Sailing a Match Race

Migrating

2006-08-15T16:14:00.000+02:00

This blog is now sailing to a new virtual space. For a while now, I've been thinking of having a dedicated web space for my sailing related activities. Now, that I am getting more and more involved in match racing and sailing with a team, this idea became more relavant. So, I spend quite a few hours in front of the computer for the last month and created THE HOME OF SOYER SAILING TEAM.

I wish I could have spent all this time sailing instead of web-designing, but let me tell you... working on sailing related stuff is as good as it gets when you don't have a chance to sail. Anyways, I hope you will continue to check this blog on its new location, where we will also have a chance to have much more stuff such as pictures, technical articles, race calendars and so on.

Stanza

2006-07-07T21:22:00.000+02:00

Team work starts with communication. In order to execute perfect manevours everybody on the boat has to be able to communicate with short, precise, and cool commands. This is a little tricky when the racing gets thight and the team is international. At last weekends regatta we had an Italian bowman, Franco. While he was very capable, he was a little confused as we discussed most of the time in Turkish, and then switched to English from time to time, and then even some other times I tried to communicate with him in Italian! That's where the fun started.

One of the things that we had to tell Franco was when to take the spi pole out and get ready for the drop. To make the communication for this easier I asked Burcu (she speaks fluent Italian) what spi-pole is called in Italian: tangone. So, I thought when we were ready I tell him simply "tangone" and he starts with the procedure. So far, so good. But, during the hectic of the first race, and when we were approaching the downwind mark, I called to Franco: "stanza". He looked back at me, doing nothing. I called one more time: "stanza". He still didn't do anything. Now, we were really getting close to the mark, needed a very good rounding, and I was getting overly excited. I yelled my lungs out: "stanzzaaaa !!!"....now Burcu interfered as well, and finally Franco got going and the spi dropped just in time, as we rounded the mark.

We could only talk about the event, when racing was over and we were back in the marina. Suddenly, I realized that "stanza" did not mean spi-pole at all! I asked Burcu what the hell I was yelling at Franco. She said "room". We all started laughing. Especially from Franco's point of view, the situation was absurd. You go to a regatta with a bunch of guys you see for the first time in your life, and then in the middle of all the heat, the helmsmann starts to yell at you, "room, room, roooommm!"....the poor guy was really confused. He told Burcu that he even thought about yelling back at me his room number at the hotel !!!

Next day, things went just fine even though I still mixed up "stanza" and "tangone" from time to time...but now, Franco knew better.

Trofeo Igienstudio

2006-07-07T20:26:00.000+02:00

Last weekend we were in Ancona, ITA for a Grade 4 event. Finally a competition for our strength. After being beaten up badly in the last two Grade 3 events I went, finishing this regatta at a respectable 3rd place brought the morale back. Although it was again a "put-together-at-last-minute" team (composed of my brother Cagatay, long time sailing friend and opponent from old times Burcu and her colleague Franco), we had quite fun and fought close battles on the course.

Racing was done on J24's. Although this is a very old design and the boat is very uncomfy and slow then modern boats like Blu24 or Ton28, I found it quite suitable for match racing. The boat is quite slow making the pre-start tactics especially important. Further, once one has the control over the opponent, it is rather difficult for the latter to get away with a quick roll tack or gybe.

After struggling during the first two races (especially with in-boat communication) we got hold of things and executed pretty good pre-start combinations in the remaining races. In the end we won 5 out of 6 races. This was still not enough to get to the finals though. Due to low winds on the first day, the committe could not finish round robin in time and had to cancel semi-finals. This meant that winners of the two round robing groups qualified for finals, while 2nd placed teams qualified for the petite final.

The decisive race for us was the last one of the round robin. Both we and our oppenent had a 3-0 record up until then, meaning that the winner would be the 1st of the group. It was a nice split start but we were on the left. So, at the first cross they were starboard, and we tacked right to the front and leeward. The judge tought it was too close of a tack: we got a penalty. Up the beat it was very close and we were able to pull through on the first downwind. The second round we extended our lead a little and were about 3-4 boat lengths in front at the beginning of last beat. I thought we try to extend the lead a little more and take the penalty at the finish line. Then, at the start of the downwind leg, it seemed that they were really close and that we would not be able to take the penalty and still be ahead. I don't know if this thought was correct and they were really near or I panicked too much, but with a quick change of mind I decided to slow down the boat and try to create a penalty situation. Slowing down the boat worked fine but they just sailed down to leeward of us and gave us no chance of creating a penalty situation. So, it ended with them taking the finish and moving to the final.

