Faking It Better TV coverage of Sail Racing than..

[Castletine]

New nautical terms from Lucy

Good for Lucy and her entry into our 'posh' sport
I felt that although she learnt a lot from her experience, I learned a lot from her.
My team now incorporate the new expression on winning a competition of:
'Hurrray, we pi**ed it!'

Thanks Lucy - glad you're aboard the sport

 

[Opinionated]

Re: Clean air

You may be right, that is a tactical decision determined by balancing the loss by staying behind as she is, or two tacks and which is the paying tack, etc etc....

My point is that THIS LEVEL OF THINKING WOULD BE BEYOND HER !!!!

I think she called the tack, due to not liking to be behind (no balanced tactical thinking in that) and was lucky in that it turned out to be a good call. She got some other wind than them, and it was good stuff. She didn't even have to cross them with them in a port giving way to starbd, she was that far ahead.

This all started with someone suggesting that non-Lucy called the tack: my point was that it was a bad call, but turned good due to luck, and bloody good luck to her!

Of course, it IS possible that someone, behind her so-to-speak, saw a gust coming and tacked for it - but the other skippers were supposed to be red-hot, so I discounted that.

----------------------------

Taking some more of the meat of your posting... as a separate issue from Lucy...

if she took a tack from the paying tack (everything I have said is subject to that little 'if', so with wind balanced on both tacks ((((RARE!!!)))) this all doesn't apply)... then the boat that is behind who tacks to get clear air, then tacks back hoping to have the upper hand next time they cross is going to be very disappointed - they have just added to the gap between them and the leader - there is NOTHING, REPEAT NOTHING which will gain tehm the time lost in tacking twice and being on the losing tack for some indefinite length of time.

I have not read Marchaj, sorry, does that disqualify me from knowing anything about racing??????????


"If the port tack starts to become headed, great, the starboard layline is coming closer and further right you are from the fleet, the better"

I have a problem understanding what you meant - from your posting, I am sure you meant something other than what you wrote. Lucy tacked onto port. My point was that the behaviour of the experienced helms suggested that AT THE MOMENT SHE TACKED this was not the favoured tack. If the port tack was even more headed, how can that be better?

Many less experienced helms, even those that write books, are either not telling you or not prepared to tell you - about 'leverage'... the greater the separation between two boats, then the worse the loss if they both experience a shift.

Suppose you and another boat are really close together, say you are slightly behind cos you fell down through his bad air into a position 20ft behind him and slightly to leeward... the header arrives and you both tack, your position is roughly the same. Now recompute..... you and he are 200 yds apart, and both (unreal, but for maths purposes only, as one of you will get it first) get a header, and both tack together. The lead boat is now ahead by a distance proportional to the distance between you both. That is why top sailors keep in a relatively narrow cone going up the beat - they will lose all their lead if they are headed and allowed the followers to be too far away.

Try reading someone else, sounds like Marchaj not telling you all (may be wrong, may just be your reading of his book).


(I don't have to agree with YOUR opinions, but I'll defend your right to express them).

 

[Guest]

Re: We\'ve got to gind out about that tack !

Have to make a bit of a correction here, the crew on board were Global Challenge 2004 crew volunteers, which means they aren't professional crew, but of course their sailing experience varied.

 

[Opinionated]

Re: We\'ve got to gind out about that tack !

Fair enough - I thought the other skippers and crews, including hers, were all supposed to be top-notch. Probably doesn't make a lot of difference.

The programme said she was on her own with her crew, ONE of whom was 'in on it', but was there 'just in case'.

I am a dumb and naive sort of guy, so I believed this. I reckon if this ONE guy was to help her call the shots, then the rest of the crew would suss it out, and then they really are telling us porky pies!

We shall probably never know, but I want to believe that she was genuine as far as she went.

(I don't have to agree with YOUR opinions, but I'll defend your right to express them).

 

[Guest]

Re: Re Anyone offered her a job yet?

No, no-ones offered her a job yet, but the programme was only the other night!

 

[Opinionated]

Re: Clean air

Just re-read that... two boat lengths behind and TWO boat lengths to windward, getting bad air? No way, that is a controlling position (in anybody's book, including Marchaj, which I haven't even read!!).

I think you got carried away there......

(I don't have to agree with YOUR opinions, but I'll defend your right to express them).

 

[jimi]

KISS

Och dinnae make it so complicated, the other boats were under orders to get away from her in case she crashed into them, and she was trying to get away from them 'cos they looked too close. Happily it all worked out righr and she came through the finish line by accident. Thats what racing IMLE is all about!

