Hi all, very excited for nice (not steady) breeze today. Per usual, let’s try to be dressed and rigging on the front of the dock at 6pm for a quick briefing. Everyone’s work in the past in this regard has been super helpful for our good race practices so far.

We will start with a blind-fold sailing drill. Rig, and get out past the worst of the traffic, and then sail out to our course area near the Harvard Boathouse with the skipper blind-folded. This will require the crew to do lots of communication and explaining where to sail, how to trim, etc. Please be prepared to remove your blindfold if necessary, and perhaps have a safe-word for the crew (“help” is pretty good). We’ll have a short windward/leeward course set up, and you can do a lap of that, and then rotate skipper and crew.

Our second drill will be rabbit starts. These consist of a countdown start near a leeward mark or “pin” buoy. The designated “rabbit” boat will round that buoy to port at about 15 seconds remaining, and begin sailing on close-hauled on port tack. Other boats can start on starboard tack between the pin and the rabbit. Note that the rabbit has right of way even though they are on port tack, and you will need to duck them in order to start.  Please see this .gif for an animated example of a rabbit start: https://www.dropbox.com/s/68rhgm63w5pctnc/Rabbit%20Start%201.gif?dl=0

Lastly, we’ll do some pursuit races. I will set up a triangle course (we NEVER get to do those!) with a windward mark, a wing/gybe mark, and a leeward mark. We’ll do a follow the leader by ascending or descending sail number into the windward mark, and the goal is after rounding that mark to pass as many boats as possible. The race will go from the windward “start” to the wing, to the leeward, and finish back at the windward mark. This drill can force more experienced sailors to pick their way through the pack of the fleet, and give less experienced ones some time sailing towards the front or middle of the pack.

We do have one newly red-rated sailor who is just becoming a regular who is looking to crew only, so if someone wants some extra time at the helm, you can pair up with her. See you all at 6!