Tag: #yacht

In a crewed boat there is great satisfaction from being part of a good crew.

It is often said that everyone secretly wants to be the skipper but there are also those that get more rewards from being part of a well functioning team.

When you compete in a world class event, great crew work is what makes the difference between two boats. Ninety percent of the difference comes from boathandling and being the slickest at tacking, gybing, working the waves and calling the shifts.

While the helmsman concentrates on steering, the crew do everything else, so their importance cannot be underestimated.

A great crew arrive at the boat early, check and recheck equipment then set the boat up for the days racing. Talk will be about the forthcoming races, the weather, competitors to be aware of and what to expect out on the course.

Those teams that sit around in the clubhouse till the last minute discussing a range of subjects not related to the racing are setting themselves up to fail.

Every crew member needs to have a clear idea of what their job is but must also know the tasks of their team mates so that they can fill in when an emergeny arrises or someone can’t be there.

To be successful, your team must have the desire to win in order to push themselves harder than their fellow competitors, even when they are dead tired.

Good communication onboard is essential and the larger the crew, the more important this becomes. In the case of a huge team there is the need to have a spokesperson for each essential team, as an example bow, mast office, trimmers and tactics.

Too much undisiplined chatter only serves to distract and causes concentration of all crew members to suffer.

On a lot of boats, the downwind leg is seen as the chance to relax but many places can be gained or advantage increased by working the waves and the shifts whilst those around you take it easy.

As well as the desire to win and personal optimism, another essential requirement is compatibilty followed by sailing knowledge and good physical condition.

Most other things to be successful in sailing can be taught, practiced or learned as long as the desire to achieve is there.

How often have we seen a team of champions not succeed because they couldn’t get along, each crew member and their skills set needs to complement other team members.

#sailingtowin #sailing #competitivesailing #yachtrace #sail #yachtrace

In any sport, the higher the level, the more important the state of mind becomes. In racing a sailboat, because of complexity, mastering this aspect is even more critical if you want to win.

Top sailors master boat handling, trimming, the rules of racing, meteorolgy, sailing in current and so on but as you reach the top few in any fleet, pschology starts to play a greater role.

At the top level, the difference in boatspeed is negligible and at this point your mental condition becomes every bit as important as your physical condition.

A racing sailor who doesn’t have a clear and relaxed mind may miss a cloud the produces a wind shift or miss seeing a tide transition line ahead.

They are also not thinking about how an opponent will react if they gybe or tack therefore they miss things which means they can no longer influence or control their competitors.

When you go racing, whether it be at club, national or international level, you need to be able to vacate your mind of your business, financial or relationship concerns so you can concentrate on the race.

Obviously we are all different, with different outside pressures, so each of us need to have our own ways to relax prior to going out to race.

For some it may be sitting quietly with a coffee and the newspaper, for others it may be tinkering with the boat whilst at the same time listening to your favourite music through headphones.

Recently I was chatting to a very successful sailor who told me that on a light wind day he tuned his earphones to gentle music and on a heavy wind and wave day, the music he listened to whilst setting up was much more upbeat and boisterous.

For some sailors it is setting up early then moving around the boat park chatting to fellow competitors about the days coming event and for others it is immersing themselves in their own boat and thoughts, blocking out everything else.

One easy win in the psychological stakes is to launch and get out to the course area early or being the first off the beach, fellow competitors who are still rigging and setting their boats up will notice and become stressed.

If you can control your mind you are a long way towards becoming a champion.

#sailingtowin #sail #sailtowin #yachtrace #sailingcoach #sailboatrace

SAILING TO WIN?

I found this article (copied below) online, written by Colin D Neal outlining the vitues of defeat. It was written in 1972 and appeared in Yacht Racing.

It is as relevant today as it was then.

The guy who regularly beats you has served his apprenticeship of defeats and is now reaping the benefits.

Let those who consistently sail to victory remain smug and not read this article, lest they see herein the future and be touched with the first gentle pangs of anxiety over their eventual defeat by that newcomer who now just barely muddles around the course.

