Doctor Karl

[Village Idiot]

Having Karl on the forum is too good an opportunity to miss!

I am hoping that Karl might be able to answer a few questions or offer a few tips about getting the most from an OK.

[Village Idiot]

Alright then, I'll go first.

Dear Dr Karl. I noticed at Belmont you used some pretty aggressive boat handling to get the boat going off the start-line. The sheet seemed to get hauled in in one big pump and there was a good rig pump as you hit the toe straps.

Is there a particular sequence to this action that you have practiced or is it just a matter of getting the gear on and go for it? It looked like a well refined maneuver to me.

[Deleted]

Dear Village Idiot,

What you are suggesting is prob illegal. And I would never do anything like that ;D.....must have been Nick! Actually my starts are my weakest point, do you have any footage of that manouver as I would like to learn from it!

Actually in all seriousness I have practiced that. A hangover from my laser days. I guess it must be ok as no jury boat has pulled me up on it yet. My best trick off the line is to cleat the main and play the traveller. You can pull the boom to the centre momentarily and gain heaps of height with no real loss in boat speed. The trick is to only do it momentarily, as you feel the boat slow (or actually before that happens) dump it back down for speed so you don;t start to drift sideways. When done right you can crab off any leeward boats then just trav down and sail over the top of them. Can't remember how many bad starts that has got me out of...including this years worlds!

[Village Idiot]

Thanks for that Dr. I can't imagine a jury having an issue with the technique. You seem to simply sheet in hard at the same time as you pull the boat down flat. The action is not repeated just exposive.

[Village Idiot]

Question 2
Have you had any personal modifications/features of your sail that make it any different from the off-the-shelf Quantum?

[Deleted]

Over the years I've helped Greg develop these sails and any new design features that have come out of that are incorporated into his "off the shelf sails". So no, the sails I use are the same as the sails anyone else orders off Greg with the exception of luff round which of course varies with individual mast bend characteristics. I should point out that the sails are still constantly evolving so one years sail will not be exactly the same as the year before. There are still a few small changes I'd like to experiment with. I guess the good news from everyone elses point of view is Greg/I try them first and then if they are any good they get put into the "off the shelf design" so everyone else gets the benefit of our developement work without having to pay for it.

The years design is usually finalised before the worlds, so anyone ordering a sail then is getting the same sail as I will then use...between these periods my sails may be different as I ask Greg to try out different ideas (depending on how rich I'm feeling ). This worlds period I ordered 2 new sails basically because I had just got a new mast. Hence my old sails didn't fit it. The first sail was a developement sail from the previous worlds and was made from Ginges bend nos as I didn't have time to do stringline measurements (see below) before Greg came back to NZ with it. This sail was great and showed the changes we had made were fast however the luff curve wasn't quite right. So I ordered a new sail for warnemunde which was basically the same except for subtle luff curve changes made following mast stringline measurement. This sail was faster again as a result of getting the luff round right.

Back here in NZ I'm the only one who went to this years worlds (apart from Alistair) who is using Greg's sails. A lot of this has to do with other guys back here having got what they perceive to be bad sails in the past from Greg. When you look at these sails they are quite bad only as a result of insufficient luff curve having been put into the sail. When Greg makes a sail he asks for your mast bend nos. When I get a sail from him I don't use the bend nos supplied by C-Tech. Instead I put a sail on the mast sheet it on to say a 10-12knt wind position and then take luff round measurements from a stringline running between the bands. I take the readings every 500mm and also at 1/4,1/2,&3/4 height intervals. These are the nos I give to Greg so he gets the luff curve exactly right on the sail. In this way my sails don't get overbend creases. If everyone else bothered to do the same they too would end up with great looking sails. I think Greg basically has the sail shape nailed as far as camber and draught position are concerned....so all we have to do is supply him with the correct luff round figures so that those design featues come correctly into play.

Part of my training is also to get Tors to take side on and front on pictures of me sailing. If you get the angle right you can also scale luff round measurements (from side on views) from the photographs using the distance between your bands (5400mm) as a reference. Now that is really interesting as when sailing the mast bends differently in subtle ways from firstly the static weight measurements done by C-Tech and secondly the stringline measurements done on land. These pics are also good for analysing the sail shape and also contribute to design developement. These pics are also key to my mast design...but that is a different topic ;D.

Hope this helps....must admit I've had a lot of fun developing my rig over the years. OK sailing really is a thinking game where just as much effort has to go in off the water as on....so much more interesting than a laser!

[Village Idiot]

Thanks again Dr. For the obvious question about mast design go to the Rigs topic.

Question 3
You have previously mentioned some fitness work went into the campaign. Which particular on-shore/gym exercises did you find were "gold medal winners" in preparation for the OK campaign?

Legs? Abs?

[Deleted]

One of the big lessons I learnt from Leba the year before was that I was no where near fit enough, if you look at my results as each day went on my placings got worse. So a
lot of effort went into that for Warnemunde.

