Sailing To Win Blog!

Recover From A Disastrous Start

Starting

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26/08/2021

It’s important to remember that a bad start is not the end of your day, patience and keeping a cool head will generally save you from a total disaster. You can recover from a bad start.

Look for a clean exit

If your start has gone wrong, don’t panic and look for a clean exit sooner rather than later.

Be patient though, a hasty change to your pre-determined plan without considering all options may actually place you in an even worse situation.

Two things that are critical to an effective recovery are that the helmsperson must continue to sail the boat as fast as possible all the while deciding where to get clean air.

Depending on your situation though, sheets should be trimmed for footing or pointing, you need to make decisions based on what you are seeing up the track.

If you find yourself in the second row, you need power because there is less wind and more chop. The backstay needs to be eased and Cunningham released. Then the jib leads need to be moved forward to get a fuller, more powerful headsail.

The Most Common Escape To Recover From A Bad Start

The most common escape starts with gentle pinching in an attempt to get above the boats to leeward , to do this, move the traveller up and sheet a tick or two tighter than the conditions require.

This cannot be maintained for too long though and the desired result is an escape to clean air. The goal being to find a lane in which you can live in for at least two minutes.

If you need to tack for clearer air, make sure there is no one that will tack on your wind. Watch the boats around you for crew movement that may indicate a change in their direction that will affect you.

Once you have a clear lane and are now going in the planned direction, look at the fleet to see if that plan is falling into place and if not be prepared to alter the plan to suit.

If you have a bad start near the weather end it is easy to tack away to clear. Then tack back again as soon as there is a lane if you are looking to go left.

Recover from A Poor Start Midline

A poor start in the middle of the line in more difficult to extricate yourself from and generally occurs when you are late due to line sag or when a port tack boat tacks under you and establishes a lee bow.

Generally, it is a mistake to foot off below the boat on your lee bow. Conversely do not tack too early because you will then have to dip the boat to weather. That boat then has a chance to tack on your air.

If you have to bail out at the leeward end there are few options. Clearing out to the right is rarely an option as you will have the bulk of the fleet on starboard.

If you are at the pin end and your plan was to head left, crack off a little to get speed and get to clear air as soon as possible.

Cracking off for clear air, generally only works if there are a small number of boats below you. It will take an eternity to reach clear air if in fact you ever do.

If you are forced to bail out, be patient and wait for the proper clear lane to get right. All the time keeping the boat moving fast.

Once on Port tack, you can look for another lane to tack back to the left.

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Use Your Eyes When Sailing

Boat Speed and Handling

Brett Bowden

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18/08/2021

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Use Your Eyes When Sailing. Using your eyes effectively whilst racing takes plenty of discipline and practice.

Work Out What You Are Looking For

First, you need to ascertain what it is that you are looking for, is it a mark, a puff coming towards you and does that puff look like it is a lift or header.

It may just be simply a case of working out where you will be situated when you meet competitors coming together on opposite tacks.

Whichever the case may be, you must learn how to visualise ways you can turn what you see into an offensive or defensive manoeuvre.

If you are back in the fleet, you need to analyse how you can work your way through the boats ahead.

Think about what staying on the lifted tack may do and what that may mean as you approach a mark, a small gain here may put you in a world of pain as boats come together further up the track.

Might the better tactic be to take a short dig on a knock but which will mean that you are in a better position approaching the mark compared to the boats you are racing.

Train Your Eyes

The best way to train your eyes is to spend more time on the water and there is no substitute to having been in that situation before and having the experience to interpret it and respond accordingly.

A good pair of Sunglasses are essential because they heighten the contrast made by the ripples on the water of an approaching puff and they help you also see the direction that the puff is moving.

Get used to looking for all things that are coming at you no matter whether they are puffs, waves or other boats.

Be Actively Looking Ahead

Be actively looking ahead and around the course and avoid simply staring at the bow as it goes through the water or the sails and telltales.

The simple message is to keep your eyes out of the boat and be continually evaluating the ever-changing chess board of wind, waves and boats on your racetrack.

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Sailing Gold Medalist Tips

Boat Speed and Handling

Brett Bowden

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11/08/2021

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Who better to get help with boat speed issues than Mat Belcher, current Olympic Gold medallist in the 470 class from Tokyo 2021. Olympic Gold Medalist Tips For Boatspeed and Changing Gears

I have copied below excerpts from an interview that I did with Mat in 2017 while he was waiting at the airport to travel to yet another overseas regatta.