Winning sailors don’t lose their touch, they just get out of the habit of learning from every race. Those of us who are losing have the decided advantage of being hungry for victory and thus learn something from every loss.

After a year of watching the rest of the fleet sail gracefully off into the distance, the act of gradually improving to the point of being able to sail around several marks with your competitors brings one to a peak of ecstasy that will probably never be experienced again in sailing, except perhaps when one first rounds the windward mark in the lead.

Therein lies the advantage of the novice, and the reason why this sage of 29 years asserts loudly for all the world to hear—today’s losers shall inherit tomorrow’s trophies, for the pains of defeat provide more incen­tive to win then do the joys of victory.

Losing a sailboat race is probably one of the most distressing conditions in which a person voluntarily puts oneself. What could be simpler, on first sight, than speedily and easily sailing around those little marks?

Almost anyone can learn to sail within a matter of hours. In fact, if we are to be truthful with ourselves, we are forced to admit that sailing is ludicrously easy after a bit of practice.

If sailing is so easy, why then is competitive sailing so agonizingly difficult?

During our first races as a beginner, why are we only one third of the way to the mark when everyone else is rounding?

Or, why is our boat continually alternating between luffing and almost capsizing when everyone else is merrily beating into a 15-knot hurricane, with smiles on their faces and joy in their hearts?

On light air days, how are they able to plod cheerfully onward while our tub wanders resolutely back from whence it came whenever a wave of more than two inches in height breaks apathetically under the bow?

With the same sails and boat, how come other guy sails higher and faster than we do on the beats, and even faster on the reaches and runs?

The answer to such questions lies in the acquisition of a sound psychological understanding of the sailboat and the relationship of the helmsman to it.

And the key to this understanding (and to the secret of eventual success) lies in the recognition of our boat’s inherent devilishness, with which we must constantly battle and from which we can constantly learn.

Scientific knowledge to the contrary, who can privately doubt that the tender, hypersensitive creature we allegedly command actually has an inhumanly human and maliciously independent spirit of her own?

To those rationalists who scoff and claim otherwise, I say this: explain in 25 words or less why changing the length of the forestay by three inches puts you far ahead this week and at the back of the fleet the next, under the same wind conditions.

The old cliché about winning races by making the fewest mistakes is not only trite, but true. And how do we learn to make the fewest mistakes? By making mistakes.

Nobody learns to cover until he loses because of his failure to cover. We learn how to round properly by rounding wrongly and losing.

We learn how to tune for and sail the beats by getting angry enough to find out everything we can about the subject and then getting out and tuning and practicing and racing and racing and racing.

There are no child prodigies or other amazing successes in sailboat racing. The dozens (or hundreds) of variables in tuning, tactics, boat handling and wind­finding see to that.

The guy who regularly beats you has served his apprenticeship of defeats and is now reaping the benefits. He got there as a result of a lengthy quest for ways to avoid the embarrassment and agony of defeat.

#sailingtowin #sailing #sailboatrace #sailingcoach #sail #sailtowin

With the end of the year offshore race season almost upon us, (in the Southern Hemisphere anyway) I have set out below a few tips for crews.

Keeping the whole team alert at night can be tough especially on the first night of a long race when our internal body clocks have not gotten in to the rhythym of a watch system.

• Before the race starts, make sure that you get at least two good nights sleep.
• Have a couple of designated crew members who can operate the stove and make coffee or hot drinks for the change of watch or mid watch when attention can tend to sag.
• Make night watches shorter than day watches.
• Watches that are rotation style seem to work best, where only one or a small number of crew switch each time rather than a 50% crew changeover. 
• Encourage communication amongst the on watch team as this ensures everyone keeps their head in the game and as a bonus, this helps prevent drowsiness.
• Involve the on-watch team in tactical and trim discussion to stop talk drifting off into other subjects which will move the teams concentration away from the purpose of being on the race course.
• If you are doing a job such as helming and you feel as though you are losing your edge, don’t be a hero, change positions with someone else, even if only for a short time to get refreshed.
• Monitor your boats performance by keeping notes on your main competitors whereabouts, noting gains and losses and the reasons that these changes have happened.
• When there is a change of watch, this is often the time when performance slips. Fully brief the oncoming crew about tactical and speed related issues before or as they come on deck
• Have one or two crew stay with the new watch they are fully acclimatised to the setup and conditions.

