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50 Rules to Sail by in 2012
You are looking at posts in the category 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012.
50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 - Week 8: Put the Bow Down!
February 20th, 2012 in 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012.
Last weekend, I sailed the stars with my dad who had very little tiller time in the class. The vast majority of his sailing experience has been in dinghies and E-Scows which are deceptively light and accelerate quickly. Hanging over the rail in the crew’s harness with little to look at except the waves coming at me, I found myself pestering him to “keep pressing,” and “put the bow down,” mostly because I didn’t want to drag in the water! But I also wanted to remind him that the boat needs to “eat” in order to stay fast. After the day’s racing, Dad laughed and told me his similar experience earlier that month when he was crewing for my brother Michael in J22s at the San Diego Yacht Club Championship. Michael’s helming experience is also dinghy-focused, so Dad kept reminding Michael that weekend to “Keep the bow down.” Now tables had turned and he had to take some of his own medicine.Rule Number 8 of our 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012: Put the bow down!
It’s easy to get distracted in sailboat racing. Tactical decision-making demands a lot of attention and on small boats the skipper usually has a lot on his or her list of responsibilities. Too often we forget that if we don’t sail the boat as fast as possible, it restricts the number of options available to our decision-making process. In a perfect world we could have a tactician as well as a skipper on board. Big boat teams designate very little physical work for the tactician so that the tactician can devote all of his attention to surveying and assessing all the options available, while the rest of the team works to ensure that the boat can execute the tactician’s plan. The helmsman is just one instrument of that process. In order to make the high-percentage decisions, the tactician depends on consistent steering from the helmsman. The tactician knows how much time and distance it will take to execute the next maneuver because the skipper is focused solely on keeping the boat at full speed all the time.
Small boats don’t always have the luxury of separate tacticians and skippers. They are often one and the same. Sometimes that is a huge advantage: the skipper has the tiller in their hand and can make instantaneous adjustments based on what they see, instead of having to wait for the tactician to see the situation, process the information, formulate the communication and then make the command. Other times it can be a disadvantage: Dad is looking around to see whether we should tack on this header, but in the meantime he’s distracted from driving. If he unknowingly pinches too much and the boat loses momentum as it crashes into a couple bad waves… that leads to either a bad tack or means that we have to press and recover the speed wasting valuable time before we can tack at full speed. The best small boat skippers in the world all have this specific skill: they can look around and assess the situation without having the boat slow down. But that skill only comes from years of practice and tiller-time. Sometimes the skill doesn’t even translate between classes. The Star is a heavy keelboat where the E-Scow is not. Dad’s experience in the scow was that he could look around and if he made a mistake driving he could quickly recover his speed with a small tiller adjustment. On the other hand, the Star demands a few seconds before the boat will react. The boat might not slow down as much when it hits a few waves but it takes a lot longer to accelerate back to top speed afterwards. Often times the heavy boat skipper pays for a steering mistake 30 seconds or a minute later. Keelboats and heavy dinghies can be unforgiving. Momentum is the critical factor with any type of sailing, but constant care and attention must be given to the keelboat’s helm at all times to keep the boat up to speed. How skippers deal with the anticipation of both tactical situations and upcoming conditions determines their success.
“Keep your head out of the boat!” That’s a phrase we’ve all heard from coaches in sailboat racing. It’s an important concept. In fact it will be one of our Rules to Sail By this year, but it is just as important to keep your head in the boat if it means keeping the boat going full speed. Without consistent driving, tactics cannot reach their full potential. Once you’ve decided, Okay, we’re going to continue on starboard tack for the next minute… Then, focus in the boat. Make sure everything goes as fast and smoothly as possible until its time to make the next decision. Because, if you’re ogling the racecourse and second guessing yourself the entire time, you’re likely to make a driving error that could be the unraveling of your overall strategy. There are plenty of times when it’s important to keep your head out of the boat, but just as many when it is important to recognize its best to just put the bow down and get the boat sailing full speed. Don’t get anxious about what might happen. Don’t worry about what you can’t control on the other side of the course. Do what you can in the water you’re in. Press on, and you’ll benefit from the fact that you’ve been sailing full speed. And remember, a helmsman’s first priority is to steer the boat well. Do that and you’ll have a happy tactician and a happy team.
