Laser Trophy and Beyond

Hey guys,

Since I'm stuck doing duty in camp, I thought I might as well use my "free" time to update on the second of the two events I did during my lull period.

Laser Trophy began on a good note the week before with MINDEF finally giving me FPUL (Full Pay Unrecorded Leave) for the event, hence signalling my official induction into the sportsman scheme.

Buoyed by the possibility of taking more leave in the future, I headed into the event with high spirits and the first day reflected that mood. In about 8-13 knots, which is by many standards beyond Singapore's typical conditions, I started the first race poorly, unable to get a clear lane of the start forcing me to compromise tactics in return for clear air. Eventually, I only could find clear air on the left of the fleet and to my dismay, the wind clocked right slowly. By the top mark I was 9th which is pretty deep considering that it was only a fleet of 30 boats. However, the reach saw me catch up to the stern of Mark Wong's boat and an average downwind saw me overtake him and I started the next upwind at the rear end of the top 8. Determined that the right side was in phase for the time being, I took my chances and hiked my ass off as I headed to the right of the fleet and was rewarded with a slow persistent right shift that saw me round the top mark in 5th. With a fairly difficult chop, I hardly made any gain on the downwind with only a small and short good in-phase period near the bottom that saw me overtake Vic and round just behind Rajesh from India. Again I was fortunate on the last reach as whilst Vic overtook me, she and Rajesh collided allowing me to gain back to 4th with Vic's penalty. In the end, I was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and saw the result as a rather solid start to the event.

Race 2 saw deteriorating conditions with the race started in 5-9 knots and with me rounding the committee boat after poor judgement 30 seconds before the start. In hindsight though, this proved to be beneficial as the poor start made me immediately tack out to the right for clear air and 30 seconds later I found myself in a good lane with 4 knots more wind than the rest of the fleet allowing me to get back into contention and into the top 3. A rather conservative remainder of the upwind saw me round the top mark in 2nd and I quickly worked on catching Keerati (Thailand) who was in front by about 5 boat lengths. Though my first downwind was pretty solid and better than the previous race, Keerati matched my speed and still rounded ahead before the following work. Again rather conservatively, I protected my 2nd place instead of attacking and was punished with Keerati opening an unassailable gap whilst another Thai girl and Vic caught up right to my rear. The following downwind was also stressful as they were right on my tail and the lighter winds made it difficult to catch waves properly. This was also followed with the Thai girl getting stronger more consistent wind on the right during the last work that saw her overtake both me and Vic dropping me to 3rd at the top mark. However, a good solid downwind in which I chose broad reach over by-the-lee, allowed me to regain and finish in 2nd with the thai girl and vic close behind.

Race 3 saw the wind pick back up to conditions similar to Race 1. The start was perhaps the best of my day thus far and a solid first work that saw a distinct line of gust benefit the left side of the fleet saw me and Benedict open up a clear lead at the top mark with Benedict leading. The remainder of the race was pretty straightforward with myself overtaking Benedict on the reach and extending my lead every subsequent leg to win the race by half a leg from Vic and Keerati.

Race 4 with 7-9 knots, saw me experiencing cramps and muscle aches from both the long day and the lack of food I had throughout the day. But nonetheless, I was determined to end the day on a good note and started the race fairly well, and again head left to get into the better line of pressure. By the end of the first work, I was within the top few of the fleet, rounding the top mark in 3rd behind Rajesh and Keerati. The first downwind saw the three of us pull up a big lead on the group behind led by natthawut also from thailand. the next three legs proceeded without much incident with myself overtaking Rajesh and Keerati still leading the race. However, on the final work, Keerati's vang snapped and during the 20 seconds he spent trying to fix it, both me and Rajesh overtook him and the race finished in that order.

By the end of day 1, I lead the standings by 1 point from Keerati and felt pretty confident considering this was the first of my two Asian Games Trials

Scott 4-2-1-1 8pts

Keerati 2-1-3-3 9pts

Rajesh 3-10-6-2 21pts

Victoria 6-4-2-12 24pts

Seng Leong 1-12-5-7 25pts

revival

hey guys,

since this blog has been dead for a while, i dont expect many to see it but well, i plan to use it as a sailing journal for my journey to an OLYMPIC MEDAL. yes, I realize the goal is quite far-fetched and unattainable at the moment, but i'm determined to get there. other than sailing i only have a few issues to raise. university is becoming a slight pain, i got accepted by warwick and sydney university and both are very far apart. so prob gonna take the next few months to think about which one i want.

anyway back to sailing.

since my last update i have only taken part in 2 competitions:

Sail Sydney (SIRs) 5-8 December 2009

Laser Trophy 2-6 June 2010

For SIRs, it was a tale of many ups and downs. what was a last minute decision to fly down to sydney and participate turned out to be a great 3 days, ruined by a HORRIBLE last day. the first day saw 2 races held in between watson's bay and rose bay with a shifty and gusty 5-9 knots easterly. having not sailed the laser for 3 months prior to that. i started the first race horribly, being completely out of phase on the first beat and forced to compromise tactics to find myself a clear lane. ended up at the top mark in about 25th (out of 50+ boats). to make matters worse, i had to do a penalty a the top mark for a rule infringement, dropping me back another few boats. an average downwind saw me catch a few before sailing a very solid second upwind on the left side whilst 90% of the top 20 played the right. i ended up 4th at the top mark and pretty satisfied with the catch up. by the second downwind, i got back into the groove and overtook 2 boats whilst extending the gap to the boats behind. had a solid last upwind and downwind to finish 2nd behind vic who sailed a brilliant race.