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#sailintowin #sailing #sail #sailtowin #yachtrace #sailcoach #sailboatrace

I have copied below a couple of questions with answers regarding weather and sailboat racing by two of my favourite sailing mentors. Dave Dellenbaugh of the Speed and Smart Newsletter https://www.speedandsmarts.com/ who asked the questions and Chelsea Carlson https://www.sea-tactics.com/ who has anwered based on her knowledge as a qualified Meteorologist and successful sailor.

If a racing sailor asked you for one weather tip that would be most helpful for their long-term racing success, what would you say?

Long-term success comes from continual learning. You can pick up some quick racing tips here and there, but my advice is to focus on learning concepts about the wind and weather. This will help you understand how the wind behaves wherever you go.

If I absolutely had to give one (and only one) word of advice, I’d probably say ‘Look up at the clouds!’ The clouds are full of good clues about the wind.

Is there any part of weather forecasting that sailors should not worry about so much?

A lot of people rely too much on a favourite weather app on their phone. Technology and models will generally not give you much of a competitive edge (unless you are using custom tech at a high level).

An app can give you a big part of the weather picture (i.e. ‘the wind direction will slowly shift right all day’), but it won’t usually tell you the key, subtle information that makes the biggest difference in your race performance.

That info comes from your brain on the racecourse when you see clouds and all the other local clues that tell you what the wind is doing.

When you’re racing, how much time do you spend actually looking up at clouds?

Probably more than you’d think, but it depends a lot on my crew role. When I’m not driving, I am usually responsible for weather, strategy and keeping track of the compass numbers.

I make a conscious effort to be ‘head out of the boat’ (i.e. looking at the sky and wind) as much as possible. One of the best times to sky-scan and think about the weather is on the sail out to the course.

Then I continue this while we are tuning up, and I spend a solid five minutes watching the sky and clouds shortly before the start.

During the race I’ve also made it a habit to scan the sky every few minutes for changes.

What are some good clues about future changes in wind speed and direction?

Sometimes there are easy clues, sometimes not. The best indicators of changes in the wind are usually clouds, which are certainly the easiest to see.

If you understand how the wind works around clouds, it can be a game-changer.

For other clues you might ‘feel’ them rather than see them – like a change in air or water temperature, which may signal a potential change in the wind.

A good rule of thumb is that warming air indicates more ‘overturning’ in the atmosphere, which means a higher chance of shifts and puffs.

Cool air means the layers of air are more stable, so it’s less puffy and shifty.

#sailingtowin #sailing #sailboatracing #yachtrace #sail #sailingcoach #sailtowin

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Strategy is the big picture game plan that you work out before the race starts and tactics are the decisions you make to execute the strategy.

Without boatspeed your chances of success are limited and this is something that you must have worked on during training and practice and prior to starting in a race.

Considering all three elements in the heat of a race can be overwhelming, but simplifying the decision-making process helps us focus on what matters most in the moment.

To have any hope of winning we must make unemotional, repeatable, high-percentage decisions that, coupled with solid boatspeed, will get us consistent results.

When working out your pre-race ­strategy, ther are four basic considerations. The big-picture weather forecast, current, geographic effects and the wind in which you will be sailing.

Track the wind patterns before the start, work out how big the shifts are, how long they last and what happens when there are changes in wind strength.

If the wind is oscillating, the favored end of the starting line becomes more important. Start in clear air near the favoured end, but the priority is to set  up for a quick tack to the right.

As an example, we want to go right after the start and have set up at the windward part of the line. Due to circumstances beyond our control it is no longer possible to be there, what we must now do, is work out where we can start in clear air but still have the ability to get to the right.

