Gulf Coast Championships, May 2-3, 2015

[Ed "Buttons" Padin, Class Administrator]

FROM THE MIDDLE TO THE TOP – Lessons learned at the GYA Opening Regatta
Shared by Michelle Lee

It was my boat, but credit definitely goes to my team, not me personally.  :-)

I wanted to support the Vipers in the Gulf Coast bid, so I registered the boat for the GYA Championship knowing none of my crew could make it.  During the Sarasota and Miami regattas I met and liked Barb and Henry Amthor so I invited them to come down and sail with me at GYA Champs.  They said yes, but at the last minute, Barb couldn't go so we substituted one of Henry's friends from the A Cat fleet - Dustin Romey. Dustin and Henry are not only rock stars, but they are incredibly patient and willing to teach. 

We had a fantastic time!  Things on the boat were relaxed and friendly, while still being prepared and carefully choreographed.  I loved every minute of it and learned a ton.  I took multiple pages of notes.  Henry did most of the skippering and after he started us on the right track and we were all in the groove, we rotated who skippered for the rest of the races and each took turns in the different roles.  To my surprise, I even got a bullet when I was skippering.  :-O

Guess they had fun, too, because right after it was over, we decided to make it an annual team trip so we're already planning on coming back to do it all again next year.  Also, we're adding A Cats to the Sarasota Winter Series and Dustin and his A Cat friends are already making arrangements to come join the Sarasota party.  They'll fit well with the Vipers.

Henry is a big believer in boat prep - says a lot of races are won in the parking lot - and boat tuning, so it was a big compliment when he said my boat was nicely set-up and he made very few changes.  I told him that I followed the Peter Beardsley philosophy of boat prep.  That definitely came into play in race 6 when the overall scores were still very close and the boat that was in the lead in that race had an issue with their spinnaker that took them out of first place that race.  Not having any boat equipment issues was a big factor for us.  (I'm hoping this means that the local fleet will stop teasing me so much about the amount of time I spend working on my boat.)  But sails weren't as big a factor; we had the oldest sails of any of the top 5 boats - 2 year old Ullman main and jib plus a newer North spinnaker.

The other places where Henry and Dustin excelled were in boat handling, team psychology, and in using the compass on the downwind legs.  As you've said, if your team has solid boat handling it allows you to be focusing on the big picture, not keeping the boat in control or getting out of a jam.  Even though the three of us hadn't sailed together, Dustin and Henry had sailed together and to solidify our teamwork we went out the day before the regatta and went through maneuvers until the sun set.  That was great because the next day we knew the boat was ready and we all knew what we were doing so were relaxed and ready to be alert for wind shifts and strategic moves that had to happen.

The team psychology theory was very interesting and effective.  The middle crew acted as the manager of the boat, not just calling wind shifts and tactics, but also setting the tone and making sure the team felt supported, relaxed and optimistic.  There were times when we were in bad shape (like the very bad start I got during the second time I was at the helm), but the middle crew never let on that we were in trouble, instead keeping a calm tone and talking about the moves we were going to make and that we were "fine."  Keeping the focus on how to work things out and not wasting energy being angry, disappointed or embarrassed was a huge help and we did improve quite a bit.  That race was a once around, so quite short, but we ground back from passing sterns at the start - to finishing 4th; we think if it had been a twice around like all the other races, we had a good shot at working up even further. 

OK, this is probably more than anyone ever wanted to know so I'll stop soon, but I'm still very happy and excited about what a fun weekend it was so am bubbling over with enthusiasm.  Fort Walton YC and Deb and Craig Wilusz were gracious hosts, it was good to have Bill from Sail22 and Rondar's Dan Tucker there to support the fleet and we met all sorts of fun people.  I got to sail with people I liked, we had a great time and I learned all sorts of new things.  It just couldn't have been a better weekend. 

Looking forward to continuing to learn and meet more of the fleet. 

Cheers,
Michelle

[Jason Hyerstay]

Great write-up! The sharing spirit of the Viper 640 class is amazing.

[Craig Wilusz]

Viper 640 Demo Days at Buccaneer Yacht Club (AL) during the Spring Regatta. May 16-17th, 2015. Two New Viper 640's available for demo, and fun sailing during the event. The Gulf Performance Sailing regatta support trailer will be on site with Zhik gear, Harken, Marlow Ropes, Velocitek, Eelsnot products, and the Zim 15, Zim 420, and Zim Opti on display.

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