Day 1 - Thailand Platu Open 2010

Hi guys,

I had a great sailing day for we won all our races today! Wind was blowing about 10-15 knots.

Race 1, we didnt had the best of start as we were luff up during the start and we thought we were over the line, we came back, and by then we were the second last boat.
We caught up during the upwind, and manage to take the lead at the leeward mark!


Race 2,

We didnt have a good start, was sandwiched by 2 to 3 boats during the start ,hitthe top mark in 3rd, then we managed to steal the lead in the downwind,

Race 3,

Was the best start of the day, we lead from the start to finish.

Race 4,


Had a good start, half way through the course, had about 4 boats crossing us, so we were about fifth or sixth, but managed to recover and rounded the top mark second, and took the lead again in the downwind.


Thats all !!!


Sean

Thailand Platu Open OD Champioanship 2010

We had a strong showing last year 2009 finishing 2nd overall!. This time we will try harder!
Its going to start tomorrow I am taking my laptop there this time around,
will post updates at the end of everyday =)

11th March (Thursday) - 08:00-20:00 Registration, weigh in and practice course

12th March (Friday) - One Day Sponsors Regatta -

08.00-09.15 Registration

09.15 Skippers' Briefing

11.00 First warning signal of the day (3 races planned)

17.00 Reception and Awards at Ocean Marina Yacht Club

13th March (Saturday) - OPEN Race Day 1

08.00-09.15 Registration

09.15 Skippers' Briefing

11.00 First warning signal of the day (4 races planned)

14th March (Sunday) - OPEN Race Day 2 -

11.00 First warning signal of the day (3 races planned)

17.00 app. Awards Ceremony at Ocean Marina Yacht Club

November 2009 till Now March 2010 - RMSIR , RLYC, Straits Regatta, ETF

dear blog, ppl

I apologize for not updating enough, especially year end and start of the year is always full of sailing events!

Frankly I was disheartened, for sailing result isn't up to the standard we set. so this is going to be short.

I left out some posts, They are

The Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta 2009 -November
It was just before the Monsoon Cup qualifier,the regatta just got tougher this year, the sea was pretty rough this time around and the wind was blowing up to 30 knots, had a good regatta competing against kukukerchu the eventual class winner, EOW skandia and Happy Endings.


The Royal Langkawi International Regatta 2010 - January
Not much entries this year, but nevertheless a great regatta where on Mata Hari we didn't sailed with our regular crew, We had new crews and also shifted some of the regular crew around, it brought in some enthusiasm to our Team but it wasn't enough to win our class, our new crew includes Elena Tan , Tom(Rizal) , Bulat (Izzad), Syed. They did a fantastic job despite sailing first time on the boat.

The Singapore Strait Regatta - January
This was my first Singapore Strait Regatta, and it was held in Batam island, Indonesia.
Was invited by Yazid and Jun to join them on Rip Jaw, a beneteau first 42.7. I definitely had a great time there, had my first cigar, and plenty of white wines. The crew are a good bunch to sail with.
Manage to also gained some carbon fibre knowledge from Jeremy. And despite the freak accident I had there. I was really glad, I took time off work to join them.


Everything that Floats (ETF) - March
This is one of the fun regattas that my club Royal Selangor Yacht Club throws every year to invites new sailor into the club. This time I brought some friends ! I had Lindsay, Ronan, Sheila , Tien ,Dansyee with me. Now I am warmed up before heading to Platu Open tomorrow with Rolf ,David , Ai li and Yew!

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

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!!

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.

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

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

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

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