50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 - Week 7
February 13th, 2012 in 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012, Regattas.
The plan was to meet my boat as it arrived in a container after six weeks’ voyage from Perth and use the Zagarino Masters Regatta as a shakedown for Bacardi Cup in a few weeks. More than that, it would provide a cool opportunity to get Dad some tiller time in the star for the first time since the 1978 San Francisco Worlds (and maybe the second time ever). As it turned out, the container with George Szabo and my boat was delayed by two weeks and will barely make it for Bacardi much less this past weekend. In the face of a botched plan, the Star Class rallied yet again to help me out. We ended up borrowing Tom White’s boat that happened to be available for the weekend. I’ve said it before (and it won’t be the last time): the sailors in the Star have been unbelievable in their willingness to help other sailors get on the water. It’s rewarding to have such hospitality from such a competitive group. The outcome: I was lucky enough to go Star boat sailing with my father this weekend in Miami at my first experience of the annual ZAG Masters hosted by the Coral Reef Yacht Club.
The trick of the Masters Regatta is that the skipper must be 50 years old to sail in the regatta, but anybody can crew no matter the age. There is a long list of young sailors crewing for a legend or a mentor in the regatta for the weekend. I will be honest and tell you that I wasn’t really looking forward to jumping into a full weekend of Starboat crewing. I’d rather leave that to the experts. If you think the Star class is a fraternity, the Star class crews are a union within that fraternity that takes a different mentality to enter into.
Part masochist, part water-breathing fish, all super-human, Star crews must love sailing in a way that not many others possibly can ever dream of. Star crews spend upwind beats with their feet going numb and ribs getting squeezed by their vests, all the while trying not to drown because of their heads are barely six inches above the water. Every tack is a technically demanding dance as they jump up out of the droop-hike, uncleat the old jib sheet, kiss their knee-caps as they squeeze under the low boom and explode up to the new rail yanking the new jibsheet into the cleat as they take a leap of faith over the new windward rail, hanging upside down by their knee ligaments until they can hook into the new rail and “relax” as they get fire-hosed down by the next wave. At windward marks, Crews control the mast as it scarily jumps forward over the bow. Downwind, they control every gybe by performing the not-so-delicate tasks of simultaneously pulling on and releasing the backstays. I learned first-hand that gybing the whisker pole should never be taken for granted (I wrapped the jib around the sagging headstay three times on one gybe, something all Star Crews can read and smirk at what a rookie maneuver I made!). Leeward marks are where the artistry and the brawn of a Star crew are put to the test: They have to get the jib and whisker pole situated, do a 200lbs deadlift as they yank the backstay on and pull the mast back into its upwind setting, then spin around and trim the jibsheet perfectly as the skipper is lollygagging with 100 feet of mainsheet that will probably have to be cleaned up by the crew anyway after he jumps again headfirst over the rail into the next 20 minutes of upwind droop hiking.
I realize I should have written long ago about how tough a Star crew’s job can be, but nothing like the fresh soreness and bruises of a breezy weekend of Star crewing to inspire me to pay homage.
That brings me to this week’s Rule to Sail by in 2012: Enjoy Sailing.
Mark Reynolds won the weekend series sailing with his long-time friend and teammate Hal Haenel. He said a few words at the trophy ceremony that resonated with everybody in the room. He talked about his experience sailing in the Masters Regatta in years past. He mentioned that he probably sailed in the regatta ten or twelve times before he was 50 as a crew racing with his mentors and legends of the class. During those years he conceded that he was almost always more “worried about the competitive aspects of sailing,” it gave him some perspective on what the sport was all about. While sailing out to the race course as (feeling almost as out of place as I did this weekend as a crew) one of his heroes in the class Harry Walker looked around with a smile and said to Mark, “What a beautiful day it is to be out sailing!”
Sometimes it is too easy to get caught up with the competition of sailboat racing. I love trying to improve in the tactical, the boathandling, the fundamentals, and the fine points of sailboat racing, but not often enough do I step back and say, “This is pretty darn good, I’m going sailing today. How lucky am I?” This weekend was a rare opportunity to go sailboat racing with my dad. The recognition goes for any case where I can go racing with my mom, my brother, my wife, or my friends: Everybody should be so lucky. Everybody can be so lucky.