Brett: Where would you look to change gears, before or after a puff hits? If you can see a puff coming towards you, do you start to make a few changes before or wait until it gets there?

Mat: Yeah, we do, we’re constantly…and I don’t know whether, I guess, my experience in this kind of thing is so relevant across classes because we’re constantly changing gears.

Every five seconds we’re doing something, whether the gust is approaching, just before the gust, during the gust, after the gust, or during the lull.

I think the gusts are very important but equally important is also the lull.

That’s quite critical…and usually, that’s actually where you lose most of your opportunity to gain is actually during the lull and responding in time to make sure that you’re continuing the speed that you’ve harnessed, all the power, and really trying to get through that lighter period.

Brett: So how do you power up and power down with special reference to the order you do things in? What’s the best way to power up?

Mat: It’s really quite boat-specific… Gold Medalist Tips

I think you’ve got the usual basic controls. You’ve got your out haul, you’ll let your Cunningham off, you’ll let all the vang off, and you can put your centreboard down, you can put your jib track forward.

There are so many different things, and depending on your boat if you can control your rake, you can maybe bring your rake up to match.

You can move forward a little bit in the boat. You can also possibly move your main sheet bridle a little bit more to windward.

Brett: There’s a lot to remember, and I guess it all comes back to that time in the boat. It all needs to become second nature, you don’t have to think about it. The other thing is having a system that works properly…

Mat: Gold Medallist Tips For Boatspeed & Changing Gears – We talked about time, that’s a critical part. Spending time in the boat, but it’s also your understanding.

So typical…for me, it’s typically that I sail a lot of different classes, and when we have discussions about what different controls do on the boat, it surprises me that a lot of people just don’t know.

They don’t know when they pull that rope, what’s the effect or what’s that going to do?

It’s very difficult if you’re in a racing environment and the gust is very short, to do all these controls.

If you don’t know what it’s going to do, that’s quite a limitation.

Typically when you buy a new dishwasher, or you’re buying something, you don’t read the manual. I don’t read the manual at all.

My wife always tells me that “You got to read the manual, how do you know how to put it together?”

It’s the same when you get a boat for the first time or you’re sailing a 505 for example.
You’ve got to really know and have the feel and play around, and just use all the controls and see what they do, and then you’ve got a much better ability with your added understanding of them.

Practice, keep changing.

Brett: What are some of the common mistakes you see racing sailors make when they change gears? Gold Medalist Tips

Mat: Different people obviously make different mistakes. I think trying to stick to the basics is critical. Make sure you’re doing things you know and know you can do well and quickly.

That would probably be depending on whatever level you are at. Make sure that you do the basics. The basics is just changing the vang tension. Then transitioning to your Cunningham and then maybe your centre board.

In a two-person boat, look at your weight control fore and aft in the boat. Just do the simple things right, you can’t really go wrong.

If you have the time and more experience, then you can really start to refine that. To get that extra meter or extra half a meter. The basics, from what I see most commonly, is that people are just trying to look at the small details. They over-complicate it without actually doing the simple things.

Brett: If you had to help somebody in the middle or towards the back of the fleet most of the time, what is the one thing you would say to them that they need to do to start moving up the leaderboard?

Gold Medallist Tips For Boatspeed & Changing Gears – Preparation.

Focusing on your boat preparation or your crew preparation. The biggest thing for me is that you come to an event and everything’s already done.

It’s the work that…I guess at our level, is done outside of the racing environment.

Next, it’s preparation, it’s the sail testing, it’s the time in the gym, it’s where you stay in the accommodation, it’s the training coming into it, the loading, and really looking at the detail.

Then it’s usually things you can’t see that actually make the difference, and for me it’s just preparing, preparing well.

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How To Find More Speed

Boat Speed and Handling

Brett Bowden

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04/08/2021

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How To find more speed is largely a matter of trial and error and getting to know your boat.

How To Find More Speed

You can set your sails so that they look right but to get the last fraction of boat speed you must experiment with different settings and shapes to see which ones give you the best results.

Even when you are out having a pleasure sail or taking friends for a ride, experiment with luff, outhaul and leech tension, sighting up the sail to see what the sails look like after each adjustment.

