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5 more Sailing Tips

Brett Bowden
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5 more Sailing Tips

5 more Sailing Tips

Tip 1: Don’t line up on the Starboard Tack Layline too early

Hitting the layline early means you will probably end up overstanding and the bigger the fleet the more damage you will do to your position.

In many fleets it’s possible to make the mark if you tack on to port

just underneath the boats that are overstanding – but if you are going to do it make sure you are outside the three boat length circle and if you need to luff to shoot the mark, be careful not to go beyond head to wind. 

This tactic generally doesn’t work on the first beat in a big fleet. The fleet is still relatively bunched up, but if you can pull it off you can gain many places.  This is where planning and keeping your eye out of the boat and up the course is really important.

As a word of caution, watch out for any gamblers piling into the mark on port. Be prepared to sail around the resulting carnage.

Tip 2: Pick the Correct Gate – 5 more Sailing Tips

When you bear away at the windward mark you should have already worked out whether the left or right side of the course is favoured.

In a big fleet, picking the right leeward mark will be essential, where possible pick the mark that is closer or is on the side that you believe will be favoured on the next upwind leg.

If you don’t have a plan you could end up pinned on the wrong side of the course. At the same time, you will lose places to dozens of boats.

When approaching the mark keep your head out of the boat. Work out where the boats in your vicinity will be at the mark. Be prepared to consider the other mark if you end up having to deal with a sudden wall of boats.

Tip 3: Continually evaluate weight distribution

Correct Fore and Aft trim is critical to boat speed. On light air days, dragging the transom or the large flat sections aft will create drag which is slow.

Weight distribution athwartships should not be ignored either be mindful of the lines of the boat and work out the perfect angle of heel to get the best maintainable speed.

Just because you sail on a heavy boat, don’t ignore weight distribution. Roll tacking a 12 or 15-metre boat will guarantee that you will be fast out of tacks. At the same time while maintaining the highest possible boat speed.

Tip 4: Acceleration from Gear Changes – 5 more Sailing Tips

Avoid getting caught in another competitor’s wind shadow or getting buried in disturbed air, especially after a poor start.

To get out of either of these situations sheeting in and attempting to point high is always counterproductive, even in a lightweight boat.

You need to ease sheets and bear away until you’ve gained some boat speed to get clear or found clean air.

Tip 5: Practice finding your boat’s high and low upwind modes

Being able to maintain VMG while pointing higher than usual – or lower than usual – gives tactical control over other boats around you and helps to keep clean air.

Don’t be tempted in a race situation to overdo it. 3-5 degrees in each direction will put you on the conveyor belt towards the back of the fleet.

Racing Tips to Improve Your Sailing

Brett Bowden
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Racing Tips to Improve Your Sailing

 

Racing Tips to Improve Your Sailing. When you want to kick your sailing performance up to the next level, many sailors think first of spending money – buying new sails, replacing gear, or even buying a new boat.

In most cases, a number of small and easy improvements in your technique can yield great results using the gear that you already have.

Tip 1: Be Consistent

Always try to balance any risk you are thinking of taking against the potential gains.  Competitors who have inconsistent results tend to be those that take too many risks.

When they get a run of good luck they are at the front of the fleet, but all too often the risks they then take don’t pay off and they end up mid-fleet or worse.

If your own results aren’t consistent, there’s a good chance you are being let down by a small number of mistakes and identifying these can be very revealing, helping you to finish a long way further up the fleet.

Tip 2: Duck or Tack

When heading upwind on port tack you need to know well in advance whether to tack or duck upon meeting a starboard tack boat.

You should always be thinking about what you would do if you meet a starboard tacker. This emphasizes the importance of having your head out of the boat and knowing where the boats around you are.

If you’re on starboard and want to continue on that tack, don’t let a port tack boat that’s on collision course with you tack under your lee bow, call them through and duck their transom if necessary.

Tip3: Post-race Analysis

Always analyse your day’s performance in a race when you get back ashore. When you have a great result make a list of the major contributing factors to that success. Conversely, when you have a bad day, list the reasons why and then learn from your mistakes.

If sailing in a crewed boat, this process helps to improve communication with the team. It’s an excellent opportunity to air issues that may have arisen in the heat of competition. If there has been a problem during the race, there is a chance to air grievances when blood pressure has subsided and everyone is in a more relaxed mood.

Tip 4: Sort the boat out

Everything in your boat must work flawlessly. You may train hard working on weaknesses but if the boat is not up to scratch any gains made by crewing improvements you have gained may be lost during a race if a fitting or system fails or jams.

An advantage here is that psychologically, you know that if you push extra hard, the boat won’t let you down.

Make sure that the bottom and foils are fair and smooth and that the rig is properly set up. Sails need to be as good as they can be given their age and past use.