Dad and I struggled at times this weekend. We were probably 100 pounds lighter than many of the teams and had desperately little experience to rely on in our respective positions of skipper and crew in the Star. The breeze was up, always in the 15-18 knots range, making boathandling both critical and difficult. We had moments of brilliance, but they were fleeting. On Sunday morning we started well, but were caught out on the wrong side and rounded the windward mark dead last! What the heck have we been doing sailing our entire lives and we can’t get to the weather mark ahead of one boat? We were able to make a good gain on the first run, had a great leeward mark rounding and on the second beat we gained again. Sure enough for the entire last run and the beat to the finish we were in striking distance of the leaders and enjoyed heartily our battle for a 4th place finish. We had literally punched above our weight and smiled about it! They call them “moral victories” for a reason… and we had won one.
The weekend affirmed my appreciation not only in for the camaraderie of the Star class, but also for how lucky I am to have a family that can enjoy our sport together. Very few other sports provide the same sorts of opportunities. I challenge you to take advantage of every opportunity if you have the chance. Think about what sailboat racing means to you. Then go grab some family or make time with friends and go sailing. That’s what keeps you coming back for more.
50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 - Week 6
February 6th, 2012 in 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012, Training.
We don’t always get to practice as much as we’d like. Schedules can be tough enough to get a practice session in by ourselves. Add to the complication that you might have to get crew involved. Multiply the problem by two or three boats the likelihood of a good practice day can become pretty slim. Because practice days are so rare, it is critically important to take full advantage of them. Even in the other extreme: when sailors are pursuing an Olympic campaign or at regularly scheduled College Sailing practice, sometimes it is easy to let a good opportunity on the water slip through the cracks. In order to get the most out of practice and use the time we have effectively, make this your routine Rule #6: Have a goal for practice.
There are a thousand specific maneuvers, moves, and concepts that sailors practice when they go out for a session of training. Every sailor has particular level of ability for each of those items. Every sailor also has gaps in his or her game that, if closed, would bring success more often on the racecourse.
Two years ago at the CISA Clinic we asked Zach Railey to get up and speak after dinner to our crowd of 110 youth sailors, 25 coaches and some of the ABYC membership. He could have spoken about anything he wanted to, but he chose to speak about “Goal Setting” and very eloquently demonstrated the value of breaking down his Olympic campaign into very small pieces. When you start any effort to become better, you have to start with the fundamentals. He returned to the concept that when you break a campaign down into its most basic concepts, you can start attacking them one by one. Before you know it you’ve improved in the leaps and bounds you envisioned.
Sometimes its easy to see what you want to achieve and think, “That’s way out of reach.” But, with effective practice, you can close the gaps between you and that goal. Each time you go out to practice it should be to conquer one of those bite-size fundamental concepts that Zach was alluding to. While biting off these pieces of a giant idea, we can rest assured that we’re watching the time tick by on our way to mastering that concept. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Outliers he says that in order to be an expert you need to have 10,000 hours of experience in a certain subject. I would argue that you can spend 10,000 hours doing something, but if you don’t use those 10,000 hours effectively, you may still be lacking in your expertise.