During the year I do a general weights program focusing on upper body strength, no leg or ab work. About 3 months before the worlds I changed this program and introduced legs. At this time I also started a cardio program which consisted of 25 minutes on a cross trainer followed by 25 minutes ( the cross trainer started on level 16 averaging just over 20 calories/min and ended up on level 18 averaging just over 24 calories/min over the 3 month course) on a bike using the cardio program (where you have to keep your heart rate at a specified level depending on your age- for me this was 143 but I generally maintained it at 150). I'd do the cardio program 3-5 times per week on weekday mornings with the weight program prob done 2-3 times per week during the evenings. THe upside (or downside depending on how much you like pain ) is that as you get fitter on the cross trainer you have to pedal harder on the bike to maintain your heart rate...the fitter you get the slower your heart beats during exercise as your V02 increases. Hence the program is a sort of vicious cycle. It helped to have a video screen in front of the bike/cross trainer showing music videos containing scantily clad woman to take your mind off the pain.. . It may sound stupid but during this time I also practised mental imagery where I would picture myself sailing over the top of boats if I could just pedal that little bit faster!

Over this last 3 month period I'd also do ab workouts on the lounge room floor while watching tv at night. A real good exercise is to lie on your back and keeping your legs straight raise your heels about 6 inches off the floor. Then rotate your heels, with both moving to the inside for 20 rotations followed by 20 rotations with your heels moving out in the opposite direction, this works your lower abs and legs. I'd also do crunchies to work your upper abs...I'd prob do about 100 reps of each over the course of an evening.

To back all this up I would then sail both days on the weekend weather permitting doing some real long beats (about 20 minutes on each tack, so about 40 minute beats) with a mate of mine sailing a laser or against Steve when he could come out. Having a training partner out there helps you keep pushing yourself. A huge part of maintaining my fitness was getting the lend of Joes Ok to use while our boats were being shipped to Germany...this was absolutely crucial.

Strangely I think one thing that helped was taking a 12 day break from sailing/the gym before arriving in Warnemunde. On the way over Tors & I stopped off at LA for 12 days to visit her sister and do some sightseeing. Over this time we did a lot of walking and some swimming in the ocean which I now think just helped let the body recover. At the time I was worried about losing fitness but actually the reverse appeared to happen.

The end result was a complete turnaround from Leba. It was the first time I've ever been able to hike for 2-3 races straight in 15-20knts with basically no leg pain. In contrast to the year before it was now me getting stronger as the day went on.

[Deleted]

Thanks Karl for taking the time to contribute to the forum and Village Idiot too for this initiative. "Doctor Karl" is excellent format for providing useful information to OK members. Keep up the good work! I'm sure your efforts will be appreciated and hopefully you will receive good feedback in this regard.

[aus716]

Thanks Karl
Pretty much what I was doing how come you were so far in front, lol. To add humbly to what you have said, I could offer these points.

The cross trainer is really useful especially for older folks as it is low impact and shouldn't aggrevate joints and tendons. It is also excellent because there is a lower perceived excertion for the same benefits as compared to other exercises.

My max HR is about 138 bpm and like Karl I took mine marginally above (145) that as I got fitter. Because of time factors I worked out 3 times a week for about 90 mins a session, combining cardio (heart rate) and strength (weights). There is some disagreement about doing these in the same session, I did what I could.

As I have genetically skinney legs I do weight training on my lower back and legs all year. Also the large muscles of the upper legs are the hardest to develop (size, mass, length???) so I spend a lot of time on these.

Not long before the worlds a personal trainer worked with me on starting to develop a program for middle aged sailors, based around some of the stuff Michael Blackburn talks about in his book. What was interesting for me was the concentration on Big Ball (inflatable) work doing core strength exercises. Part of this was protective to avoid or not exacebate lower back problems, an old problem for old OK sailors.

Also heaps of ab/stomach work - this area improves quite quickly.

A couple of safety suggestions:
If you are in any doubt about your fitness capacity have a couple of tests with your doctor prior to commencing rigorous exercise and monitor your heart rate as you exercise.

To find you age ralated maximal heart rate -

www.mydr.com.au/tools/heartrate.asp

is an easy calculator. This is a guide only, take a little while to get up to maximal HR, if you become breathless, dizzy or nauseous take a break. Drink water before, during and after excercise, (kiwi's will think that this means beer -not)


As karl said mental imagery is really useful. Research suggests that neural pathways (related to muscle contraction/coordination etc) can be developed best thru a combination of real exercise and mental imagery. Google something like - mental imagery and exercise and you should find info or MP3's on this area. I most often forget to think.

Again I can supply links to info that might be helpful.

[aus694]

Exercise? Thinking? Where is the for sale section....

[Deleted]

Happy to help out guys.

[Deleted]

Hi All
just a quick note to say that I should mention that the sail I developed after the worlds last year was tested here in germany where I won 2 regattas with it before I told Karl that I had changed the design. In case his head gets too large his ideas are sometimes a bit wacky and sometimes going around in circles. I usually ignore most of what he says and just try to make the sails fast. However he does have some good ideas. He is correct in saying that everyone else gets the same sail. Thomas won Kiel week this year with a sail identical to Karls and mine and Alistair also had exactly the same sail. The only differences where the luff curve. All the new sails we made for the worlds this year where the same design.
I guess the difference was in the fitness and determination from Karl to fulfil the 531 prophecy!
cheers
Greg

[Deleted]

Talking of sails I note from the UK forum that Rooster.com are developing a cheapo OK sail from China or is it a load of thingy.

[Glenn AUS 719]

G'day Karl,
I appreciate your comments and have found them to be both informative and interesting. I do have one question regarding mast bend and measuring. You state that to provide what you consider is to be the optimum mast bend is to sheet in for 10 - 12 knots of wind, is this because it is in the mid sailing range or is it just a standard that you have stuck to? Do you use a mast tip to transom measurement as well?
I ask this as sheeting positions change depending on your size and technique for sailing in such a wind range.