, and that spoils our start. Anyway south west wind is always shifty here. With all the boats regrouped close to each other at windward mark, we rounded it first and got the bullet.

Race 2, Again our starting line was screwed, this time by Aili's platu; anyway as we set off, we were leading until a shift changes everything. boats on the inside are now sailing higher than us, Tom , and Jeremy Camps. Jeremy rounded the windward mark first and never look back, as he took the bullet with us finishing second.

Race 3, We finally managed a good start, rounding the windward mark 1st, but in the downwind we allowed a separation, in which Jeremy took full advantage of, as they rounded the leeward mark 1st,
A few mistakes leaving the mark left us about 2-3 boats length further away, we manged to closed the gap; but still we finish with another second again today behind Jeremy.



With the Result; Jeremy now leads the RSYC Platu Series 2, on 18 points ,with us second also on 18 points.

Travel itinerary - Phuket

Travel itinerary

Guest Details
1.MR KHONG SHING, ONG

Flight Details
Flight Departing Arriving

AK822
Economy
Promo
Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
Kuala Lumpur (LCC Terminal)
Tue 21 Jul 2009, 0725 hrs
Phuket (HKT)
Phuket International Airport
Tue 21 Jul 2009, 0750 hrs


AK837
Economy
Promo
Phuket (HKT)
Phuket International Airport
Sun 26 Jul 2009, 2105 hrs
Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
Kuala Lumpur (LCC Terminal)
Sun 26 Jul 2009, 2320 hrs

I will be going to Phuket Race Week 2009 !!!

Sean

RSYC Platu Series 17th May 2009

Again This week, the wind was blowing from the north west, around 12- 15knots.
This week, Sing yew skippered, we have pik yi, Simon, Hui Min and Hui Mei onboard,

There were three races, first race was rather straight forward, we didn't have the best of starts,but anyway with a few wind shifts we were second, Tom took the race and we finish second.

Second race, It was a tight one, with us not certain that if we were over the line at the start but nonetheless we went back, started last. And of course we play our usual wind shifts, and got our self back in. The wind was shifting more to the north today, therefore the right side of the course was definitely the good side. We were second leaving the wind ward mark, on the second leg to the leeward mark, we were dumb folded again, it was not a finishing, it isn't the first time we mistook the flags for our platu races. A Windward leeward flag with a numeral pennant 2 doesn't means, 2 rounds. In our club Platu races it means 1 + 2. So we screwed up here. we retired from race 2.

In race 3, it was a race back to the club; having not won a single race today, we were determined to win it. It was a spinnaker start, therefore i needed to play my part right if we were to win this race, In the last 3 minutes of the starting sequences, yew called for a switch he wants a port hoist instead. Well i did it for him. and we manage to start off the line, sailing nicely away from the rest who were on startboard hoist. They were sailing towards the right side of the course . Where the current were stronger, but the right does look good in terms where we did spot a few puff and gust over there, so as usual, we spent some time trying to convince ourselves that we are on the correct side,which is left; and finally we decided to hold our course. We were right. We took the last race.



Sean

RMSIR - Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta 2009

Yo I am a poster Boy!!!

RSYC Keel Boat Series 2 - 10th May 2009

Yesterday 10th May 2009, was the start of the series 2 of RSYC Keel boat series.
Wind was blowing from north west, I will say around 12 to 15 knots. I was on Juita together with
Aziz , Swee, Tore and Scott.

Race 1, we had a fairly good start, but it was Skandia that got the best start, we did not have much problem except for that we had to go completely downwind at a point due to the ships/wind shadows around us., We were flying an A so it was difficult. We end the race 3rd on corrected time where cabaret 5 took the race followed by Skandia.

Race 2, we were stalled at the starting, it was looking to be a good start for us until the last 10 seconds where wind died off a bit; and then Rapscallion and cabaret 5 managed to come in on top of us and with the wind shadows that follows up, we were slow to get off the starting line, Skandia had another good start on port at the pin.