Having the boat look good and presenting well will make the crew feel good about sailing it. That’s important for crew morale and performance.

Tip 5: Look After Yourself

Have the right clothing and equipment for the boat you are sailing on and for the conditions. Make sure that the gear you bring with you will cover the full range of conditions that you expect. The key is preparation. 

If you are cold or wet and not comfortable, you can sail at nowhere near your best. You become really uncomfortable and probably wish you were somewhere else as well.

Good quality gear can sometimes cost a bit more than inferior stuff. It generally lasts a lot longer with the bonus being that you will enjoy your sailing more.

 

 

Sailing Tips To Improve

Brett Bowden
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Sailing Tips To Improve

Sailing Tips To Improve. When you want to kick your sailing performance up to the next level, many sailors think first of spending money – buying new sails, replacing gear, or even buying a new boat.

In most cases, a number of small and easy improvements in your technique can yield great results using the gear that you already have.

Over the next four weeks, I will give you some sailing tips to help improve your performance, this is by no means an exhaustive list but will give you some worthwhile things to work on.

Tip One: Practice Boat Handling

This does not need to involve hours of drills and practice. 15 minutes spent practicing your weakest manoeuvre before the start of each day’s racing will rapidly pay dividends.

Once this first manoeuvre is nailed, you need to find another weakness to work on.

Buy or borrow a GoPro camera in waterproof housing, this is an ideal self-coaching tool and will reveal both your strengths and weaknesses when played back after a race or training session.

Tip Two: Hoists, drops and gybes

Getting gybes right in a single-sail boat in all weather is an essential skill as is perfecting hoists and drops in a boat that carries a spinnaker. Practice done outside of race conditions will always give excellent returns.

The boats with polished crew work in this area always gain an advantage on their rivals. Especially in pressure cooker situations whatever the weather. Practice manoeuvres using a mark or some other point to replicate race pressure.

Tip Three: Mark all Settings and build up a tuning Guide

Your tuning guide will be a work in progress. It will be continually refined over the course of your racing life.

A great starting point is to get a guide for your class or type of boat from your sail maker and then refine it to suit yourself and your crew. This refinement will come from your own on-water experiences.

Everything should be marked – halyards, sheets, vang, outhaul, shroud tensions etc. Like the tuning guide, it’s the beginning of an ongoing process that sees both sail trim and boat handling improve as you gradually refine the markings.

Tip Four: Mark Roundings

You will be amazed at how much time is lost at mark roundings. One of the biggest mistakes is failing to follow the basic ‘wide in, narrow out’ principle. If you don’t do that you allow boats inside. Added to that, uncoordinated sail handling by not planning ahead or leaving it too late will cost you plenty.

Sometimes an early drop will set you up to pass the boats in front. The small amount of time you lose will be more than compensated for by an orderly rounding.

Planning ahead for your mark rounding will also pay dividends. Plan where you want to be in relation to the boats around you at least halfway down the leg.

Tip Five: Practice Starting

Getting away with clean air and runway below you at the start and on the first beat gives a valuable early advantage plus starting without being boxed in allows you to re-jig your plan if something changes immediately after the start.

Get a reliable transit and don’t be afraid of being half a length ahead of the boats around you as most hang back too far. Have a dedicated yacht race timer and know how to use it.

Do time on distance drills and get to know your boats head to wind, tacking and gybing manoeuvrability. Above all know the rules. 

Listen to Your Teammate(s)

Brett Bowden
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Listen to Your Teammate(s)

Published on FEB, 2018

2004 Olympian Carol Cronin reviews how the balance of ego and communication contributes to the functioning of a successful team. Listen to Your Teammate(s).

At a recent Snipe regatta, Kim Couranz and I counted up the number of lines we each control. Her total? Sixteen (eight on port tack, eight on starboard). My total? One.

Giving Kim all the controls except the mainsheet allows me to concentrate on steering and trimming, without the distraction of the many other adjustments required to keep the boat going fast as wind and waves increase or decrease. Of course, that means I trust her completely.

So why is it still so hard to listen to her excellent advice about what to do next on the race course? Listen to Your Teammate(s)

I’ve been dodging the answer for years because the truth is a dirty word: ego. Even as a former crew with attitude, I have trouble taking input from the front of the boat.

Taking over the tiller gave me the same irrational belief in my own abilities that every skipper I’ve ever sailed with has. And that can wreak havoc with my listening skills.

Read the balance of the article 

https://carolnewmancronin.com/listen-to-your-teammates/  

Changing Gears

Brett Bowden
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Changing Gears

Changing Gears. In sailboat racing, change is continuous, you have puffs, lulls, lifts, headers, bad air, waves, tacks and so on.