Let’s say you want to get better in heavy air sailing for a regatta to be held in a windy venue this spring. Your goal should be to master all aspects of that concept as best you can. Ian and I trained last year with that mentality that we should be better at heavy air sailing so that our maneuvers were never going to negatively impact our tactics and strategy at the 2011 Worlds in a heavy air venue in Perth. We broke our training sessions in Annapolis into shorter and more focused efforts. Spending long days on the water was important from time to time to increase our overall endurance, but there is enormous value to focused interval training. When you train in short sprints and focus on mastering minor skills, the mind and body retains the memory of achieving the goals of those efforts. We had 15 days to train in Annapolis over the course of October and early November. Not all of those days were windy enough to justify the type of training we were looking for. We trained other concepts on light air days, and used moderate days to improve on general maneuvers from our list, but we had 5 days with 18 knots and we knew we had to use them very carefully. Obviously you do more than just the specific goals listed during any practice, but we carefully watched, remembered and debriefed these specific concepts on the days we set them as our goals. We could capitalize on good days from Annapolis by behind ahead of the curve once we arrived for additional training in Perth:
Day 1: Upwind De-Powering (minimal tacking), Downwind Sailing (body placement and steering, minimal gybing)
Day 2: Upwind Steering, Downwind Steering (Day 1 continued)
Day 3: Upwind Hiking intervals, Downwind heavy air gybing
Day 4: Upwind Tacking Practice, Downwind Leeward Mark roundings
Day 5: Downspeed pre-start maneuvering, Windward Mark roundings
Each previous days’ work would contribute to the next. Each previous day was a building block for the next. By Day 2 we had a better idea about how to set the boat up and how the boat is supposed to feel thanks to our better understanding of how to depower. Without taking care of the steering first, how could good tacks be achieved? These days were not all consecutive. There were sometimes a couple in a row and then a week in between, but because we debriefed all the concepts ad nauseum they were burned into our heads so we could quickly review before we went sailing in heavy air again. Sometimes it is too easy to only practice the things you are already good at, or things that seem more fun on the day. Only by sticking to an organized plan can you ensure that you cover all your bases. By the time we got to Australia, we had a year’s experience in all kinds of breeze conditions, but were particularly well set up for breezy conditions. We trained and raced on some perilously windy days where other teams were not happy about having to go out for fear of breaking equipment, but because of our training we were able to focus on the racing instead of surviving the day of sailing, an important distinction.
Later in the year we’ll talk about breaking down a maneuver list to help practice sessions. We made such a list for the Match Race Clinic at the Rose Cup at Balboa Yacht Club last spring. Here’s a sneak peak and how you could start breaking down your practice sessions to help master a particular aspect of your game. The Maneuvers Checklist: match-race-maneuvers-checklist-1.pdf
And if you don’t like practice, or just want some help making excuses you can commiserate with my fellow Hoya, AI:
50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 #5 - How to read a forecast
January 29th, 2012 in 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012.
Last fall, Ian and I headed over to Ireland to race in the Star European championships in Dublin. We knew that September was a bit late in the calendar for European racing. The chances for windy and chilly weather were pretty high. But, part of our planning for the Worlds was to train and race in windy conditions, and Dublin was a great opportunity for that. When we got there here’s what we saw:
The remnants of Hurricane Irene had swept all the way across the Atlantic after slamming into New England and were rumbling across Ireland while we were there. How on earth can you predict the breeze in a whirling weather mess like that, much less training and a regatta? Our US Sailing team forecaster was using his models, but they were a few hours old by the time we we read the predictions and older than that by the time we were racing. With a low pressure system that crazy, the weather was changing by the minute. Forecasting for as small a time frame as one 15 minute leg in one race was almost impossible for even the best meteorologists.
Good forecasting depends heavily on the sailor’s interpretation of real weather conditions during the day of racing. No forecast is perfect. Last week in Rule #4 we talked about how history can be dangerous. Forecasting weather for meteorologists demands the same type of pattern recognition that sailors use for tactical situations. The sailor must take it upon him or herself to understand why a forecast called for certain conditions and then confirm that those conditions still exist while racing. If the conditions have changed, in all likelihood, the forecast should have changed.
Rule #5: Having the forecast is nice. Knowing how to interpret the forecast is important. Knowing when the forecast is irrelevant and making your own decisions about what will happen based on what you see can be critical. Use the forecast to your advantage, but don’t rely on it too heavily.
Any sailor’s basic forecast will have a standard format including, but not limited to: the expected temperatures for the day, general conditions (sunshine, high clouds, low clouds, scattered rain, rain, t-storms), breeze range in knots (0-5, 5-10, 8-12, 10-15, 12-18, 15-20, 18-25, 25+ etc.), expected breeze direction on the compass (some range like 180-220 or 310-350, etc), tide information and range, expected current direction, and maybe seastate (1-2 foot chop, 4 foot ground swell from 220, etc.). Anybody who has ever looked at the WIND and DIRECTION columns in the forecast and then shut the computer and went sailing? Raise your hands! I know you’re out there. I’ve done that before. We all have.
