Berry Shine Yogurt Johnson Style!

Mike Johnson grabbed a ton of 1/2 off coupons at a new yogurt shop here n Pewaukee. Keep of the good work Mike.

Ice Optimist

With Bill Goggins, Harken CEO, on the factory tour.

That is a big block.

Harken tour cont...

Harken Factory Tour

Harken is throwing a party and open house tour for all of the Opti families. They placed this map at the entry for all the kids to indicate their hailing port.

Launching in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and liftoff

Tuesday April 30th

Team meeting today after practice.

Blowing 20+ Today so You Better Start Hiking.

We are still practicing.  Team Trials do not begin until Thursday.  The wind has been light the past few days but the story changes today.

The forecast calls for 20+ knots so no more placid lake sailing like the past few days.  Windfinder is calling for an average wind speed at 20 knots with gusts to 33 when they hit the water at 10 am this morning edging up to an average speed of 23 with gusts to 37 when they wrap up around 3.  My guess is they will shorten their time on the water so as not to fatigue themselves.  Hiking out in this kind of weather is strenuous.

What is hiking?  In sailing it doesn't involve a backpack and boots.  Wikipedia can explain it better than I can so here is an excerpt from wikipedia.com

In sailing, hiking(stacking or stacking out in New Zealand) is the action of moving the crew's body weight as far to windward (upwind) as possible, in order to decrease the extent the boat heels (leans away from the wind). By moving the crew's weight to windward, the moment of that force around the boat's center of buoyancy is increased. This opposes the heeling moment of the wind pushing sideways against the boat's sails. It is usually done by leaning over the edge of the boat as it heels. Some boats are fitted with equipment such as hiking straps (or toe straps) and trapezes to make hiking more effective.

Hiking is most integral to catamaran and dinghy sailing, where the lightweight boat can be easily capsized by the wind unless the sailor counteracts the wind's pressure by hiking, or eases the sails to reduce it. The heavy keel on larger keelboats means that it is practically impossible to capsize them due to wind alone, but keelboat racers will still hike to prevent unnecessary heeling, or leaning sideways to leeward, because the more vertical in the water the keel is, the more effective it is at keeping the boat moving in a forward direction and preventing it from drifting to leeward, slowing the boat due to drag, and potentially increasing the distance the boat must sail when beating. Improper heel creates a tendency for the boat to turn off course, necessitating a correction with the rudder, which also increases drag. Sails use wind most efficiently when they are at a proper heel, another reason for controlling heel.

Boyd hiking out in an effort to keep the boat flat.

Photos from Lake Pewaukee

Welcome to Lake Pewaukee!

This is the east side of the lake where the small village of Pewaukee is situated.

Boyd holding up the PYC burgee in front of the Race Committee Boats.

Yes you can pitchpole an Opti. Gotta be careful on the downwind!

Photo Credit: Tom Lord (it was his son after all)

Photo credit: Tom Lord

No wind. Hanging at the bar.

No wind. Kids are bored. Parents hanging at the bar at PYC.  The "Special" here is a Mount Gay Rum, little bit of lemonade, soda water and lime juice drink and it is quite good although Josh Chisari's (far left) bloody recipe is not bad either - he's been coaching the bar tender.

Pewaukee Yacht Club

Pewaukee Yacht Club is set along the picturesque shores of Lake Pewaukee.  The water is very clear and the homes along it are very nice.  Here is a 360 video I took with my iPhone yesterday from the dock.

Sail Strong!

Okay so I’ve mentioned Boyd’s team on this blog a few times.  What is this team he’s been practicing with over the last several months?  The name is Sail Strong run by Peter Strong.  This is different than summer yacht club team sailing.  During the summers, Boyd races on the Fishing Bay Yacht Club opti team.  FBYC hires top notch coaches each summer and the opti team practices six days a week and travels the CBYRA circuit and various USODA events (qualifiers remember?) so that the kids can compete in the various regattas.  Once summer is over, the coachs head home and most of the kids go back to school and forget about sailing until spring.  This is where a team like Sail Strong comes into play. 

What do you do if you want to continue year round competition campaigning for something like USNT?  You need a coach and you need a team of other like-minded opti racers with the same aspirations.  Boyd began training with Sail Strong over the winter in an effort to prepare for team trials.  Strong is based out of NY with ties to families and yacht clubs on Long Island Sound and Annapolis so most of the practices over the winter and spring occurred in those areas.  We spent time at Sea Cliff, Toms River and Annapolis during February, March and April with Peter Strong and the Sail Strong families as these opti sailors trained for team trials. 

Boyd will transition back to his FBYC opti team in early June but many of these Sail Strong sailors will continue on with Peter year round instead of with their home clubs.  The experience with Peter and the Sail Strong families has been tremendous and we’ve been extremely pleased.  You couldn’t ask for a better group of people and we are looking forward to spending one more week with them here in Pewaukee before summer commences and we join back up with our FBYC opti family.

Reese just rocks doesn't she?

What's up cool breeze?

Trapezoid

Here is the course layout the sailors will race this week.  It's called a trapezoid and it's the course you will see at all major Opti regattas.

Thank you Chesapeake Academy!

Taking time off of school for a week in order to go out to team trials isn’t as simple as spring break.  Boyd is a 6^th grader at Chesapeake Academy and between Math, Lit, Writer’s Workshop, Latin, Science, & Geography there is quite an academic load.  That's a good thing.  I love hearing how well prepared the CA kids are once they hit high school.  We hear it all the time from the parents of CA grads.