It’s rare that you can set the boat up and sail for too long without changing something. To go fast you must constantly adjust the trim of your boat and sails. We actually use many different settings to cover the full range of conditions in which we sail. To change from one gear to another, we usually have to make multiple adjustments. 

As an example, when you sail into a lull, you typically ease your mainsheet and bear off slightly. When the wind increases, you trim in and head up.

When you get a lull you don’t put a softer batten in the top pocket or change your mast rake. You might do these things when you set up on the beach but they aren’t normally considered when changing gears.

Keep Your Head Out Of The Boat

A mistake I see out on the course more often than I should is heads in the boat changing major settings. Few changes you make on a beat will make enough extra distance to compensate for the loss made whilst making the adjustment.

It is worth noting that in a race of 60 minutes, with 4 upwind legs you will only be on each upwind for about 8 -10 minutes. 

An exception to this is of course if there has been a major change in the weather.

In sailing it’s relatively easy to set your boat up so it will go fast in one particular condition. When the wind and waves remain constant, it’s easy to zero in on the sail shape and other variables.

The problem is that conditions almost never stay constant.

You may get your boat going fast in one condition, but if you don’t adjust things when conditions change, you will not be going as fast as possible, that’s why the ability to change gears is so important for boat speed.

The best sailors might be in the right gear for 90% of a race. The sailors at the other end of the fleet might be in the right gear only 50% of the time or less.

Clues for when to change gears – 

  • Trust your sense of feel. Indicators like helm pressure or angle of heel will tell you whether the boat needs more or less power
  • If your performance relative to the nearby competition is not great, there’s a good chance you are in the wrong gear.

  • Look for visual clues. Many changes that require a gear change are things you can see before they reach you (e.g. puffs, lulls, waves). Keep your eyes open.

Most racing sailors are good at “shifting up” when they get an increase in wind pressure. Puffs are generally easy to see and their effect on your boat is easy to feel.

The ability to change down is a different story, and this is where the best sailors make their biggest gains. It’s harder to detect decreases in the wind, so most sailors don’t downshift soon enough or far enough. The result is they compound the negative effects of sailing into a lull.

If you want to get better at changing gears and going faster for a greater percentage of the race, work hard on shifting down.

Try to shift sooner, more quickly and further when you encounter lulls, bad air, waves or any other situation where you might slow down.

Starting Strategy

Brett Bowden
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Starting Strategy

 

Starting Strategy

 

Starting Strategy. I have copied below, excerpts from an interview with Mike Holt, multiple 505 world champion who is renowned for getting awesome starts and having an uncanny knack of digging himself out if things go wrong during or just after a start.

  1. Describe your overall start strategy

For me, whether it is a line or gate start I am focused on ensuring having a runway to leeward and being at full speed when I start. I then want to be able to climb when I can and foot when I need to. Getting to the next shift in good shape and aiming to control my destiny.

  1. Tell me about your favourite tactical moves you use in the start sequence.

Generally, I will look to impose myself on the boat to windward. I will look for a boat that is a weaker link and use them as a buffer. Basically, invade their personal space.

  1. What are the most common ways competitors get into trouble on the start line?

By being bullied by another boat and ending up without any leeward space. And or being caught too close to the wind with no steerage.

  1. What is the crew’s role in the start sequence?

Feed information and make sure the boat can still move. Talk about a time, where there are gaps, who may invade your space and attempting to work out time on distance to the start.

  1. How do you hold your lane off the start line? Starting Strategy

The key to this is in making sure you can get to full speed at or before the start. Once racing in a crowded area you have to keep moving between height and speed, too much of one over the other will get you in trouble. Height, height, speed. Repeat until the space around you is acceptable to sail your own race.

  1. If you get baulked or get an ordinary start, what do you do to recover?

It’s important to recognize this quickly and then stop the bleeding. Tack, take sterns and look at your options. Unless you are utterly convinced that left is the way to go, in that case, suck it up and sail fast, Better to go slow the right way than fast the wrong way.

  1. Talk about risk-taking at a start, e.g balance that with the favoured end, clear air, and favoured side of the course.

I don’t like taking any risks.

  1. In general and not necessarily related to the start, what’s the single most important thing that a sailor looking to improve should concentrate on?

This is boat dependent and also individually related. For me and sailing performance boats, fitness and the ability to operate the boat at 100% for the entire race.

The ‘Doppler’ Windshift Effect

Brett Bowden
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The ‘Doppler’ Windshift Effect



On a beat, the speed at which you converge with shifts (and puffs) is roughly equal to the sum of the wind speed plus your VMG to windward. In this case, that’s 10 (windspeed) plus 5 (VMG), or 15 knots. But on a run, the convergence speed is the wind speed minus your VMG to leeward. Here it’s 4 knots (10 minus 6). So on a run the shifts are coming at you several times more slowly than on a beat, so you will experience that many fewer shifts.