On the first hoist, I took a good few minutes off our time when I got the spinnaker sheets all wrond on the clew. And then we had a very bad jibe, where the A sails wrapped around our forestay; where we had to drop it.

We finish the race 5th on corrected times, with only 5 minutes difference to the 2 nd place; we could have done a liitle better and moved up. Cabaret 5 took the race.

It was a great day for sailing for the wind was blowing.

Click on the image for full size.

Raja Muda Selangor Internatinal Regatta - RMSIR Teaser 2009

Click on the picture or here
for more information.

Crew Organization for Spinnaker Hoists, Jibes, and Douses By Ullmans Sails

Getting Back to Basics
Crew Organization for Spinnaker Hoists, Jibes, and Douses
Wed, 7th Jan 2009
By Ullmans Sails

Read it here

http://www.ullmansailssandiego.com/sailing-news-san-diego-southern-california.php?news_id=54

I think this a very useful article from them, do visit their websites; Its along article which I am very tempted to break them into smaller post, Going to be very useful if we are to train up new crews. What is missing in from article is gybing an asymmetrical spinnaker with a dip pole setting.

Anyway, I particularly likes this point

Pit Person:

1. Ease the pole down to the bow, quickly and smoothly, using the topping lift/uphaul. DO NOT hit the bow person in the head! This might make them very upset and cause dissention.

It doesn't hurt when the adrenalin is pumping, the jibe need to be hoist ,spinnaker to be drop; but you will feel it during the upwind.

Sean

RSYC Platu Club Series

Last weekend, we were given an opportunity to sail on aili's platu for the club series. She had some homework to finish therefore yew, Pik yi and I decided to race her boat for her, we have with us also Michael, ai li's regular crew.

Wind was really soft on Sunday around 2 to 6 knots perhaps. First race we got into a good start and took the lead right from the start, we manage to leave Tom ( the series leader) behind, and then we left them even further after the windward mark, as the other platus seem to have problem hoisting their spinnaker in the light air ,for the record there were a total of 4 platu out on the water . We finished race 1 with a bullet.

Race 2, wind got even softer and showing sign of dying off, we were off to a good start again, manage about a boat length lead from the nearest boat ,Tom. But then in the last downwind back to the finishing line, we got complacent;

Pik yi was reminding us about how good the club's fried squid was and kept repeating that we must have some when we get back; and then that is when a puff of wind came from behind, and brought Tom, leveled with us, and with the momentum he gained, he took us on line. We finished second in Race 2

Oh well, the weather were nice for sailing as the sun was kind in the afternoon and it started to drizzle a little on our sail back ; we did have the fried squid; but it could have tasted a lot better if we had won both the races. It was a great light workout for yew and I after we have not sailed since Thai platu Open. Pictures to come once I get it from pik yi.

Sean

July 22nd 2009 another Tsunami

The email message have been circulating in the internet; just received 2 mail regarding it just this morning,

Anyway I hope this just a myth, as usual I will Google around to check the authenticity of it;
did not manage to find anything reliable yet;

But looking at the email, I really doubt the authenticity of it since there isn't any source,
so I am not buying it,

Phuket Race week Starts on the 22nd July, this may brings down my air fares.


Sean

Platu 25: Dropping the spinnaker

In a windward leeward race, we always do the windward drop, this is how I usually do it, drop the pole , have someone man pole , hoist the the front sail and take the spin clew from the man pole guy, jump into the front hatch , call for drop, collect everything, out of the hatch and hike out for mark rounding [really important] ; have a quick look through the sail ties/halyard, call all clear to the helmsman.

Some may have some concern about jumping into the hatch; this is actually the match racing styles, but the platu hatch may be a little small for guys with big frame; so another workaround would to have the pitman go into the boat; where the bowman pass the spinnaker to the pitman waiting inside the hatch and he does the collecting while the bowman fire the spinnaker instead.