CA is incredibly supportive of Boyd’s sailing campaign and our Dean of Students, Julie Keesee, communicated with all of Boyd’s teachers well ahead of our trip.  We held a meeting with Boyd two weeks prior to our departure where each of his teachers gave him a package and his assignments so that he could stay current on his curriculum.  This allowed him to begin work on certain assignments before he even left which was a real plus given the demanding schedule he will experience this week.

We landed in Milwaukee a short time ago, rented a car, and drove over to the Pewaukee Yacht Club.  There Boyd threw on his dry suit, rigged his boat and launched with his Sail Strong team.  They will debrief after practice and after checking in with the USODA folks, getting measured, checking into the hotel, and grabbing dinner it will be at least 8pm.  Don't forget when we woke up this morning.

Point:  It’s going to be a grueling week and I’d like to send a big thank you back to the folks at Chesapeake Academy who helped us design a plan to keep Boyd on track with the curriculum while we are out here in Wisconsin at USODA team trials.  What a great school.

Go Ospreys!

Yikes that water is cold!

We just arrived at PYC and after a quick team meeting they are hitting the water for a 3 hour practice.

I am headed to the Wildwood Lodge to check in, grab Boyd's new Ullman sail that was shipped from the great folks at Latell Sailmakers (Thanks Jerry & Anne) and bring it back to PYC for measurement. The boats are weighed and spars, sails and blades are measured before these events to ensure all racers are conforming.

All aboard for Pewaukee

We loaded up the suburban at 3:30 this morning (sans decoys & waders) and headed for the airport. We are due to touch down in Milwaukee at 10 am. We'll grab our rental car and head for Pewaukee Yacht Club where Boyd will join his team for practice and I'll work on a real estate contract.

Red, White & Blue.... and don't forget GREEN! - Thursday April 25, 2013

So here is a  little more on the basics of Opti sailing and racing.  One of the questions we often get from people is how old does one have to be to race an Opti?  Well I guess technically you could be any age but the USODA rules state that you can only compete if you're under 15 years of age and all of the yacht clubs that host junior regattas conduct those regattas under the USODA class rules so there is consistency across the board.

There is no magic age to get into Opti racing but most kids seem to start out racing when they are about 8 years old.  Still there are plenty of kids who find Opti racing a little later in life like when they are way up there around 10 or 11.  Do eight year olds race against 15 year olds?  Well yes and no.  Do beginners race against old salts?  Sometimes.  So here is how that all works.

White Fleet:  Up to 10 years old
Blue Fleet:  11 - 12
Red Fleet:  13 - 15

Green Fleet:  All ages - the Green Fleet is for beginner racers (more on this in a bit)

So all of the Red, White & Blue Fleets race together on the same course and are scored on both an overall format as well as within their class.  This allows each age group (fleet) to be scored and awarded within their age group - Opti Red Fleet 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Opti Blue Fleet 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc etc - but also allows all fleets (all age groups) to be scored and awarded giving a younger, talented racer the opportunity to be recognized for beating older kids in a different fleet.

So for example a top notch young 10 year old racer who wins every race in a regatta would win 1st place for both the white fleet and the "overall".

Okay back to Green Fleet.  These racers are beginners and the regatta is held on a completely different course.  The regatta is scored but places are not awarded.  Instead all racers receive a participation award.  The commonly understood rule is that the bottom half of the fleet can be coached during the race.  The goal here is to get kids more and more interested in racing.  Once you start doing well, it's time to move up to the competitive red, white and blue fleets.

Make sense?  Good.  So how do kids end up finding this odd shaped little boat, start racing and end up trying out for the U.S. National Team in an effort to travel abroad to represent the U.S. at international competition at IODA events?  That's a great question and I have a feeling I'll be waxing on that quite a bit as this week unfolds but before I get into all that I think I'll post a few blogs on how it usually all gets started - yacht clubs, sailing schools, and just spending time on the water.  Eventually it just happens.

Slightly older than 15.

USODA Team Trials - What?

So what exactly are the USODA Team Trials?  First let's define USODA.  It stands for United States Optimist Dinghy Association.  It is the national class organization for the Optimist sailing fleet here in the U.S.

Team Trials is the annual event where Opti sailors have an opportunity to try out for the U.S. National Team (USNT).  How do you get an opportunity to try out?  You have to qualify at one of the USODA regional qualifiers or at the USODA National Championship.  Okay this all makes sense if you are a seasoned "Opti Parent" but for everyone else we probably need to take a few steps back.

As our family continues to wade deeper into Opti racing, I often think about writing an article for our club's newsletter providing a synopsis of Opti racing.  I remember when we got started with our children.  We did not have a clue.  Now four years later we feel like we have a better grip but just when we feel like we understand it all, we meet other parents who have been at this longer and we learn a little bit more.  My son, Boyd (12) and I leave in a few days for Pewaukee Yacht Club in Pewaukee, Wisconsin for the 2013 Opti Team Trials  This seems like an opportune time to start blogging about Opti racing in an effort to keep our friends and family apprised of our adventures at Team Trials and to shed some light on the opportunities Opti racing offers our young sailors who are just getting started in the great sport of sailing.

So here we go...