If the wind is steady and there’s no reason to sail to one side of the course, then line bias becomes the most important factor. If you don’t anticipate any major shifts, think of the favoured end as a head start.

Sailing in bad air toward the mark is often better than sailing in a clear lane in the wrong direction so constantly be reassessing where you are in relation to all the boats that you are competing against.

If there aren’t likely to be major wind changes, limiting your tacks and sailing in clear lanes becomes a more important strategy.

Just say your strategy is wrong, and this happens a reasonable amount of the time even to the best strategists. Don’t get emotional, quickly think about why it was wrong and update your strategy.

If your strategy isn’t working, there’s nothing wrong with observing what the ­good teams in your fleet are doing and letting them help you ­figure it out.

If your strategy has proven to be flawed re-connect with the pack and look for trends in their ­decision-making.

Watch and learn from those who have ­consistent success. 

#sailingtowin #sailing #sailtowin #yachtrace #sailingcoach #sail 

MORE SAILING TO WIN!

Holding Station on the line –

• Keep the boat flat to stop it going sideways.
• If you end up head to wind, release the kicker/boom vang to help regain steerage. 
• If you wish to go sideways, lift the centreboard.
• If you want to go backwards, sit your weight forward to stop the transom from digging in. 

Accelerate From a Holding Position When the Gun Goes –

• Practice this, ideally with two other boats of similar ability by lining up with one boatlength between boats and on a signal, accelerate up to speed.
• It pays to set the boat up for slightly more power than you will need to go upwind so you can keep your height and not fall into the boat below.
• Setting up for more power also assists to sail through the disturbed wind and water caused by the proximity of many boats in the starting area.

Hit The Line At Full Speed –

• The boat will accelerate best when starting on a close reach before hardening up
• You need to know your boats capabilities, especially in the confused seas and wind that will be present in the starting area.
• In the pre-start, sail away from the line and then approach, taking note of the time it takes in the current conditions and number of boats in close proximity.
• Monitor the difference caused by gusts and lulls during your timed run to the line.
• If you are not confident in getting a good start, , place yourself where you can guarantee the best chance of starting in clear air.

Protect Your Space – 

• Keeping a gap to leeward is vital to give you options and to give you space to accelerate into.
• Keep your bow off the wind with the boom out and the sails flapping and this closes the gap. If someone comes in below you, they have to give you room and time to keep clear.
• To create a space or to make it larger, work the boat up to above close hauled without sheeting the sails.
• If you do use your space, look for another one straight away and don’t hesitate.

And finaly, remember, the favoured end may not be on the favoured side of the course so make allowances for this in your starting strategy.

#Sailingtowin #sailtowin #sailing #yachtrace #sailingcoach #sail #yacht

• Watch your competition to get a quick understanding of your boats relative performance and once noted, do not wait to make changes.
• When sailing to windward, bear off a degree or two and simultaneously ease your sails to increase speed.
• Keep a constant note of your angle of heel. Too much windward helm indicates that you have too much heel and Lee helm indicates too little heel.
• Heel is an important speed factor and this can be corrected with moving crew weight, changing sail shape or angle to the wind.
• Always attempt to sail in clear air, disturbed wind and water has a dramatic effect on speed so always manouvre away as soon as possible.
• In light winds and choppy water keep crew weight as low in the boat as possible.
• Only carry out manouvres when the boat is moving as fast as possible for the given conditions.
• When sailing downwind, the trimmer and helmsperson should communicate during every puff or lull.
• Be the first boat to gybe in a lift.
• Make sure you have the jib trimmed so that the telltales break evenly when you luff. On the mainsail the top telltale should be just on the edge most of the time.
• When making changes, make one at a time and let the boat settle down. Watch for speed differences before changing something else.
• If you notice that you are slow, take immediate action.
• When trimming sails, remember that the correct shape is more important than the projected sail area. Sails work at peak efficiency when the draft is 35 to 50 percent aft of the luff.
• In heavy air, carry the spinnaker pole a little forward of where you normally would and ease the sheet the same amount. This will make the boat more forgiving and less likely to broach.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPEED