If you have to spend a lot of time at the Laundromat pick one with comfortable chairs!
As I was sitting in the Laundromat this afternoon waiting for my clothes to dry (the home dryer is broken – but that’s a story for another blog) I started thinking about some things; the meaning of life, wars in foreign lands, what’s really up with Brangelina, and lint. Yes, some of us have time in our lives to actually contemplate lint. So, as I was sitting there in the yellow plastic chair, fidgeting a bit, (the chairs at the Laundromat are akin to individual torture chambers) my mind wandered into the realm of conjecture… if I collected all the lint from all the years of drying clothes for a family of three, would it reach to the moon and back? Good question, right? I think so. But, before you could say “Hot-Diggidy-Dog!” I was on to the next pondering: inches. Inches specifically related to sailboat racing. Quite the segue, but this is a normal occurrence in my life – most everything eventually leads to sailing in some form.
In so many ways sailboat racing is a matter of inches. The devil’s in the details, so to speak. Ease or trim an inch, point or foot an inch. Inches, or lack thereof, hugely affect performance. Most racing sailors will go that extra mile to make sure they stay on top of those inches. What I’d like to put out there to all my sailor friends is—VALIDATION— certainly inches matter (I know, I’m a woman). But that doesn’t mean you should lose sight of the big picture—which from my perspective means implementing your strategic plan to win the race without letting tactics, or lack thereof, get in the way.
Strategy vs. Tactics:
Because there’s so much to say about this subject I’ve broken it into two parts. This first part covers the race start through the windward mark rounding. I’m not going to cover details such as boatspeed etc. Refer to the footnotes for more information on these topics.
As you sail around the course there will be moments of solo sailing and moments of interaction with other boats. How you balance these moments of strategy: your plan for getting around the course in the absence of other boats, with tactics: boat-on-boat maneuvers, will hugely affect your race finishes.
Starts – Using tactics to implement strategy:
Starts can be chaotic if you don’t have a strategy for sailing the first leg. Once you’ve determined this strategy you need to plan your starting strategy. Do you want to “win the pin” or take advantage of mid-line sag? Be prepared to engage in tactical maneuvers— negotiating a confused jumble of vessels jockeying for position—while carving out your spot on a crowded line. And be sure to keep your head out of the boat and pay attention to what the rest of the fleet is doing. Be ready to change it up if you see an opportunity. For example: The current is running hard. You realize that a good portion of the fleet has misjudged its strength and is sliding to leeward. If you think fast (maybe a couple of quick tacks towards the line) you can be boatlengths ahead at the start. For these moments you’ll need great boat handling skills enhanced by equal parts aggression and tactical smarts. Oh, and a good knowledge of the rules too. (1)
First Windward leg – Stay with your strategy:
Once you’re heading up the first leg concentrate on putting your strategy into effect. Let’s say you’ve decided that the right is favored – there’s more pressure on that side with dark clouds coming in that clue you into a freshening breeze. You started on starboard but quickly found a lane and tacked over to port, implementing the first phase of your strategy. All of a sudden a starboard tacker comes along. In the heat of the moment aggression takes over. The devil in you whispers “Lee bow that sucker!” and BOOM before you can say “Hollywood Hunksters” (it is Oscar season after all) you’ve flipped over onto starboard tack. Whether you’re successful or not isn’t the issue. It’s the fact that you just threw your strategy out the window, sailing towards the left side of the course, maybe trapped by the windward boat. You just lost focus of the big picture and put your fate in the hands of another boat. So what was the prudent move? In this situation you weren’t able to cross so ducking was the best option. REMEMBER—you were going right.
Conversely starboard tackers need to consider a similar scenario. Its super easy to fall into the trap of the “starboard” hail and muscle your way up the course. While you may win the battle you could lose the war. Keep your strategy in the forefront and use tactics to support it, negotiate your way through the fleet, and don’t let other vessels dictate the path you take; at least for the first leg of the race. If that ugly little devil rears his head kick him into the cuddy cabin for the time being (you may need him later).
In this figure the blue boat recognizes that there may be carnage at the windward mark. She decides to over stand and sail in with clear air and speed. Consequently she becomes well placed to make some headway on the downwind leg.
Windward mark roundings – Inside the best? Maybe not.
Mark roundings are another tricky situation. Everybody and their mother is fighting for that inside overlap, but is it really that precious? I suggest that rounding the mark cleanly and with speed is preferable. I have never known anyone to win a race because they got that inside overlap at the windward mark. The winners are the ones who work hard every minute of the race, focusing on boat speed (remember those inches), tactics and strategy. If you are rounding in a group of boats there is bound to be some carnage on the inside, innermost boats get blanketed and slow down. Get a clean rounding by going outside; you’ll have clear air, and more speed.
Remember when it comes to sailboat racing, those inches are important. But make sure you can still see the forest through the trees. Oh, and wear clean underwear.
(1) Starting Success #1 and #2
As always – try new stuff, have fun, don’t hit anything, don’t break anything. Be safe.
I welcome you comments and suggestions for topics!
Look for new postings to “Center-of-Effort” every couple of weeks. Topics include aspects of racing tactics and strategy, boathandling, and interviews with some of our best Boston area racers. As always I enjoy hearing your comments and topic ideas.
