Leinster Championships at last a success story

The re-run of the Leinster Championships were held on the weekend of the 5^th & 6^th of September.
The sunshine was missing this time around but luckily enough so was the fog !

PRO Harry Gallagher and his team managed to get a full series of 6 races completed.
This was a first for a regional this year.
Congratulations to all the winners full results can be seen at
http://www.iodai.com/live/results/

Laura Dillon, Irish Optimist Champion in 1991, was on a jury boat at the Leinsters on Saturday. She observed lots of things that sailors might think about in their efforts to improve. Here are her thoughts from the day

Sitting position – both upwind and downwind, many sailors are sitting too far aft. Sailors should sit further forward so that the front of the boat just touches the water

Body positioning – body weight should then be used fore and aft to ride over the waves and ensure that the bow does not hit into every wave. It is important to hike over the top of the waves upwind to gain windward height in choppy conditions. Some sailors were very effectively hiking and bailing (pumping the boat to windward upwind) – although some people need to watch that this is not done too excessively

Mainsheets in tight upwind - Sail should be in just over the leeward corner of the boat when sailing upwind. I noticed that many sailors had their mainsheets out too far

Heeling the boat more downwind - Most people are not heeling the boat enough to windward down the runs – windward gunwale should be almost touching the water (this reduces the wetted surface area of the hull and raises the sail height)

Pumping – most sailors were not pumping much if at all. Remember you are allowed to pump once per wave or per gust and this can really initiate planing. I would recommend sailors do pump more on the offwind legs. The pumping of the sail should be combined with forward and aft body movements (entire body should slide forward and back – but not too aggressively!) to help initiate planing.

Sprit position - many sailor’s sprits were too low creating diagonal creases on the sail

Kicker adjustment - I did not see many sailors adjusting their kicking around the windward mark and then retightening at the leeward mark. This helps control required leech tension

No gybing on knees - Some sailors are gybing on their knees. Please don’t as you do not have as much control. Please stay on your feet through the gybes

Tide – most sailors were not allowing for the effect of tide on the downwind legs. On the runs, almost everyone was sailing in a big banana shape, when in fact they should have gybed on the windward mark and sailed straight down the rhumb line (obviously at times other factors, eg. gusts, other boats, etc. might change this decision). In addition, at the windward mark, many sailors did not allow for the effect of tide and had to do 2 tacks within the zone (this is always dangerous coming in on port in the zone)

Sail on/near the rhumb line on reach and run legs – most sailors were sailing a lot of extra distance on the reaches and runs, due to sailing a large curve – rather than trying to sail down the rhumb line (the straight line between the 2 marks). A lot can be gained by sailing low (if clean air can be kept)

Watching for gusts – the wind was very gusty and patchy. It is very important to always watch for the gust. Gust information, needs to be used tactically, in addition to looking for the lifts and headers (hopefully using a compass), watching where your competitors are and deciding where the tidal advantage is – to determine where you want to position yourself on the race course

Congrats, great sailing and good luck!

Laura