Jesse and Zander Kirkland are back in the States regrouping after their immersion training in the Bahamas. Zander Kirkland said, “What an experience it was for us; not only was the sailing time great with Zack's oversight, but we were able to watch up close all the top guys sailing the boat”.
“The results were as expected, very rough, we had more did not finish’s than actual scores 8 to 6 finishes!” continued Kirkland. “The learning and the moments of performance was what we were after. The majority of the did not finish’s were due to breakdowns from collisions with other boats (most of them were arguably not our fault), for only 2 of the did not finish’s were caused by us getting too far behind because of capsizing. These 6 breakdown did not finish’s taught us the importance of avoiding collisions at all costs and the need to have extra sails and parts ready to go when things break. These boats are lightly built and rigged and so tend to break easily when there are collisions or wipe outs”.
Kirkland>b> pointed out the things the brothers were happy about the event:
1) STARTING: Slowly working on the time/distance of the 49er in the pre-start and we were close to getting some really good starts. Jesse is quickly picking up the feel of maneuvering the boat on the line and we are working on our handwork with the mainsheet and jib sheet as we accelerate off the line.
2) Overall rigging set up of the boat. The boat is running better than ever and making our lives easier after seeing how our competitor's run things.
3) Our straight line speed. When we are not distracted by boat handling issues and are able to concentrate on our speed, we have found that our speed is very solid. Upwind, Jesse does a good job focusing on boat speed, while I work on the mainsheet trim, doing my best to keep the boat balanced and at maximum speed.
4) Lots of boat handling practice. Most of our races were 4 laps, an extremely high number of spinnaker sets and douses, which translates to 12 sets and 9 douses over the course of a 3 race day. The shifty breeze also made sure were taking a bunch on the beats and by the end of the event, we were coming across the boat quicker. Also we are learning how to sail the boat downspeed during the pre-start in good breeze, which is a skill we just learned at the event (because we had never done a start before we got to the Bahamas!). This is important because it not only conserves our energy for the racing, but it allows us to set up properly for the start. It is a tricky art with those giant sails, dragging wings and the small rudder!
5) Zack's Coaching. Zack was great for our first event; he not only got our boat set up properly and made significant improvements to our boat handling, but he introduced us to class stalwarts and oriented us to the class. His knowledge of the boat and how to manage the championship was a huge resource.
6) Meeting New Friends in the class. We met some very experienced sailors in the class and other "49er Freshman", who like us have much work to do before entering the upper stratus of the class could be a reality. There is a certain amount of bonding you do with these fellow "freshman"; as you laugh/comiserate about your wipe outs and your position on the scoreboard! The synergy between us should power us through this tough stretch on the learning curve and take us all higher!
|