The best forecasts will have a discussion to augment the data listed above. Meteorologists rely on models to predict what will happen based on historical data that matches up the with patterns they see. The discussion is the forecaster’s opportunity to hedge against the models’ predictions. The discussion is the most important part of the forecast! Often there will be nuggets of information that can help your racing even when the forecast goes bad. We’ve all had a forecast go bad. It happens all the time: The forecast calls for a light northwesterly, and sure enough by 2 o’clock the seabreeze is pumping from the southeast! It’s so easy to blame the forecast for being wrong. But if we had only read between the lines in the forecast, there might have been a hedge against the model’s predictions. Here’s how that might have gone:
ACME Sailor’s Weather Service for Miami, FL:
Morning: 8-12 knots, Direction: 300-340
Afternoon: 3-7 knots, Direction: 310-350
Conditions: High overcast and cool 64F in the morning. Clearing and warmer 74F in the afternoon
If that’s all the information we had, we would expect to see the breeze get lighter and veer to the right over the course of the day’s racing. But without the temperature and cloud forecast, it makes it very difficult to confirm the forecast with the reality that we see on the water. If we get on the water in the morning and the breeze is only 4-10 knots and the sun is already shining and you’re peeling off spray tops in the 75 degree heat, it might be time to ditch the specifics of the forecast but hang onto the concept. The meteorologist might have had a discussion like this:
Forecast confidence is below average. The offshore flow should be the dominant breeze in the morning. If the cloudcover remains, the NW breeze will remain throughout the day, dying to 0-5 knots by dusk. (Hedge: If the sun comes out inland, heating may cause a thermal condition encouraging the SE seabreeze to come in. Indications will be warmer conditions around midday and the appearance of small cumulus clouds across the course area.)
Herein lies the key point that might save a race. If everybody in the fleet read the first part of the forecast and ignored the discussion, they might be expecting the standard Miami northerly: big oscillations and variation in breeze strength generally favoring the left side of the course. But, during the first race, if the heat comes on and the breeze starts to die, its the observant sailors that start looking to the right side of the course over towards Key Biscayne for the seabreeze to start making a serious impact on the race.
There are a thousand examples of forecasts being wrong. But knowing the patterns and applying them yourself is the real trick. When Ian and I looked at the forecast for Dublin during the Europeans on windguru.com we saw some very clear shifts based on the hourly forecasts provided:
If you look closely at the forecast for Sunday September 4th (the top left part of the forecast marked Su 04) it gives the hourly strength (in color-coded knots) and direction (by the arrow). Note also it provides temperature in Celcius, cloud-cover high-level, mid-level, and low-level percentages, and rain in a rate of millimeters per 3 hours.
Our racing started about 11 o’clock, so we had to infer from the forecast what would happen during the day. On Sunday September 4th, it looked as though we would sail out in a light southerly that would quickly build to about 20 knots as the rain started early afternoon.
Now the forecast says that it wouldn’t rain that hard before 13h (1 o’clock), but if we matched the forecast to the reality of what we saw on the course we could get a good idea of how to set the boat up. We knew that when we saw the rain start coming down that we should get set up for breezy conditions. We also knew that as the rain stopped we could watch for the breeze to shift to the west as indicated by the forecast for the next few days. Would it all happen in the same timeframe listed by the windguru forecast? Who knows!?! If we had interpreted it too literally we might have been left scratching our heads because at 13h it hadn’t started raining yet and the breeze was still 8-10 knots from the southwest. We might have been caught with our rig too depowered for the light air conditions. Instead, we stayed ready for light air but kept our eye out for the indications that the breeze might pick up. Sure enough, at 16h (4 o’clock) when rain clouds started sweeping down from the hills of Dun Loaghaire, we knew that we should wait to depower the rig until the rain brought windier conditions.
Its important to have an idea of what the forecaster predicts for a day’s sailing. But its more important to arm yourself with the ability to recognize when the trend is correct and when its incorrect. In my example about Miami, it might be more important to forget about the forecast and just go with what you see on the course. In Dublin we remembered what the forecast said and just delayed its application by an hour or two. Forecasts are just a meteorologists interpretations of the computer models. The sailor always has the advantage of realtime live information to make his or her decisions on the racecourse. Knowing the forecast can only get you so far. Knowing how apply the forecast to the day of sailing can win and lose a sailboat race.