On retrorespect, I could immediately tell how stupid the whole strategy was. The right thing would have been to take the penalty on the last beat, at the starboard layline. Then we could get a chance at having a starboard-port situation with them, and even if they crossed ahead of us, they would overshoot the mark and we would get very close for the last downwind. Actually the situation was perfectly set for such strategy, as we had them on the left side of the course on the last beat. That one should opt for this strategy when the situation allows is, was the lesson well learned and made this event another valuable experience ! Hopefully, a time will come when I have experienced so many of such sitauation that the decisions will fall naturally...

The Team

2006-06-18T17:23:00.000+02:00

You know, every good robbery movie starts with the assembly of the team. You need a guy to drive the escape car, a guy to get insider info, a guy to blow the steel case, a guy to...

After almost a year on the match race circuit and now finally in the top 100th of the rankings, I reached the conclusion that a match racing career should start with the team assembly just like in these movies. You need to find a good tactician, a good trimmer, a great bowman, additioanal people to substitute, a guy to help you with pre-start, a guy to...

As people always talk about skippers in match racing, people tend to overrate these guys. You always hear of Russell Coutts' and Peter Gilmours, but hardly from their team. The fact is that match racing is a complete team game, and a good skipper is just a small bit of the big picture. Surely the skipper has a special role, as he's the one who assembles the team, and who makes the decisions while racing. But from a sailing point of view, it is equally important that the skipper drives the boat smoothly, or makes a nice pre-start move, and that the bowman sets the pole exactly at the right time, or the trimmer gives the exact right shape to the sails as required by the conditions. Sailing with quite a few different people by now, I came to realize that crew's tend to feel like they are secondary to the success and that it's the skipper that counts. This feeling is especially common with people who skippered themselves before. This is exactly the wrong attitude in a winning team. There, each member of the team knows that their performance is essential for winning. It doesn't matter if your hand is on the tiller, or on the winch arm, it is how each of these hands work together in harmony!

As in the perfect rubbery, the prize should be shared among all members of the team. Although media's attention might be on the skipper and although the rankings by ISAF features only the skipper, team members should be able to claim a victory (or whatever position they achieved) as their own. Skippers on the other hand should always remember that although in the limelight, their name would mean nothing without the teammembers.

I think it is a fitting way to finish this post by celebrating the entry of my name in the top 100 with all those who have sailed with me so far on the match racing circuit: Christian Sprecher, Lukas Ziltener, Alp Alpagut, Kaya Dinar, Arda Baykal, Onursal Soyer, Cagatay Soyer, Oguz Ayan, Anna Michelazzi, Stefano Michelazzi, Anette Soyer. THANK YOU!

Westfalen Cup

2006-06-05T22:58:00.000+02:00

We sailed at the Westfalen Cup over this weekend, with my brothers. This was a Grade 3 event organized by the Hogel Sport, and was sailed on the Ruhr river close to Dortmund. Although the location was not ideal for sailing, it was a nice spot for match racing with the river offering a great oppurtunitity for the spectatators to be literally in the action. Probably because of this reason, the event was well attended with 5 teams from top 40! This was quite a surprise for us, as we thought that we could use this event for some relaxed training and get some easy points. Training it was, but there was no chance of getting easy points!

There were a total of 12 teams, 8 invited and 4 qualified. The lowest ranked team among the invited ones was 165th, the highest 29th. Round robins were sailed in two grops, each 6 teams. Of the 5 mathces we sailed, we won 2 against qualified teams, and lost the other 3 against invited ones. All our losses were pretty close, and were all results of poor pre-starts. The pre-starts were especially difficult at this event, as the space was very thight and the wind quite fluky. One side of the line was sitting in the wind blanket and it was very difficult to enter from this side. In one race, we couldn't reach the line from this side in time, and the blue boat came to us with wind and blocked us from entry. We got a penalty for late entry, but could later give them a penalty from a port/starboard situation. Then, at the last minute we got them in a nice position, where we could lock them underneath us, but I missed the oppurtunity! Too bad that one realizes these situations, afterwards on shore.

Finishing the round robin 4th in our group, we could race for the 7/8 position on the last day. Interestingly, our opponent was the best ranked team at the event! Apparently they got their share of bad luck in these though conditions and ended up 4th in their group as well. In the "best of 3" competition, we lost 2-0 against them! Although we were quite confident that we could give them a hard fight, we got two unfortunate penalties in both matches. One for late entry (again a trick of the wind), and once for hitting the sidebars on the river! As I was trying to cushion our hit on the sidebars, the jury thought that I was pushing the boat forward in the light air conditions! A decision, we completely disagreed...but you gotta live with it.

Overall, this was a good chance to get some training as we try to build a solid team with my brothers. Next month we'll race in Ancona, ITA at a Grade 4 event, on J24's. Hopefully, we will be able to carry on the momentum and sail more together...(without getting intimitated by our results :).