Preparing the drop,
This is crucial for a successful drop, things to make sure before a drop will be the down haul,check if it is in the way of hoisting the front sail; but since we are dropping the pole 1st, this will not be an issue;

so another thing to make sure are the the front sail sheets, we are doing a windward drop and going for a port rounding; therefore is always a good habit to move the sheets to the start board side of the hatch.




Sean

Monsoon Cup 2009 Qualifiers open for teams registration

The registration for the Monsoon Cup Qualifiers are now open, both the Asian qualifiers and Malaysian Qualifier.
You can read the news at the Monsoon Cup site.

Having being part of the winning team for the 2006 and 2007 Malaysian qualifier, and after missing out the 2008 Malaysian qualifier, I am more than keen to participate in this year's Malaysian qualifier.

In 2006

We have Tiffany (skipper), Rolf (Mainsail) , Jeremy(Pit Man), Yew(Trimer), and me on bow.

It was the first year the Malaysian Qualifier was held and we were proud to be the first Malaysian team to be involve in the World Match Racing Tour.




In 2007 , we have Chris with us instead of Rolf, we were better prepared than 2006 and won the Malaysian Qualifier again.





In 2008, the main Monsoon Cup event clashes with Phuket's King's Cup, in which some of us was committed to it, therefore we had to give 2008's qualifier a miss.

This year 2009. We hope to be part of it again, and hopefully win the Malaysian qualifier again.

This year's challenge will be lead by Jeremy Koo.




Sean

Platu 25: The Spinnaker pole

Initially I have wanted to write this post together with the post on Spinnaker Hoisting, but I decided not to, to avoid the post being too long, and also I want this post to focus on the setting of the spinnaker pole.

While I was in Thailand Platu open, I notice some of the platu boats have a very creative way of storing/ setting up the spinnaker pole. Their system are very similar to those use in a Laser2, where they store/launch the pole from the boom. So imagine this the pole stored beside the boom with the topping lift and also the down haul still attach. I see this as a, another way to take some strain of the bowman. With the pole now located on the boom, bowman will not be the nearest to it anymore, will the Pitman help?, or the pole is meant to sprung out of the boom by itself when the topping lift and down haul, are pulled, but both of the topping lift and down hauls are loose in the first place to put the pole beside the boom, so does that mean 2 lines have to be pulled? either ways this gives us an interesting thoughts to ponder. My first thought, this system could end up creating more work than the standard system, maybe not for the bowman, perhaps for the pitman.

I also notice that most of the platu boats have a fixed down haul. I can understand this given the design of the boat, but its still a big no no to me.

Why not a fixed down haul and also on why I understand them having the down haul fixed.
If you have sailed a few one design boat before you will notice not all have the same system. In a platu, the topping lift, the down haul, the spinnaker pole are set/hoist outside the front sail. While on some other boat ( lets call it boat B) the, the topping lift, the down haul, the spinnaker pole is set/hoist in between the 2 front sail sheet.

Lets imagine a scene, a typical one , windward mark port rounding, bear a way set, downwind, a jibe, a windward drop, and then to leeward mark port rounding.

With the above scene, Boat B would have change the down haul before the drop, so that the front sail is clear to be hoist. For more elaboration, after we hoist the spin, we drop the front sail on the port side, after a jibe, we will need the front sail to be hoist on starboard side en route to a port rounding, to do that, we will realize that the down haul is in the way, therefore we will need to un-clip the down haul, move the front sail to start board side and clip the down haul back, now the front sail is clear to be hoist. During the drop , we can hoist the front sail first, then drop the pole and drop the spinnaker.

On a platu if we did it the exact way on a boat B, we will find the topping lift inside the front sail, which is wrong.