50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 - Week 4
January 23rd, 2012 in 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012, Monday Morning Tactician.
29ers at CISA Clinic Racing off Long Beach, CA
Every day we race sailboats we take with us a foundation of experience unique to each one of us. That’s one of the beautiful things about our sport. Sailors race in small boats by themselves, and small boats with other people, or big boats with tons of other people, and sometimes big boats by themselves. They race on odd little lakes as well as massive expanses of freshwater. They sail on the clear blue of the ocean as well as the nasty culs of the sea. Some race against the tidal currents while others dodge airplane jet outflow. When we travel to some of these spectacular and less-than-so locations around the globe we drag along an ever-growing bundle of experiences that we can then apply to whatever situation we happen upon on a given day. No matter where we are, whether it be the home club where we’ve raced hundreds of races over the decades, or a brand new spot we have experience from which we can detect patterns to help match up with reality and react accordingly. Great sailors learn how to apply their experience to a new location. That’s why some sailors can excel no matter the racing venue. They recognize patterns developed from their own experience and meld them to the forces at work in an unfamiliar location. They use rules of thumb and are keenly aware of the changing dynamics that might demand alterations of their approach to the day’s racing.
But how many times have we been to the regatta and had the locals say: “It’s never like this here!” We had those very words come from the mouths of locals in Fremantle at the 2011 ISAF World Championships after four days of less than 12 knots of breeze from all kinds of funny directions. For the years leading into the event the world was preparing for 18-25 knot seabreezes. Even the weeks leading into the regatta were classic Fremantle Doctor days. Then the regatta started and things were somehow not expected. Sailors might have painted themselves into a corner by preparing only for breezy conditions or bringing sails tailored for breeze. If there had been a local fleet of Starboat sailors, they might have been the toughest in the world in 18 knots or more, but would have been brought back to earth by the variance in conditions.
Rule #4 in our list of 50: History can be dangerous.
Sailors are notoriously superstitious. Maybe not in the same way as they used to be. Modern sailboat racing can barely relate with whaling ships and tales of the kraken, but sailors do have their tendencies to rely on those gems of history. We’ve all heard the comments before a day’s racing:
“You always go right in Long Beach”
or
“The left is always better in Fremantle.”
How many times have we said to ourselves:
“Well, the left won the last race, so maybe we’d better head that way this race because it will probably happen again.”
These are dangerous statements. (more…)
50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 - Week 3
January 15th, 2012 in 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012.
With the youth worlds qualifier going on this weekend and the second semester of school starting shortly Rule #3 is opportunely timed as sailors fill up their calendars for 2012. For sailors young and old, planning for regattas is a part of the game. Whether it means finding somebody to help put the Laser on top of the car for a trip across town to interclub racing, or finding somebody to help ratchet a Star trailer in a shipping container for a trip across the world for a major championships, there is some level of advanced planning going on in everybody’s head.
It all starts with a simple thought: I think we should go to that regatta! Now what? Whether its easy or not, the responsibility for making to the starting line always sits on the sailor’s shoulders. Granted, sailors too young to drive themselves to the event, but each step along the process of getting to the starting line is a learning opportunity. For young sailors these logistical problem-solving skills can build self-reliance and a sense of personal responsibility. We know that once young sailors are on the water, they are teaching themselves valuable lessons while developing character as they interact with their equipment and other sailors in an effort to get around the racecourse. Often overlooked are the opportunities for young sailors to take the administrative efforts into their own hands. The moment a sailor vocalizes to his or her parents or to a coach: “Yes, I want to do that regatta” it seems the common reaction is for the parent or coach to jump into action to make it happen, instead of the sailor. Parents are often so keen to see their young sailors be interested and active in the sport, they actually handicap the sailor’s development in the sport by taking the administrative role out of the sailor’s responsibility. At some point sailors have to make the transition from having his or her parents take care of all the details and have to make plans themselves. This is the most important phase in a sailor’s development in the sport. The classic concepts of homework, attention to detail, and the value of planning are taught every day in school to enable students to transition into the real world with the capacity to administer their own lives. Sailors should be taught those same lessons if they desire to pursue the sport throughout their lives.