Match Race Training

2006-05-20T15:06:00.000+02:00

Although I definitely cannot train as much as I should (and would), here is something that I would definitely try out next time I'm going training. The drill, described below, is kindly provided by Fred, himself a keen dinghy and match-race sailor. I believe that he will put up a german version of this drill on his blog sometime soon.

"Take 7 sailors with good helming abilities, 2 boats of the same type and a Laser, small powerboat or else. Take one small buoy/mark with you. Lay a starting line with a fixed mark or your small craft. Man the sailing boats as following: 1 Helmsman, 1 Crew, 1 Umpire each. I had prepared: 2 protest flags on sticks. 2 table tennis rackets each for the umpires. One showed black/white and the other yellow/blue. Rule Incident with a protest flag from a competitor: umpires (sitting on the stern or standing up in the hatch of the boat) shows colour of the boat (either yellow or blue flagged on backstay) Umpires show different colours: No incident. Showing white: no incident and black: DSQ. Absolutely no contact between boats!You do a full starting routine (set clock and diving in) and short windward leg until one is clearly in front. You sail back to the starting line and swoop positions. Everyone should man the starting boat once in a full round robin. The starting boat is fitted with flags and a horn or whistle. The starter should write down the results on a list.

Afterwards have a good debriefing and a beer and I promise you. It will show results pretty soon. Smooth sailing."

I think sharing information on such drills, situations we meet on the match racing circuit, and tips and tricks will help all of us improve faster. So, let me know of any such material you want to share and I'll post them here.

Pre-Start Routines

2006-05-08T23:04:00.000+02:00

There is no doubt about it. The pre-start is the most exciting and decisive part of a match race. Obviously bad team work might cost you the race even if you win the start, but still it is both a great feeling and great advantage to have a commanding position after the pre-start. Learning to get your pre-start right requires a lot of good timing, team work, boat handling, and strategic planning. Getting all this right will require you to collect a lot of memorial snapshots of pre-start situations as they happen to you. And, that will require you to sail a lot of match races :)

But here is a help for both you and me. I've been taking notes of interesting pre-start situtations I've been encountering so far, both to study them (possibly with others) and to put them right into my memorial collection. Starting with this one, I plan to post these here. Please contribute such experiences to me if you have any (either in words or sketches, or both).

The presented case is sort of a book-case that happened to me. I was the blue boat in this sketch and benefited from two big mistakes of my opponent to win the start. First mistake that yellow makes is to allow blue to get the windward advantage at position 2. From here on, blue is free to tack and get away from yellow towards the right side of the line. Here, the two boats start circling, a procedure that happens frequently in match racing as boats try to avoid and control each other at the same time. Now, comes the second mistake; yellow leaves the circling stage too early and shoots for the line. At the time she gets there it's too early for start. Blue, now comes from behind and has the chance to push yellow out of the line. Yellow, trying to avoid this has to sail away (run away from blue) and ends up far from the line at the starting gun, giving the lead to blue!

I called this a classic book-case, because it shows the difference between the mind set of a fleet racer and the match racer. In fleet racing, it is common to get to the line early to secure a nice spot. Now in match racing, there is no such thing as a nice spot on the line! The only nice spot that exists is the one where you have the control over your opponent...so forget about where you are on the line at start...even forget that you should be on the line at all! You just have to make sure that you block your opponent from starting! (that's if you can :)

The Rankings

2006-05-04T09:36:00.000+02:00

The latest Open Match Race Rankings is released yesterday at the ISAF web site. There is a nice calculation behind these rankings. In a nutshell, it is the sum of your best four scores from the most recent two years. Each score is weighted by two factors, one based on the Grade of the event and the other based on the date. Scores from the most recent year (i.e. events occured within the last 365 days) are multiplied by 6, while events dating from 365-730 days are multiplied by 3. The grading factor is easier, it goes from 1 to 3.5 for Grade 5 to 1 respectively. So in the end the formula looks like this for each event: Score x Grade Factor x Year Factor. Given this formula, it's easy to see that during your first year it's quite important to have lots of races so that you can have at least 4 good scores under your belt. These will be multiplied by 6, giving you a boost in the rankings. For me, the numbers look not so bad so far.

Comments Follow-Up

2006-04-24T22:46:00.000+02:00

Thanks for the comments everybody! I thought, I answer some of these here. Firstly the boats in Dubai.

The exact observation was that one boat was significantly slow in accelerating, especially after tacks. I'm not so sure about its boat-to-boat performance. Different boat-builder guys there had different ideas about the source of this: weight, propeller not closing properly, and sail cut. This last one was apparently mentioned by Russell Coutts who was there earlier this year. I'm not sure though. There was nothing obvious with the sails. Neither with the standing rigging. The mast and shrouds seemed equally tuned. No problems, with steering. So, my guess is that it was weight related.