So in a platu we normally do not change the down haul, instead during the drop we utilize a crew to act as a man pole, while we lower the pole 1st before hoisting the front sail, and dropping the spinnaker. This very much justify the fixed down haul, but in racing shits happens, in times we may be under pressure by another boat, and we will find the down haul getting in to our way at times, so in times, in those time we may find the needs un clip the down haul.

But sometimes, I do use the boat B way, on a platu; especially when we are under crew and do not have a Man pole. How do i deal with the topping lift inside the front sail? I un-clip it, and bring it outside during upwind, you may think tacking after mark rounding may be a problem before i sort out the topping lift, I overcome this by making sure the topping lift have enough slack and not lock, therefore when the boat tack, the front sail will be able to change side without the interference of the topping lift. It will just drag the slack of the topping lift aside.

Sean

Platu 25: Hoisting the Spinnaker.

With the last Platu Regatta still fresh in my mind, I am going to do some posting on hoisting and dropping techniques.

Its always good to be out racing; as the exposure will enables us to acquire new techniques.

Hoisting the spinnaker always seems relatively easy, and because of such view Bowman are expected to do it right and fast.

Where do we Hoist the chute from?

In Ocean Marina Yacht Club, Pattaya the Platu racer there seem to favor a hoist from the Cockpit, while I always hoist from the hatch; unless I did some improvisation on the last drop , Perhaps later I will do a post later on how Bowman improvise in different scenario.

Now back to the topic,
Putting myself in their shoes and having hoist a chute from a cockpit before, I could only see one clear advantage from hoisting from the cockpit, it put less strain on the bowman. Hoisting will be easier as there is less friction in the cockpit compares to the hatch, the chute is reachable and manageable, the Pittman will now be in charge of the drop, and there is no worries about water coming in from the hatch in choppy sea condition.

Why do i still favor a hoist from the hatch? I am going to take some of my words back, the only advantage I actually see on a cockpit hoist is that water does not comes in from the hatch. A hoist from the hatch will enables the spinnaker to fill in much faster, with the spinnaker already near the bow it will not take much time for the trimmers to brace the spin sheet and fly the chute. Strain or no strain we just have to deal with it. Flying the spin as soon as possible and getting the boat moving is our main priority. Water coming in from the hatch can be minimize by putting the spin completely inside, or a decent helm-ing .



Sean

Thailand Platu Open 2009

Last Weekend the 13th & 14th of March 2009, at Pattaya.
I joined Rolf for the Thai Platu Open.
We have with us Aili, Yew and David.

It was a rushing hectic weekend , as we flew in on a Friday Morning
and left on Sunday Evening, I got back to work on Monday morning thinking I need more weekends like this.

On Friday itself, we went on the water, to work out our crew work. After a few hoists and drops plus numerous tacking; we begins to feel more comfortable with our crew work, and were convince we are ready for race.

Like every Race day, Its always a race back to the bar; and we manage to do just that on Saturday and this is how we did it.

Day 1 , Wind speed at 7-12 knots, shifty
Race 1,
We started at the pin, with some shifts we manged to reach the windward mark 1st; we had awesome speed. But after the leeward mark, on the second upwind, we were complacent and a shift enables Scott to make ground and round the windward mark 1st on the 2nd leg.
We were tailing closely and pushing the boat hard,as we went close to the finishing line, they went for the pin while we went for the boat and we ended up losing by a whisker.

Race 2,
Rolf and Dave realize the wind shifted to the left, as we went for a port start at the pin, we were then yelled starboard by the whole fleet. we double tack twice to avoid 2 starboard boats as we stubbornly wants to stay on port. We manage to be the lowest and first boat port boat on course. Others may be too preoccupied to notice the occurring shift, avoiding starboard boats, and staying on starboard tack waiting waiting for another starboard boat to tack, they waited too long and hit the lay line. As the wind shifted more to our favor we manage a decent lead and end the race with a bullet.

