Preparing For Your First European Event

In the last few years, I've had the opportunity to coach several US teams leading up to and during their first international events, and as the US team begins arriving in Arhus, Denmark for the 29er Worlds, it's important for the new teams to be careful of the pitfalls of preparing for an international event.  The first mistake that I see many teams make every year, is trying to take shortcuts for the sake of simplicity.  With 200 boats on the line, there will often be 20-30 teams who have equal speed, boat handling, and tactical knowledge to you; of those 30 teams, half will usually take themselves out of the game through lack of preparation.  A few things you can do to ensure that you will be comfortable and prepared at the venue are:

• No matter what the forecast is, pack for all weather; bring everything from wetsuits, to board shorts.  Make sure that you have comfortable clothing for on and off the water. 
• Bring spare parts such as extra sails, shackles, pins, etc.  There is no guarantee that there will be a marine store within 30 minutes of the venue, so don't limit your tool box to 1-2 shackles, pins, blocks, etc.; bring lots of each in all different sizes
• Bring your own lines, wires, and anything else you can fit in a bag.  You don't want to spend the first few days getting used to charter equipment, so you should bring everything you can from your boat at home.  $50 for an extra checked bag is nothing compared to the time and money wasted by not being 100% prepared on your first day of European training.
• If you cannot bring your own lines (ISAF Youth Worlds for example), try to find out what the stock lines will be, and start practicing with them on your boat at home prior to the trip.

Here is a packing list of things you should not forget at a European event (or any other event!)

The second mistake that most new US teams make is failing to prepare for the mental aspects of sailing in a large fleet.  With so many teams who are so similar in skill level, "pecking orders" rarely get established even by the end of the regatta, so it is incredibly important to treat each point equally, and just keep making good decisions and let results take care of themselves.   Too often, US sailors who are fast, smart, and good at boat handling get frustrated when less experienced teams beat them.  Frustration changes their decision making process and results tend to spiral downward from there.

As you pack your bags for this season's European 29er events, be sure to avoid these two major mistakes!

Warnemuende Week Champions

For the last 3 days, 29er HP A-Team members Campbell D'eliscu and Connor Kelter have been battling with international teams from Australia, Hong Kong, and Germany at the Warnemuende Week in Germany (also Warnemeunde Week), and when racing was cancelled today for strong winds and huge seas, Campbell and Connor ended up on top, winning the tie breaker against fellow Americans, Duncan Williford and Matt Mollarus. Despite the abandoned racing, the Americans headed out to get some big breeze practice ahead of the 29er World Championship in Denmark at the end of the month. Be sure to read Campbell's full wrote up on the week, and follow his other adventures on his blog at www.campbelldeliscusailing.com.

Congratulations Campbell and Conner!! Awesome way to open a European season!

Results can be found by clicking here

Trick Your Ride

  Bungee attached to the floating block

1. Spin bungee uptake: If you don’t have this on your boat, you’ve probably seen it before.  It’s a bungee that takes up slack in the spin halyard when the kite is down.  To rig this system, tie a bungee to the floating block for the jib sheet, then run it back underneath the thwart, through a block that you tie to the aft most support for the middle toe rail, and tie the end to a floating ring or block, which the halyard should run through.  The idea is  that when you ease the jib sheet around the top mark, the bungee goes slack allowing all of the halyard to pay out.  Alternatively, tie the first end to the pole launching block so that when the pole goes out,  slack is created in the bungee.


2. One pull adjustable bridle height: Instead of having to adjust both sides of your bridle to get the right height, try rigging the below system so that one sliding splice controls both sides.  In the picture, the oval in the bottom left corner is the sliding splice.

3. Magical shrink tubing: Lines don’t get caught on it!!!! It’s so much better than springs or rubber things.

   

4. Normal trap bungee: Don’t go in front of the mast or around the bow.  The bungee is the perfect length if it’s barely tensioned when it’s  not hooked on to anything.

5. Bic pen spin halyard roller: Put a bic pen around the bungee that prevents the spin halyard from re-cleating.  It protects against chaffing from the spin halyard on the bungee.

6. Spin pole retrieval knot: Tying a knot inside of the spin pole makes it so that when you douse the kite the pole retracts all the way.











7. Tape hooks: Tape the control line hooks so that they don’t fall off while you’re sailing.

8. Jib head safety shackle: Put a small shackle around the jib halyard and the forestay to prevent the white plastic piece at the top of the jib from coming off when you pull tension on the jib halyard.











9. Remove spin pole eye: The metal spin pole eye, always gets caught on the double block. To fix this, just drill out the rivets for the eye, and use the top hole to tie the line through. Most new boats come like this now I believe.








10. Longer bails: Make your bails long enough that you can drop all the way to horizontal when you’re back in the foot strap.  The stock lines aren’t long enough.

11. Beads on pole preventer: Put beads on the spin pole preventer to reduce friction in your sets.

12. Spin sheet block bungee: To prevent the spin blocks from falling over without running the risk of getting lines caught on the block, use bungee to bungee the block to  the chain plates.  Tennis balls or springs work, but lines often get caught on the balls or springs.