As for the plans for the future. This year started very fast, with a lot going on and it was not optimum. I actually wanted to have a well-planned year so that I can slowly build up a team with Grade 4 and Grade 3 races. But the oppurtunities at Nations Cup and Rimini made me take early steps...So, now I want to slow down a little and go back to the original plan. I'll try to make 3 more matches before the end of the year, mostly Grade 4s. The aim is to do all this with the same team, which would also be my long-term team.

Finally, the photo is from the Nations Cup showing us in action!

Surviving The Tough Times

2006-04-17T21:14:00.002+02:00

I was in Rimini, Italy last week participating at the Selection for Blurimini, a grade 2 event hosting many America's Cup teams. Combined with my defeat at Nations Cup these last two weeks were the low of my short match racing career. I finished simply last, losing all my matches at the round robin stage!

The bad performance resulted from the combination of many things including my bad mood after the Nations Cup, sailing with a team that came together for the first time, having a significant language barrier on board, and the strength of the competition. Being the selection for the prestigious Blurimini race, the line up for this event included 4 teams from top 100, with best ranked team standing at number 12! Against this tough competition I had friends from Italy and my wife as crew. We were sailing together for the first time and neither my friends nor my wife sailed a match race before. Even though they were all good sailors the lack of match race experience showed, especially against such competition.

Looking at the line up I knew before racing started that we could at best hope for a 6th place. There were 3 teams that we could beat. Unfortunately a combination of bad skippering from my side and an unfortunate pairing list saw us loose even against those teams we could beat. We started racing with 3 losses against highly ranked teams, even though we rounded the first mark first in 2 of these matches. With such low morale we faced a team in the last race of the day that we thought we could beat. Unfortunately, we lost the match altough we led until the mids of the first downwind leg. In the light air conditions, our gybes were simply not smooth enough to keep us in front.

After a good dinner that night we found our morale again and went to water next day, knowing we could only win two of the 4 matches that waited us. The first match was against 12th ranked Simoncelli. Although we lost it was fun sailing against them. For the second race the wind picked up and we lined up against the Slovenian Team for the Nations Cup. Trying to give them a good fight at the start (we almost won it) we catched the anchor line of the starting line. Besides causing us loose that match this incident lowered our morale again, just before the last two matches that we could win. The first of these we executed a perfect pre-start combination giving the other boat a penalty and starting in full control. But the wind had picked up a lot by this time and we were having serious trouble keeping the boat under control. At the second downwind with the finish almost in our grabs, we broached and by the time we got the boat going again they were right on our neck. Taking us in their wind shadow they managed to beat us to the finish line. The broach had teared our spinnaker and jib and a miscommunication between us and the racing committee resulted in them starting the next starting sequence before we fixed these problems. As a result we were not able to start for the last race, finishing the event with 0 points.

Although I took a bad beating this weekend, I try to look at the bright side. I had a chance to sail against very good teams and I had a chance to learn. And learn a lot I did. The most significant difference between the best team and the others was that they sailed the boat just like a dinghy, executing every manevour to perfection, that they put the priority in pre-start to winning the start rather then giving the other boat a penalty, and that they always kept the boat moving in light air conditions.

These observations made me realize one more time that the primary aim for me should be to form a team that I can sail with continously for a couple of years so that we can reach this level of sailing. Only then, would it be possible to reach top 50s in the rankings.

Nations Cup Regionals: Behind The Scenes

2006-04-12T00:05:00.000+02:00

As some of you might have followed on the ISAF web site, I was at the Nations Cup Group D Regional Finals in Dubai last week, skippering the Turkish Team. Before giving a narrative of the event, I would like to thank everybody who sent supporting comments through this blog.

This years most promoted event, the Nations Cup, started with dissappointment as the first of the Regional Finals in Dubai saw only three countries participating: UAE, Turkey, and India. This low attendance forced the organizers to invite local teams to reach 7 entries and have a Grade 2 event. As a result, we had two simultaneous events; one fought among the three nations to decide the regional qualifier and one among the 7 teams to decide the winner of the open Nations Cup Qualifier event.

Racing started with a round robin series where each team sailed against each other twice. This format resulted in a long and time consuming round robin series, which were dominated by us and India. Both teams lost only one point, and this against each other. Local teams skippered by Chris Graham and Cedric Le Rest took places 3 and 4 respectively, rounding the entries for the semi final stage. Since these two teams were not eligible for the Nations Cup, these results confirmed that the Regional Qualifier final was going to be among us and India, irrespective of the results of the semi-finals.