the second race started similarly, with our fleet clashing with the usual sydney harbour saturday traffic. this caused me to make many unnecessary tacks on the first beat forcing me left when i needed to head right. i ended up just outside the top 10 at the top mark in about 15th after catching a few with a good left shift. the first downwind was pretty solid and caught a few gusts that took me into the top 10 rounding the bottom gate in 9th. on the 2nd upwind, i tried to take a small risk by heading left of the fleet and it payed off significantly with a good strong left shift persistently developing through the beat, ended up 4th at the top mark about 15 boat lengths behind the top 3 and just leading a group of about 7 boats behind me. the second downwind was the making leg in my race, by sailing low, i caught wave after wave at excellent angles and reasonable pressure that saw me catch up to the tail of chris jones who was 3rd and opening up a 20 boat length lead on the guys behind giving me an allowance for more risk on the last upwind. the final beat saw the wind pick up slightly to about 12 knots and oscillating regularly, i got into phase and with a final good right hander, i reached the top in 3rd just behind chris jones and about 5 boat lengths ahead of vanessa dudley who was 4th. the final downwind again saw me regain my groove and sailing one of the best downwinds i've had in sydney to make up a 10 boat length gap, overtaking and winning the race from megan de lange. ended up with a 2-1 scoreline and an outstanding start to the event with the 2nd boat overall about 7 points back.

day 2 of SIRs saw an afternoon schedule for the radials and with a steadily building breeze that ended up about 15 knots by the start of the first race. with choppy conditions and a geographical left shift of the shoreline, i had a reasonable start heading left and playing the shifts before taking a big left shift all the way into the center of the course. however, the left shift i was on persistently went further left and by the top mark i had lost a lot of boats and ended up in about 11th. good downwinds saw me, vic and elizabeth catch boats to round the bottom gate in the top 10 and back onto the upwind. this time, i played left more but suffered a little due to lack of sailing fitness causing me to loose boat speed. i did make a bit though and ended up 8th at the top behind liz who was 6th but ahead of vic who had dropped to about 12th. the second downwind was again good and by the bottom mark i had caught up with liz and another boat to round 6th but far behind the top 5. knowing that i had to maintain my position, i was quite defensive and with the building breeze i decided to just bang left and do a "one-tacker" to the mark, it didn't turn out too good with liz heading further left than me and overtaking me causing me to end up 7th in the race.

the second race of the day had a similar start with an average upwind rounding the top in 9th before sailing a blinder of a downwind with vic to round the bottom mark 2nd and her in 3rd behind chris jones who was pretty fast and solid the whole day. the rest of the race was pretty straightforward with shaky upwinds and solid downwinds and i ended the race in 2nd, pretty shacked and worn out.

the final race of the day was sailed in about 18 knots, and i had another average start heading left before getting stuck in the fleet. unfortunately, a whole row of starboard boats kept forcing me back towards the shoreline and with the little space left, i intended to duck a boat to no avail as a gust hit simultaneously causing me to capsize and upon uprighting, i was left in the bottom 5. i tried to redeem the upwind by heading right and managed to get back to the top mark in a dismal 30th. i then went on to catch about 10 boats on the downwind and another 10 on the following two upwinds after playing the right side and ended the race in 9th.

hence after day 2 i had a 2-1-7-2-9 scoreline and was 2nd overall 7 points behind chris jones who had a 6-3-1-1-3.

the third day saw similar conditions to day 1 but with the forecast for an afternoon sea breeze, i was keen on getting as many races in the light stuff as possible. after a small delay, the first race got under way with the right shoreline providing many right shifts all the way up the course up till the top mark which for the first time was layed quite deep into watson's bay. after a very long beat being mostly in phase i got round the top in 7th, with the top 10 quite closely bunched up. the first downwind saw a dying breeze and with that liz surged forward rounding the bottom mark in 2nd and myself in 4th. the final upwind then saw both of us playing the right hand side of the course and making boats with liz leading at the top mark and myself in 3rd. however the final downwind saw liz getting yellow flagged and dropping to 2nd as i still remained in 3rd.

the last race of the day saw the wind swing far left and build up to a 12-14 knot start with a very long port tack to the top mark. choosing to start in the middle and to tack away early, i succeeded and tried to hike my butt off the port tack but with slight knee pain, faltered in speed towards the end. this ended up as a crucial factor as i lost a few boats when i got back onto starboard tack and rounded the top in 5th. a very poor downwind (that turned into a reach) saw me try to go low but ended up being rolled by about 4 boats who had gotten into the new breeze first, rounding the bottom mark in 9th behind vic and liz who were both in the top 5. the last upwind then saw the breeze die quite a bit, and remembering a similar situation in the previous year's SIRs, I chose to head left of the fleet near the coast and got rewarded by a line of gust that only me and another boat got. this caused us to just sail past most of the fleet into the top 3. the wind then stabalised again causing me to finish 3rd in front of vic in 4th and a poor liz who had lost alot by heading right and finishing in 37th.

by the end of the day i had regained the event lead by 2 points with my scoreboard reading:

2-1-7-2-9-3-3 and chris jones with 6-3-1-1-3-9-6. we were in turn about 20 points ahead of 3rd placed ben franklin.

despite my strong performances on the first three days, a delayed start on the final day meant that i had to forgo it to catch my flight back to singapore. a consequence of MINDEF not approving me another day's worth of leave to come back a day later. i ended up with a DNC in the final three races and 14th overall.