Race 3,
We started on starboard . It was not one of those best start. we were late by 5 seconds, but position wise we were lucky, as some boats were OCS, and we were looking at, at least top 3 after the starting line. With some shifts and good boat speed, we manage to break from the fleet and round the windward marks 1st, On the second leg, the windward mark were moved due to the shift, and that further consolidate our position as others seems to be more content, playing safe following us, we then end the race with another bullet.

Race 4,
We started on starboard again, by now, the wind speed drop to around 7 to 8 knots; which is very good for us as our rival look more the heavier boat . We reach the windward mark 1st again commanding a decent lead, and went back 1st .

It was a great day for us, with 3 bullets out of 4 race.


Day 2,
10-17 knots ,Constant and not a single shift.

Race 5,
Call it a day, we were complacent. Scott covered us from the start. through out the race course we were basically in a tacking duel. Chris from the SMU managed a decent lead while we race it out with Scott for the second place. We lost the duel and ended up 3rd.

Race 6,
We were frustrated, again we did not manage one of those good start; and had Scott covering us closely from the start. As we play catching up, Scott managed to get a boat between us, and finish the race with the bullet; as we lost 2nd by a whisker a second time.

Race 7,
We basically blew our lead from Day 1, and are now down to the last race , as we are even on the score sheet with Scott. We thought we had a good start as we set off the start line; but were OCS, to make matter worst; we were already 7-8 boat lengths away from the line when we realize it.
We went back; and and tried to work our way up from the last place. 1st windward we were sixth, and then we push harder, hope for shifts to close up the gaps with fleet in front, by the leeward mark we were 5th; as we try to gain more boat lengths our effort were futile; as the race course ends with us finishing 5th.

Overall Results

	Sail	Boat	Skipper	Total
1	124	The Ferret	Duncanson,Scott	10
2	117	The StringRay	Heemskerk,Rolf	11
3	130	The Fox	Lim,Christopher	18
4	109	YachtPro	Razmilovic,Nils	18
5	120	The Weasel	Razali,Mohamad	33
6	103	Emma Mathilde XX	Jacobsen,Morten	36
7	125	Gulf Charters	Waldron,Ray	39
8	257	Pine Pacific	Yingsiri,Ithinai	40
9	122	Platu	Suyasin,Pote	43
10	112	Magic Dragon	Dover,Steve	58
11	114	Puma	,Kobayashi	62

Full Result @ http://www.omycsailing.com/platuopen09.shtml

Royal Langkawi International Regatta 2009

It has been weeks, since the Langkawi Regatta was over. It was a good regatta, everyone enjoyed themselves and was happy. But racing is all about result.

We came in forth overall, it was the worst result we had in recent years, wind speed was averaging from 17 to 20 knots, with the highest wind speed at 30knots. It was what we had hope for over the years only for the tide to be turned, the crew did not gel as soon as we hope for , and we fail to get to the start line on-time half of the series.

As the Series proceed, we manage to gain more consistency , start on the line, and ahead of lower handicaps boat. We re- gained our competitive edge , although our result did not improve much but we were getting much better corrected times and manage to break in to the top 3 twice.

Baby Tonga 99 Degrees E capitalized on the wind speed, managing 4 bullets, but they were hampered by a torn front sail and had to retire from 2 races . Thus, handing the series title to Skandia.com Endeavour of Whitby.



Full Race Results @ http://www.langkawiregatta.com/

Premier Cruising

Sail No	Boat	Name									Total	Drop	Score	Place
MAS 88	Skandia.com Endeavour of Whitby	Stuart Williamson (MAS)									14	4	10	1
MAS99	Baby Tonga 99 Degrees E	Antony Hastings (MAS)									25	7	18	2
JPN 777	Phoenix	Neils Degenkolw (DEN)									21	3	18	3
MAL2000	Mata Hari	Vincent Chan (MAS)									30	5	25	4
28000	Aquavit V	Helmut Schutte (GER)									40	6	34	5
SIN340	Rapscallion	Jeff Harris (MAS)									40	6	34	6

Sean