Despite this fact the organization decided to proceed with the semi finals hoping that the final of the open event and the Qualifier would be the same, allowing them to have only one final. To their relief it was indeed so: we beat Graham 3-2, while India sailed past Le Rest easily with a 3-0 score. This set the stage for the final of both events as India against us. As we got ready for the decisive final knock-out series it was already noon on the last day of the event and the set limit of 15.30pm as the last possible starting time was looming close.

Earlier that day we asked for one of the boats to be replaced, as we had used it during our semis and felt that it was significantly slower. This is done at last minute costing us more valuable time and finally racing got under way with boats number 1 and 3 (the replacement boat). The finals were going to be a best of 5 series, with boats swapped after odd numbered races and pre-start ends altering after each race. India won the pre-race draw and selected the startboard advantage (this means that they would be assigned the starboard end 3 times in case series went to 5th race). We got to choose the boat and opted for boat number 1 (meaning that we would sail her 3 times in case series went to 5th race).

When the first race got started, it was to everybody's dissappointment to see that boat number 3 was even worse than the boat we sailed during the semis. It was simply much slower in light air conditions. Hence, racing was no real match racing: sailing boat number 1, we won the first macth despite entering the start on port tack, and after switching boats India won matches 2 and 3. In match 2 we had won the start but India simply sailed by us on board boat number 1, after a short tacking duel where we tried to cover them. At this point the score was 2-1 for India but we would have had boat number 1 for the last two matches. Given the speed difference among the two boats we easily won match 4, tying the score at 2-2. Then the wind gave up on us. After two starts that got abandoned the race committee decided to stop the event. It was 15.25pm.

According to the rules the tie had to be resolved based on the round robin series, where India had beaten us in our latest encounter. Hence they got crowned both winners of the open event and the Regional Qualifier for Nations Cup. 10 minutes after this was announced and while we were still on water, sailing to the marina, the wind picked up again reaching 10-15 knots!

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to list excuses for us not winning. In fact this blog would read the same if we had won. The fact is that the teams from Turkey and India were very closely matched in sailing competency and both sides could win the event if it had decided by sailing. However, it was the inequality of boats and poor event management that were decisive, a real pity for an event such as the Nations Cup. My feeling is that the race committee and the organizers could work better to have the deciseve final amoung Turkey and India at an earlier stage of the event, under better wind condtions and they could have prepeared boats to be much more equal in performance. I hope next year the Regional Qualifiers for Group D will be better organized and better participated at.

The Only Way Is Up!

2006-03-28T23:48:00.000+02:00

The latest release of match race rankings is now available at the ISAF web site. The announcement report discusses the movements at the top of the rankings and summarizes the battle between gigantic names like James Spithill, Russell Coutts, and Peter Gilmour. To my delight it also contains a summary of the Nations Cup elections in Turkey! Hopefully we will continue our appearance at such reports in the near future, with more match race sailors from Turkey joining us...

America's Cup. What's the use?

2006-03-19T13:43:00.000+02:00

The America's Cup is by no doubt the biggest sailing event in terms of media coverage. It is the event that most non-sailors would cite when asked about sailing. For sailors it is the oldest match race event in the world. It is probably also the thoughest becasue it attracts the best sailing talent in the world. But what does America's Cup really mean for the sport of sailing? To name a few benefits of the Cup; it provides a public awareness for the sport, creates jobs for sailors, attracts sponsors to the sport, allows development and testing of new materials, directs lots of money to the sport.

This all sounds great but I still have my doubts. Surely the Cup attracts people's attention and creates lots of jobs and basically a market of its own. But most of this stays limited with the Cup itself. I have to keep asking myself, what is the real benefit to the sport? Does the Cup support new and upcoming talent? Not really. Does it help us increase the number of sailors around the globe? Maybe just remotely. Does it really make sailing more popular? In contrast, I think it portrays sailing as the "rich man's" sport.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think America's Cup is not a good thing. I'm just thinking that it could provide much more to the sport then it currently does. I mean it is just ridicoulus that the budget of a Cup syndicate soars around 20-50 million dollars. Think what one could do with all that money for sailing? How many Optimists you could buy, or how many athletes you could support for their Olympic campaign, how many TV shows you could produce. Obviously it is America's Cup that attracts this type of money and it wouldn't be there for the things that I just listed. But, here is the idea: Let each America's Cup team spend 1% of their budget really for supporting sailing and sailors; let them sponsor one or two Olympic sailors, buy few Optimists for their local club, take couple of youngsters on board....let them do something more for the sport!

The Team Spirit

2006-02-27T01:34:00.000+02:00

It's cliche, I know, but it's true. The single most important thing is team work. This holds especially for match racing. I say this both based on my short experience and the response of veterans in the field when asked about the secret of the best sailors. Apparently the legendary Peter Gilmour is sailing with the same guys for over a decade now. Same holds for Russell Coutts. It is no wonder you don't hear much talking on board the boats at Grade 1 events. For these guys, its all instinct, the look in the eyes of the skipper is enough of an order for the bowman. For beginners like us, there is a heck of shouting going on in the pre-start...