As always, make notes about what worked and what didn’t so that next time you encounter similar conditions you can replicate the fast settings.

It is important to have reference points marked on sheets and the boat to enable you to faithfully reproduce the fast settings.

Use Your Visual Memory

Using your visual memory of what fast settings looked like is never enough.

Whenever you make an adjustment (depending on the conditions) remember that it can take a reasonable amount of time for the boat to speed up or slow down.

Also, when a change has been made, it often takes the helmsman and crew a little time as well to settle into the new setup so don’t be too hasty in assuming the changes have not worked and then adjust something else.

Take time to analyse what has occurred by watching the other boats in your fleet.

Given the vagaries of the wind and water it is very difficult to decide whether a change in speed relative to your competition is due to weather, a couple of short sharp waves, your steering or your sail trim.

There is no substitute for time on the water to make you a better sailor, to improve boat handling and to be able to make effective trim adjustments.

More often than not it’s the better sailor who wins.

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Tips For Races and Regatta Sailing

Sailing Tips

Brett Bowden

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27/07/2021

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Tips For Races and Regatta Sailing – Watching the Olympic sailing, with the silky smooth boat handling and tactics it got me thinking about the basic things that the rest of us at all levels below the Olympians must have instinctively dialled in.

In a multi-race series consistency is probably the big one but there are a number of other basic things that we should all practice and have committed to muscle memory.

A Few Tips In No Order Of Importance

Every time you bear off, all sheets should be eased out simultaneously.
When tacking, start the turn slowly and never allow your jib or genoa to back.
All controls should have a wide range of adjustments and be marked so you can replicate fast settings.
When reaching, move the jib lead forward and outboard to maximise power in the sail.
When approaching the weather mark, leave a little in the bank, maybe by half a boat length, this will allow for last-minute wind shifts, current, a bad set of waves or other boats.
When hit by a gust, ease sheets first before turning the rudder and always anticipate gusts by constantly looking up the course.

More Tips

On a multi-crewed boat, appoint one person as tactician and their eyes should always be outside the boat communicating the location of extra pressure, other boats, location of marks and tactical challenges as they develop.
When approaching another boat, keep your speed up because if you have to manoeuvre, it is always easier with speed.
Keep an eye on your masthead wind indicator as the wind often changes higher up first.
The masthead wind indicator shows apparent wind and the tail points the place where the next gybe will take you.
When steering with a wheel, never sit to leeward and stand up so you have a greater height of eye and will get a better indication of heel angle.
Off the wind, if the boat is rolling wildly, head up a few degrees to stabilise the vessel.
In an offshore race, if you have a radio on board, keep an ear on the weather forecast so you can plan ahead accordingly.
Measure the rake of your mast and compare measurements with fellow competitors in order to see what is fast and what is not.
At the end of each day’s racing, have a team de-brief to work out what went right or wrong so you can learn and improve.
Every member of the crew should have assigned jobs and in the case of new team members, a more experienced crew should partner with them to pass on knowledge and back them up.
Always use gloves, this is especially important if you are the Main or Spinnaker trimmer.

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Be A Great Offshore Crewmate

Offshore

Brett Bowden

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21/07/2021

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The best way to get asked back is to Be A Great Offshore Crewmate.

I have just been following the Transpac online and that got me thinking. How could I get invited to be a part of the crew on one of the competing boats?

How To Be Asked To Come Again

Considering there are only 41 boats competing from a country with a population of some 325 million, it is a great privilege to be asked to participate as a crew.

If your ultimate ambition is to crew in the Transpac, Fastnet, Sydney to Hobart or any of the other great offshore races there are things that you can do to make sure that you are asked to participate.

Success in small boat racing is one of the most direct routes to getting noticed. Another way to be asked is to build a reputation of being a good shipmate.

To do this you must be a contributing member of the crew, thinking before acting to avoid making a mistake, being able to follow instructions and not being too shy to ask questions if you don’t understand the job you have been given.

Be A Volunteer

Always be prepared to volunteer for extra jobs. If there is a sail change called for or there are other jobs afoot such as winding a coffee grinder, don’t hold back. Offer to give someone a break even if it is not your job.

When it is time to go off watch, don’t be the first one down the hatch to your bunk. Make sure that the new watch has settled in. Volunteer to make coffee and snacks for the new team prior to retiring.