 

[Opinionated]

Re: KISS

Och, Jimi... please do not complicate matters further by introducing TRUTH!!!!


(I don't have to agree with YOUR opinions, but I'll defend your right to express them).

 

[Guest]

Re: crew onboard

Well, everyone's crew was the same, just the skippers were professional. Except that she had a professional skipper onboard as well (has to be for legal reasons of course).

 

[Jacket]

Re: KISS

>Och dinnae make it so complicated, the other boats were under orders to get away from her

And to let her win- I'll bet money on it. Real life never turns out that nicely.

And in real life, could any judge be fooled by her after the rubbish she spouted at the interview they had with her?

 

[RachelAnning]

Challenge Business reply

Hello there from Challenge Business. Well, what a forum eh? I guess the best thing to do would be to ask Lucy what she thinks about all this herself. Correct?

She's coming down to see the team on Monday so I'll put her on and together we'll answer all your questions!

Regards and have a good weekend!

Rachel Anning (PR Manager)

 

[jamesjermain]

Ho! Ho! nm

.

JJ

 

[jamesjermain]

Good one!

Unfortunately I don't think I'll be within reach of a computer to take part

JJ

 

[Twister_Ken]

Marchaj

>Try reading someone else, sounds like Marchaj not telling you all<

Marchaj will tell you very little about racing, unless you have the intellect to apply what he does tell you. He wrote the seminal books on aerodynamics and hydrodynamics for yachts. That's why those who have read him (let alone those of us who have done a bit of racing) know that she was in dirty air. Look again at the video, you'll see her sails were producing very little power. If she'd stayed where she was she was going nowhere but backwards. She certainly wasn't going to climb over them to windward, nor dive under them to leeward. Her only option was to tack.

For me, what she did that was wrong was to hold that tack (although with the editing it wasn't clear how long she held it, nor how soon it was before the others tacked across). I'd have come back onto stbd when I was a few lengths upwind to stay in touch with the fleet, but do it with decent boat speed while they luffed each other to buggery and back. In heavy boats like those and the smooth seas, you'll lose very little speed through the tack, providing there are no cock-ups - like laddy's riding turn!

But like many others, I find it difficult to imagine that it wasn't all scripted anyway.

 

[cgull]

Re: Challenge Business reply

Did the judges really not know or recognise the , I thought well known, other skippers?

 

[Twister_Ken]

Let\'s face it...

...did you recognise the judges?

 

[themount2]

Re: Challenge Business reply

Hi Business Challenge.
I don't care whether Lucy became a sailing genius in a month or not. I was however totally impressed by how she became a more confident person for the experience. Whatever she does in the future she will achieve more than she would have done without the "Faking It" experience. Good luck to her and I hope I meet her someday on the water then I know she will have enjoyed it enough to be bitten by it.
By the way Lucy, nobody can hook their t**s over the daggerboard with a buoyancy aid on. Don't be too disappointed they looked fine to me!!!
BT

 

[dk]

My sentiments entirely. Why pick Emma as one of the mentors when they must have known how busy she was? And how damned rude to just leave Lucy alone while she hob-knobbed with her mates.

 

[Magic_Sailor]

Re: Challenge Business reply

What's she coming down for - out of interest.

Magic

 

[david_e]

Re: Challenge Business reply

Thanks for coming on line Rachel, we look forward to your reply.

IMHO it matters not a jot whether Lucy received advice or not on when & whether to tack. Fact is she was the skipper for the day and she took line honours, that is all that counts in the race. A good skipper will take advice from the crew and just because Lucy has only been sailing a month is irrelevant. Look at the Americas Cup, right/wrong decisions being taken all the time by the world's best, and they win.

The programme is there for general entertainment and learning and it achieved those objectives very well, we sailors should be thankful for that alone, can't believe there has so much pontification about it on here.

Lucy was superb, her focus and determination could be a lesson to many.

Quite a few of the other fakers have not shown this kind of resolve in less adverse conditions with much more support.

As for the absence of Emma and Ellen, they have well planned schedules I suspect, could it be that instead of them being absent, it was more a case of them being present when they were actually there. Besides, Lucy knuckled down even more when she realised she had to do it on her own.

Please let her know she is always welcome to come and sail with us at Pwllheli, as long as she doesn't tone her language down, none of your plum suckers there to contend with!