Although match racing seems about tactics and smart use of rules, all these become only meaningful at the hands of a good crew. How do you want to set up a situation to give your opponent a penalty if you can't handle the boat? Or how do you want to escape a tight cover, if your tacks take ages to complete? So far, I was lucky to sail with good sailors. But, bringing together good sailors does not neccessarily result in a good team. Besides being good at what they do, team members must also be able to keep their cool at tight situations, trust the ability and judgement of each other, maximize concentration, minimize shouting and unnecessary talking...the list is long. They also have to get along well. You don't want your few days of escape from work to turn into a stresfull trip. To sum up, if you want to enjoy match racing find a good bunch of people with both social and technical ability. This might sound hard but don't get scared, building up the team spirit can be as much fun as sailing! Currently, I'm also learning with my sailing buddies and brothers how to become a better team. The good thing is when you are close to the bottom of the learning curve, the only way is up!

Dubai, here we come!

2006-02-20T15:27:00.000+02:00

It's now official! Winning the selection event, we received the permission to represent Turkey at the Nations Cup! It was a great event. As it is usually the case, the best two teams made it through the round robin and semi finals to fight head to head at the final. It was us against Kemal Muslubas, the olympian at Athens '04 in Laser class. His team was made of some of the best Turkish sailors: Ertac Sunman, Fatih Ozmen, and Kerem Ozkan, while I had team alaturca on my side; Arda, Kaya, and Oguz. Unfortunately Kaya got sick after the round robin and we had to replace him with an upcoming young talent, Mert.

The first race, we won the pre-start and even managed to give them a penalty. But it seemed like it was still not enough to hold them behind. On the second beat they started a tacking duel and got closer and closer with every tack, when we decided to get seperated. We managed to round the mark in front but they were just on our tail on the last downwind. Using the gusts from behind they finally managed to get by us on the last 100meters of the leg but still had to complete their penalty. So, it was us who were first on the line.

The pre-start was ours again on the second race; we were ahead at the gun and they had a penalty. This is where we got over-confident: we didn't cover. They went left, found a nice gust and passed like 4 boat lengths ahead of us at the next crossing. The distance remained almost unchanged until the last downwind leg where they decided to take their turn right after the windward mark. We got close a little, and then the wind start to die off. We saw a gust on the left side of the course and gybed immediately towards it. Eventhough the gust never really came we still found more pressure then they had and got a little ahead but a little too much on windward. Then the wind died off completely and we started to drift towards the finish. We both gybed and now we were leeward of them and behind, while they had the finish 50 meters in front of them...Then a miracle happened. A gust came from out of nowhere, slightly from behind them and directly hitting us: We got pushed full speed towards the line and hit it close to the leeward end, just a boats length ahead of them!

That gave us the 2-0 lead which we needed to win the event. Now, we need to do the same in Dubai where the Group D regional finals will be held. It will be a tough event with more then 20 nations competing and we will need a podium finish to get Turkey to the Grand Final. It won't be easy, but I'm sure we'll have fun trying to achieve it...

Q&A with Eric Monnin

2006-02-07T00:26:00.000+02:00

Eric Monnin, currently the number 28th in the ISAF match race rankings, is the best ranked Swiss sailor in the rankings. I catched up with him on a recent ski-weekend with Swiss 470 sailors. Here are his answers to few selected questions on match racing and sailing:

When did you start sailing? I don't remember...I helmed at 6.

Which boat did you sail? Surprise, which is a good boat to learn sailing, despite the fact that it is a keelboat. Occasionally I also sailed 470, Mumm 30, Laser, and now Decision 35.

When did you start match racing? In 2001 with Alinghi Swiss Tour and 2003 with International grade 3 Match races.

Your best result so far (in match racing)? Beating Jochen Schumann and Philippe Presti at the Geneva Match Race 2003, Winning the JP Morgan Winter challenge a year ago.

Any special training for special events? Training is always a problem, as you need your team, a good infrastructure and a good opponent at the same time and venue. I do some training at the CER in Geneva and we try to practice on Streamline Boats for the St. Moritz Match Race.

Your best move so far in a match? Being in front leading by a few meters but with an outstanding penalty, we moved the game close to the committee boat. Followed a hard fight and we tried to do our penaly while he passed between us and the committee. The match was normally lost for us but then he hooked with his shrouds the "bowsprit" of the commity vessel. He was stopped abruptly 1 metre from the finishing line and we could win the race.