When you are rail sitting, hike hard and long setting an example for the others to follow, being cheerful even though you may be cold and feeling seasick.

When you are below, space is at a premium with equipment and personal belongings taking up all available space. Help up by keeping all your gear stowed in your bag or locker. Stow gear or things that aren’t yours or necessarily your responsibility.

At the change of watch, be the first out of your bunk and frocked up ready to go upstairs. Make your watch mates a coffee or snack. Start a dialogue with the retiring watch about what has been happening and what to expect.

At The End Of The Race

When you arrive at the destination of the race, don’t abandon the boat for the party straight away. Make sure everything is packed away and the boat is cleaned up as best as possible.

Now it’s time for catching up with fellow competitors and your team to relive the race over a few Bevvies.

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Sail Better In Light Winds

Weather, Wind, Waves and Current

Brett Bowden

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14/07/2021

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If you want to sail better in light winds you need to master the four things which are listed below.

Attitude:

is the biggest hurdle to overcome, you should not fear light air just because you have sucked at it in the past.

Relish the opportunity to sail against light air specialists and those that have thrashed you in the past. Treat a light air race as an opportunity to learn from them.

In large fleets in light air, there are often big shake-ups throughout the day and with the right attitude, you will often find that you are in a position to take advantage of shifts in direction and pressure as they occur.

Don’t worry about the fact that some boats are sailing faster. Victory in sailing races can come in many ways, with small improvements from race to race being an incentive to work harder.

Boat Improvements:

in light winds, sail as light as you possibly can. Leave everything that is not completely necessary on the beach or dock.

Ensure that the hull and foils are as smooth as possible. With a moored boat, clean the bottom by scrubbing before leaving for the course.

Whilst racing, continually check for weed on your blades.

In a one-design boat, tune up with a crew that is a similar weight to your own plus one that is lighter or heavier so you can set your boat up to be sailing in the fastest groove.

Learn From The Competition:

Watch other boats to see what they are doing to see if you can change something to improve.

Look at the sail shapes they are using, the position of their travellers, sheet tensions that affect the luff and leech shape and other vital adjustments that have a bearing on boat performance.

One of the biggest mistakes that sailors make in light air is to pinch particularly in short, choppy waves. To keep your speed up in these conditions, you must foot off for speed.

Experiment:

make one adjustment at a time and then leave it for a reasonable amount of time to see whether it improves your speed or not.

No matter the size of your boat, experiment with the position of the crew weight, once again look around your fleet and see where the fast teams sit.

As a generalisation in light air, you want the weight forward and with a slight heel to leeward. It is only with experimentation that will you find the fastest boat attitude.

Don’t be too shy to even try heeling to weather. Some highly accomplished sailors have been able to make that work for them.

Experiment with all adjustments available on your boat but only make one incremental change at a time. Ensure that after each, you let the boat settle down to give yourself a chance to properly evaluate the outcome.

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How To Get Out Of A Slump

Boat Speed and Handling

Brett Bowden

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07/07/2021

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Back To Basics – How To Get Out Of A Slump

If you feel as though you are losing your touch out on the race course sometimes you need to go back and start at the beginning.

If your performance is a shadow of your past, you need to go through each one of the potential problem areas.

First, check the finish of the boat and your equipment and make sure that it is up to racing standard.

Practice working on weaknesses

Next, go sailing and work on your steering, your sails and adjustments. If you think the problem is something you are doing, work with your team to analyse. Once analysed come up with a consensus to fix the issue.

Once you have an answer, go out for a full training session or two to work on and fix the problem that is causing your current “go-slows”.

The most important point here is don’t go looking for excuses, go all the way back to the beginning and recheck everything. Once that is done, go sailing to improve your performance.

Be honest with yourself, you may find that you are not footing because the sails are not sheeted properly. You are not pointing because you have not bent the mast to suit the conditions.

A question often asked regarding a slump is “have we peaked too soon”. Sometimes, before an event, it does no harm to have a poor result to bring you back to earth.

Treat it as a wake-up call and go back to the basics to evaluate where you are really at. An overconfident sailor gets too relaxed and does not concentrate on steering, keeping the boat flat & trimmed correctly or studying the sails and equipment diligently enough.

Debrief to identify weaknesses

When you have a bad day, during the debrief, list at least 10 things that you could have done better. This should include input from everyone on the team.

