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Human Interest
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The Vancouver Island (VI) Star Fleet and the Royal Victoria Yacht Club proudly hosted a pre-season clinic on the weekend of March 30th and April 1st to help local and district sailors dust off the cob-webs and begin preparation for what will hopefully prove to be a big year for the fleet and district. Vancouver Islands’ rival the English Bay fleet in Vancouver (the city) will be hosting the 2007 North American Championships in August this summer.
New VI Fleet Captain Brian Huse was fortunate to ascertain the services of professional sailor, Richard Clark who happens to call Victoria home when not abroad. Originally a Finn sailor, Richard’s list of dinghy and keel boat accomplishments is extensive and includes several Olympic campaigns, a Volvo Ocean Race victory, and more recently coaching in the Star class. Richard’s knowledge and insights, coupled with his enthusiasm and easygoing nature set the stage for both a fun and informative weekend.
The Vancouver Island Star Fleet, although having a rich past history, had been dormant for several decades until resurrected in 2000 by second generation star-boat enthusiast Rick Townshend. Initially a sub-7000 fleet, the class took off quickly in Victoria. Of great helping during these growing years was the endless support of District 6 secretary Foss Miller, who despite a lack of much competition still made the trek north and across the ferry to the island to offer his support to the infant fleet.
Fortunately, many of the local dinghy and keel boat sailors took notice of the great Star boat racing on Wednesday nights and were soon enquiring as to how they could divest themselves of their PHRF obligations and come join the fun. Alas, the fleet began to grow. Malcolm Smith soon took up the charge, adding Rick Peters’ number to his speed dial and logging the miles up and down Interstate 5 to California, dragging a range of largely 7000 series boats north. Other early fleet promoters included Dave Ockenden, Justin Border, and Dunnery Best, who is now challenging Malcolm for the dubious “most boats owned” title.
A number of the islands best sailors also joined the ranks, including: Jeff Eckerd, Rich Mundell, Bob Briiten, Alex Fox, Tim Stamper, and recent Canadian immigrant Brian Huse. The corollary of all this hard work and dedication is the existence of a pretty reasonable local fleet, and good inter-fleet racing between the English Bay, Puget Sound, Vancouver Island, and now Budd Inlet (Olympia) Fleets.
As has been the case through most of B.C. and the North-West, the winter in Victoria has been unseasonably long, cold, and windy; suffice to say it has not been conducive to frost-biting on Star boats. For this reason, and unlike past years, the fleet generally had not sailed since October. The idea of a clinic to help sailors reacquaint themselves, with this challenging design and the various idiosyncrasies and pitfalls which come with sailing them, was an obvious one.
March 31st dawned an unusually clear and calm day. Boats were launched and eager crew and skippers gathered on the foreshore for a briefing. The events popularity meant planning workable drills posed a challenge. Fourteen boats attended; including participants from all four District Six fleets: Puget Sound, English Bay, Budd Inlet (Olympia), and the hosts Vancouver Island. Several drills were settled on, generally emphasizing boat handling skills.
On the water, teams began the day sailing very short windward leeward courses, including reconfiguring the boats for up-wind and down-wind set-ups, tacks and gybes. Those of us who hadn’t been in a Star for several months were brutally reminded of how challenging the boats are, particularly finishing a gybe, getting the pole down and the rig back in the boat in preparation for upwind sailing. After these drills, crews spent time working on their gybing technique. As the day was light, there was ample opportunity to be reminded of the benefits of lots of role in the gybe and Richard took the opportunity to focus on this approach.
After, some upwind work, the boats moved back deep into Cadboro Bay as the breeze was dying outside. The rest of the day focused on starts and racing. Three races were sailed and three starts were undertaken for each race. The breeze was light and the line short so good front row starts were critical for a decent result.
After a full day on the water, the fleet retired to the Royal Victoria clubhouse to watch videos and enjoy some beer and snacks. The off-the-water sessions proved to be a valuable opportunity for Richard to share his observations, analyze the video, and an informal discussion to occur on the different philosophies and preferred methods of approaching the boat, particularly from a boat handling perspective. Later in the evening Brian and his wife Tish welcomed the competitors back to their home for food and story-telling.
April 1st dawned much like the previous hundred odd days, cold and windy. It appeared as if the weekend was going to throw the most challenging conditions at the fleet, in both light and heavy air. People who have not sailed star boats often comment that the absence of a spinnaker must make them relatively simple boats to sail particularly in heavier air; this however has never been my experience. The massive main sail coupled with the highly flexible rig makes them quite a handful off the wind in a breeze, and this was going to be one of those days.
The initial 15-20 knot conditions proved perfect to look at upwind trim and specifically, mechanisms to de-power the boat. The generous sail plan means the boat needs to be put into a de-powered configuration much earlier than many other classes, and the absence of a traveler means one of the obvious first moves in the puffs isn’t available to the helmsman.
Richard worked with the fleet through some tacking drills to both refine the droop to droop tack and de-power and power up the boats in a puffy oscillating breeze. Stars are equipped with a twin backstay set-up, somewhat similar to the runners and checks on conventional in-line fractional rigs. Using these upper and lowers runners in unison is critical to keeping the boat optimized when the wind speed is up and down. The upper is the most readily available control for keeping the boat on its feet through the bigger puffs, and proved useful on the day.
After some tacking drills, it was decided that conditions were far from ideal for gybing on the whistle, let alone hearing the whistle, so some fun races were held similar to the previous day. The racing again gave the participants opportunity to work on controlling the boat in quite marginal conditions. The gybes, given the critical role of the runners, were a challenge if not a little nerve-wracking. Nevertheless, once you can trust the boat, they can be undertaken if the main is sufficiently unloaded in a lull or during a burst of speed. A lack of waves in the local sailing venue limits the latter option.
The conditions, now gusting to 25 knots also provided an excellent opportunity to work on the preparation for the leeward mark rounding, like many boats a significant challenge in the star. This scenario was practiced, although in the writer’s experience more is needed.
After the blustery day on the water, the fleet once again retired to the clubhouse for a debrief and some video time. Boat handling in the corners and the gybe were discussed and particularly approaches to the challenges of the bottom mark in the breeze, and being able to turn the corner and take and hold a high line out of the bottom mark.
The clinic proved to be a great way to kick off the season and has better prepared fleet members for this weekend’s THRASH regatta. The Vancouver Island Star fleet would like to thank Richard Clark for taking time out of his already busy schedule and precious time away from his family to share his knowledge and insight with us; Foss Miller and Carl Buchan for all their experience and advice; all the Seattle, Vancouver, and Olympia crews who made the trip to the island; VI fleet members who loaned boats, John Edwards and his chase boat crew; and to our fleet captain Brian Huse for organizing and hosting the event and a barbeque .
The VI fleet is looking forward to a great season, and meeting our friends and opponents from around the region through the spring and summer, culminating with the North American Championships in the warm waters of English Bay in August.
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