Your worst move so far in a match? There are definitely too many of them. Maybe being inside at the zone of Ed Baird at the leeward mark, passing the mark as inside boat and nevertheless getting a penalty was not my best move.

How much money do you spend in a year on the circuit? I never calculated that in detail, it must be a couple of kSFr for the whole team. As we actually only have sponsors for some specific events the whole team need to make personal contributions.

What do you thing the "best of best" do better? I think it's a matter of precision and teamwork.

What wind conditions do you like? I like when it's a little shifty, this opens the game.

Do you do any mental training? No, but we should...?

What's your goal for the upcoming season? Short/middle term: win a grade 2 event. Long term: steadily increase our level.

What do you think is the most important component in match racing? I think it's team work, compared to fleet race you rapidely see the qualitiy of a team in match racing.

Any tips for newcomers in match racing? Don't forget to sail fast.

Nations Cup Selection, Turkey

2006-01-21T13:31:00.000+02:00

Turkish Sailing Federation announced that the selection event for Nations Cup will be organized in Izmir, Turkey on 17-19 February. Being the first Grade 3 match race event to be organized in Turkey, this event will bring 8 teams head to head. The winner will represent Turkey at the Nations Cup Regional Finals to be organized in Dubai on 2-7 April. Although match racing does not have a long history in Turkey, this event is bound to provide a lot of excitement: it is expected that there will at least be 3 skippers with Olympic Games experience. I will be skippering as well with my former team mates from Turkish Sailing Team and current Dragon National Champions: Oguz Ayan, Arda Baykal and Kaya Dinar (check out their campaign site here). Hence, stay tuned for a race report from Izmir in the coming weeks...

Getting Started

2006-01-14T10:16:00.000+02:00

Here are few tips to get you started on the match racing circuit and maybe climb high in the rankings. As with everything else, you have to start small. First, try to get an invitation to a Grade 5 or 4 event. At this level you will gain experience, while enjoying a solid competition. At most Grade 4 events there will be at least one good team from top 200s in the ISAF rankings, allowing you to get a feeling of how good teams function. If you can't find any events in your region, you can try to organize one yourself. Simply try to get several teams together and follow the guidelines and use the standard NOR available at ISAF web site. You can even try to get a grade from ISAF for such an event. After participating for a while at this level you can start to taste the Grade 3 level depending on your performance. Be aware; starting with Grade 3 the competition will become much more tough. You will definitely need a solid crew to be successful at this level and probably more time commitment for on and off-water training.

Success comes with training and experience. Match racing is no exception. You have to train and participate in order to be successful. Don't give up if you get bad results at the beginning. In match racing you need lots of experience to make good decisions in split-second situations, especially during pre-start. Focus your on-water training to communication on the boat and boat handling. Although people speak mostly of skippers, match racing is all about team work. Off water training should focus on rules and their strategic use plus pre-start strategies. Consult the match racing call book at ISAF web site for tricky situations. Finally you can use computer simulators to keep conceptually fit during cold winter days. For this purpose check Virtual Spectator 4; a sailing simulator both for match racing and fleet racing that has a strong user community.

Why match race?

2005-12-27T13:53:00.000+02:00

If you are a seasoned sailor with a solid dinghy background you might be wondering about this blog. Why sail a match race? Fleet racing is much mor fun you might say...Well, I would agree as my own sailing experience is mostly in fleet racing. But, there are few features of match racing that are highly preferable. First, events are much shorter. If you want to do a real competitive fleet regatta such as the Hyeres Olympique or Kieler Woche, you have to take at least a week off of work, whereas you can have almost the same kind of competitiveness at a weekend-long match racing event. Second, you don't have to worry about finding a rental boat or transport your own. All will be there at a match racing event. You will just have to change and go out sailing! Finally, match racing will give you a much different excitement then you find in fleet racing. There is much less room for correcting errors then in fleet race, things happen much faster (especially during pre-start) and rules are actively used for tactical purposes. It will be a different sailing experience.

Both fleet racing and match racing are highly likeable sports, each having their own exciting features. Ideally, one should be able to do both given that one has enough time. But, if you are pressed with time, find it hard to own or care for a boat, or want to stay at the top of the game despite decreasing physical fitness, then match racing might be the right choice for you.

Nations Cup

2005-12-27T13:22:00.000+02:00

It's back! The famous Nations Cup, first organized in 1991, is reintroduced by ISAF. Bound to be the match racing event of 2006, the Nations Cup will bring best sailors from all over the world head-to-head. The racing format requires each nation to send their best skipper to a Regional Final. The first two boats from each Region will then move on to the Grand Final, to be held in Ireland in September 2006. There will be a total of 8 Regional Finals, 4 for the European countries, and one for each of the countries in Asia, South America, North America and Oceania.