Rule #3 is one that I learned at a very young age. Even though I still need a refresher course every once in a while, I will never forget dear old Dad prophesying that ancient truth summed up by the 7P’s (please excuse the PG13 language but it’s the only way I remember it): (more…)
50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 - Weeks 1 & 2
January 9th, 2012 in 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012, General.
I’m going to mix things up a bit this year with the weekly column. If we have classic tactical scenarios from sailing situations I am still going to dissect those as best as possible here, in the meantime I figure 2012 is as good a year as any to start compiling that crucial list of rules to sail by. I’ll do my best to cover the bases from minor to major in no particular order. I guarantee that at some point we’ll all stop and think I’ve broken that rule before and maybe it worked, or maybe it didn’t. Some of the rules might be things we already do. A little reinforcement can go a long way so I hope you stick with me.
My sailing strategy in general is to break down sailboat racing into a series of key decisions for each race. If each decision has multiple choices, then I need to assess and decide which of those choices has the highest percentage of success. At that point, my boat needs to execute the decision as well as possible to assure ourselves the best chance of a good position leading into the next choice in the race. It is easy to get ahead of myself and think Well, if I can just get around this mark inside and then tack on three headers I’ll be in the lead after this next beat. A good plan is only as good as its execution.
Even good plans turn out to be founded on a wrong decision early in the race. It is also important to be able to reassess from any given point on the racecourse and adjust any preconceived notions as to how the race was going. I wrote an article for Sailing World Magazine a couple years ago about “Pressing the Reset Button.” It covered that idea about how sailors need to have a “baseball memory.” Even if you struck out the last time you were up to bat, you need to come up the plate the next time with the intentions of getting a hit. That goes for any decision point in a race: a tack or cross situation, an exit from a leeward mark, or a choice of starting position on the line. At every point we need to at least have the capacity to say to ourselves Is this the high percentage choice at this moment?. This year’s list of 50 Rules to Sail by in 2012 will help us to recognize those important points around every race, and then help us make the highest percentage move at each point.
So lets get to our www.CampbellSailing.com 2012 Rule to Sail by Number 1: Have a plan.
That seems simple enough, before every regatta we have an idea about the conditions that are likely for the event. Is it going to be windy? Will it be light? Will it be hot? Is there going to be a rainy cold front? All of these things go into a plan for a regatta. Just as we get properly dressed for the regatta (to be continued in rule #10), we should assess the conditions on the course before each race starts. Singlehanded sailors get to talk to themselves, but multiperson boats should have a pre-race discussion that starts like this: Do we like the Right or the Left side of the racecourse? Why? Is there current advantage on one side or the other? Is the starting line favored to one side or the other? What worked out last race or last time we sailed in this condition? Is there something to make it different from last time?
Once you’ve had that type of discussion, the plan should be generalized something like this:
We like the breeze on the left. The committee boat is favored, thus the fleet will probably be stacked up there. We’ll try and start to leeward of the group and lead them left. Then we’ll cross them and center up in the final 1/4 of the leg -or- We’ll hammer the left until it’s nailed shut and try and win from that side.
Regardless, openly discussing the plan does a number of things. It allows your teammates to be on the same page as the tactician or skipper. In example above, the crew knows that it is important to hike hard and keep our lane off the starting line. Clean up and minor details are not as important as keeping the boat going fast towards the left. If the plan were to go right, its important for the crew to know there is an early tack coming after the start. I think you can see where this is going.
Just chatting about the maneuver or giving brief overview of the plan makes everybody think quickly about their individual roles in helping execute that plan. Going into a windward mark it is the tactician or skipper’s job to vocalize the plan for how to exit the mark. There are more than a few choices, but here are three: 1 Straight Set. 2 Gybe Set. or 3. Set and looking to match the boat behind. Just stating the plan is often enough to remind all of your teammates that they have a critical job to play on the upcoming move.
That gives us a great segue to Rule Number 2: Be Flexible
Just as much as it is important to have a plan, it is just as important to Be Flexible. How many times have we had the plan discussed above and then made a mistake. We wanted the left, we didn’t have a great start, we got rolled off the line and we’re in bad air. The tactician or skipper has to be able to reassess at the point. Sometimes quick decisions need to be made, (more…)