Once the list is put together, use your practice sessions to work on each of the problems identified. Sharpen your skills so that next time you race these problems do not occur again.

Copying The Champions In Your Fleet

Sailing Tips

Brett Bowden

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30/06/2021

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Copying The Champions In Your Fleet – To someone unfamiliar with our sport, two identical boats should sail at the same speed given equal crews, the same wind, and the same wave conditions.

Small Changes Can Make a Huge Difference

What an outsider may not realise is that small changes in identical equipment can make big differences in boat speed and performance.

A couple of turns on a forestay turnbuckle can change the mast rake thus affecting the helm load and balance. In the case of a side stay, it can affect mast bend characteristics and thus sail shape.

The adjustments available to a sailor are endless, ranging from the rig adjustments just mentioned. Other changes are sheet tension, outhaul, batten tension, Cunningham, and halyard tension.

Other than in boats with adjustable rigging systems (adjustments that can be done on the fly) most rigs are set up before you leave the beach or dock and cannot be changed once on the water.

These settings are based on your perception of what the day’s weather will be and once you are out there, you are stuck with those settings, so plenty of study of the weather patterns is important.

Sailing At an Unfamiliar Venue

If you are sailing at a new venue, don’t be too shy to copy what the locals are doing to get the perfect tuning for that venue.

On the water, every change to a sail control will either give you a better or worse result and being able to ascertain the effect of these changes is incredibly difficult.

Select the most successful sailmaker in your class. They will have a tuning guide that will help you set up your mast rigging tension, fore and aft rake, and pre-bend for the various conditions.

Follow The Tuning Guide

If you are new to a class, not only follow the tuning guide but ask questions of the top sailors in the fleet and copy what they do. You will be surprised at how helpful they will be, it is just a case of plucking up the courage to ask.

Copying is not cheating and most champions appreciate being pushed harder. They will be happy to help you get faster as this forces them to improve as well.

Quantifying the effect of a small tuning change is hard to do on the water. It may not be apparent until many minutes after the change. This is because of variables in the wind between boats across the course.

After establishing a baseline, it is important to experiment using your own tweaks. Then learn what each adjustment does with reference to boat speed and handling.

When out racing, be honest with yourself when evaluating the changes that you made during a race. Factor in a lucky wind shift that may have given you the improvement, not the adjustment.

Get Up To Speed Quickly

Copying the best sailors in your fleet guarantees getting up to speed quickly. This should give you an easy jump on much of the competition.

If you don’t copy the fleet champions you are starting behind the 8 ball.

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How To Debrief After Every Race

Drills, Training and Coaching

Brett Bowden

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23/06/2021

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A race or regatta should not be over for your team when you cross the finish line and there is plenty to be gained from the post-race debrief. We all need to know the format on How To Debrief After Every Race

Reason For a Debrief – How To Debrief After Every Race

After a successful result, our self-confidence gets a boost but after a poor showing on the water, we have to deal with the psychological fallout. All is not lost though and the team de-brief can allow us to learn from what went wrong to ensure that next time you race you won’t make the same mistakes.

If you have a coach, make sure that they are part of the team meeting. This should take place immediately after the race either on the boat or in the boat park. More importantly, it should be away from the after-race festivities.

Makeup Of The Debrief – How To Debrief After Every Race

Initial points for discussion are where did you lose places unnecessarily, and why. Other things that need to be discussed are the start, your speed around the course, and the day’s tactics.

The debrief is a good time to constructively talk through the crew management on the boat. Remember that these sessions are about how to improve not to lay blame.

Make sure that you talk about the positives that came out of the race as well as the negatives. Try to focus on the two biggest mistakes and talk through what went wrong. Add solutions so that you can avoid them next time.

Ways To Debrief

If possible have a whiteboard available and run through each individual part of the race and use a diary to make notes for future reference. Use the diary to note down information about the time of the day, wind speed, direction, sea state, current, and information about fellow competitors.

If you have model boats available, they can be very helpful in recreating on-water situations as part of the discussion. Many times observations from off the boat can vary from on-the-boat memories. All inputs need to be considered when arriving at a solution.

It’s amazing what a coach can see from off the boat. Many things may not be obvious to those on board so get involved in the discussion.

The importance of the de-brief is to learn so that next time you hit the water, you will not make the same mistakes and thus end up with a better result.

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