So far, only the Australian entry is announced: Seve Jarvin and Nicky Souter for the Men's and Women's events respectively. Being the defending nation in the Women's event the Australians will be anxious to see who the challengers are going to be.

Intro to Match Racing

2005-12-22T18:37:00.000+02:00

Match Race is a specific type of sailboat racing. Unlike most sailing races, where a bunch of boats sail as a fleet, each race in a Match Race Event involves only two boats. The course is also much shorter and simpler then in the fleet races. The goal behind introducing this type of racing is to make sailing much more easier to follow for spectators. It is clearly being accomplished as manifested in the growing interest in sailing, best seen in the coverage that the infamous America's Cup event gets these days. Sailing rules used in match racing, as well as guidelines for organizing events are governed by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). Besides being the governing body for the sport of sailing, it also maintains a ranking of sailors both in fleet and match racing. I strongly recommend checking their web site for all matters on sailboat racing.

The boats used in match racing depends on the event. The only requirement is that the boats should be one-design, i.e. there should be no significant differences among the boats sailed by the two competitors. Usually, small racing keelboats/yachts such as J24, Melges or Beneteau 24 are preferred.

While, the specifics are different for each event, a typical Match Race includes 8-10 teams. These race each other in a similar format like in football tournaments. First, teams are divided in two groups and within each group everybody sails against each other. Then, top two seeds from each group advances to the semi-finals, where winner of one group sails against the second of the other group and vice versa. Finally, winners of semi-finals race against each other for the title.

Match Race events are graded by ISAF. The scale goes from 5 to 1, with Grade 1 events at the top of the scale. Participation at any event is by invitation only. This means that one has to contact the organizers and ask for an invitation in order to participate. Starting with Grade 3, getting an invitation mostly depends on your ranking. For example, only skippers from top 50 or 100 are invited to Grade 1 events. Besides the invitation system, there is also qualification. For example, you can qualify to enter a Grade 1 event by winning a Grade 3 event.

So Far So Good...

2005-12-22T17:28:00.000+02:00

I've been sailing since I was a little kid... first on Optimist, then on Laser for many many years, and more recently on different boats including Thistle and 470. But, it was not until this year that I tried out a Match Race...Now, with my first year in the circuit behind me, I decided to put my primary focus in sailing on match racing. This blog is part of that decision. Here, I will post on topics related to match racing and obviously reports from events where I participate.

TUROS1 in Match Racing

TUROS1 is my unique ISAF id. This id allows ISAF to keep track of the performance of skippers that participate in Match Racing or other sailboat races, through a ranking system. I have made my debut in match racing in March 2005 at the UBS Alinghi Swiss Tour. This was an event, sponsored by the infamous Alinghi team, to promote match racing in Switzerland. Acting as a selection event for the swiss sailors to participate at the Swiss Match Racing Championship, the event was well attended by top sailors in Switzerland. Among these good sailors, I skippered a team composed of my sailing friends from the 470 circuit, to finish 10th, tied with two others in front us. Such ties in match racing result from equal amounts of wins and losses, and are resolved by checking the result of matches between skippers that are tied in points.

Despite a little bit of disappointment after this event, I decided to continue with match racing. For my second event, I formed a team with my former sailing buddies from the Turkish Sailing Team: Alp, Arda, and Kaya. The team worked out great, as all of us were experienced sailors. Alp has been very competitive in the Laser class for many years (competing at '96 Olympics and most recently winning the Italian Nationals), while Arda and Kaya are currently doing a successfull campaign in the Dragon Class. Together we won the Grade 4 event in San Benedetto, Italy... It was great fun! The boats, the location, the organizers, Italy, and the weather were all great. Obviously, us winning made everything even nicer. Despite never sailing together before, the communication in the team also worked out great.

After winning in Italy I was desperate to do more events but it is not an easy task to find the time and the money and then put a team together. Furthermore, it is hard to get invited to events when one is not ranked so high in the skipper rankings. Finally in November, I managed to arrange an event in Brindisi, Italy and sailed with my brothers Cagatay, and Onursal. I don't know if it is the charm of Italy on me, but again everything went great despite a little cold and cloudy weather. We finished 3rd, which was respectable given the presence of a solid Italian crew, winning the event. Anyways, if you want to participate in Brindisi, it is highly recommended.

Trying to get a few more points before the year ended, I found a Grade 3 event in La Rochelle, to attend with my brothers again. Unfortunately the event got cancelled just two days before the announced starting date. This was a pity, since even a bad result here would have give me most needed points in the rankings.

To cut the long story short, I finish my first year on the match race circuit as 261nd in the ISAF Match Race rankings. I think it's a good start. Next year, I hope to keep the momentum and do as many races as possible. Alas, stay tuned for more reports.