The ‘Doppler’ Windshift Effect – We all know what happens when a train comes toward us at full speed with its horn blowing, at first the sound is very high pitched, but it drops quickly as the train passes by and becomes quite low-pitched while the train speeds away.

The Doppler Effect

The reason for this is what’s called the Doppler effect. The sound waves in front of the train are compressed very close together, which results in a higher pitch. Behind the train, the sound waves are much farther apart, resulting in a dramatically lower pitch.

The Doppler effect is a useful analogy for what happens on a windward-leeward course. When you sail upwind, it’s like being on the front of the train, since you are sailing toward the wind, you will get the shifts and puffs at a faster rate than if you were sitting in an anchored boat.

Conversely, on a run you are sailing away from the wind, so you get the shifts and puffs at a slower rate, that’s like what happens after the train passes the point where you are standing.

Though you won’t hear any changes in pitch when you go from beating to running, you may notice some subtle changes in the wind. To illustrate this, let’s consider an example, suppose you are sailing around on the starting line and you find that the wind is oscillating every five minutes.

As you sail up the first beat, will the shifts come at you at the same rate?

The answer is no. Since you are sailing towards the shifts, you will get them faster. Perhaps every three or four minutes.

How about when you round the windward mark and sail down the run? The ‘Doppler’ Windshift Effect 

Since you are sailing away from the shifts, you will get them less often, perhaps every 7 or 8 minutes!

The strategic implications of this phenomenon are significant. For example, if there are 8 minutes between shifts when you are sailing downwind, it is possible you will only see one shift on the run and if you get only one shift on the run, it means you should treat that as a persistent shift even though the overall wind pattern is oscillating.

The ‘Doppler’ wind shift effect also explains why better pressure is so critical downwind. Since you are sailing with the wind, you won’t see so many puffs. You can stay in one much longer than on the beats. Therefore, getting into the puff and using it fully is critical for optimum performance.

On a beat, the speed at which you converge with shifts (and puffs) is roughly equal to the sum of the wind speed plus your VMG to windward.

In this case, that’s 10 (windspeed) plus 5 (VMG), or 15 knots. But on a run, the convergence speed is the wind speed minus your VMG to leeward. Here it’s 4 knots (10 minus 6). So on a run, the shifts are coming at you several times more slowly than on a beat. Therefore you will experience that many fewer shifts.

Dave publishes the newsletter Speed & Smarts. For a subscription go to www.speedandsmarts.com 

Prepare to Race

Brett Bowden
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Prepare to Race

 

Prepare to Race – On the morning of the race, you will check the local forecast again to see how the predicted weather has changed or whether it is behaving as has been forecast.

Get Out On The Course Early

Get on the course 60 minutes before the start and sail as much of the first beat as possible.

Make mental notes of the wind patterns to establish which side of the course appears favoured. Work out whether the wind shifts are oscillating or persistent.

Compare what you are seeing with what has been predicted and start to make your plan for the first windward leg.

The main advantage of doing this is that if immediately after the start something changes, you will have the information to make a snap decision about whether to continue standing on or whether to tack.

Whilst sailing the first leg prior to the start you can establish whether your setting for the rig, sails and sheeting positions are correct.

These would have been set initially prior to leaving the beach based on information available at that time.

Check the current at different points on the racecourse matches with what you know about this venue. Find this out from previous regattas or local knowledge research.

Line Up Against Another Competitor

Even the best sailors benefit from lining up against another competitor prior to the start. Many of us have a tuning partner. If your regular mate isn’t there, find someone beneficial to work with. 

So many questions can be answered by positioning your boat two lengths from a competitor and speed testing.

These tests can and should be lined up in advance with a reliable competitor. Their speed and abilities are known and they will show up on time at the designated spot.

Almost always prioritize tactical and boatspeed research over boat-handling practice, you are not likely to solve bigger boat-handling issues in the short period of time that is available to you.

Finally, allow an 8 to 10-minute chill period before the start. During this time discuss the upcoming race in a low-stress manner.

This gives the team an opportunity to re-evaluate sail selection, and then to fuel up and hydrate.

You are now ready to tackle any eventuality after the gun goes. You can make an informed tactical decision when something that was not predicted occurs.

 

 

Left or Right?

Brett Bowden
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Left or Right?

Left or Right?

Left or Right? This is probably the most asked question in yacht racing. Going fast is important but it is no good being the fastest boat if you are going fast the wrong way.

That’s why, no matter how fast you are, you must consider whether you want to go left or right.

Strategy

When racing, we must employ strategy. Strategy is the plan you employ for getting to the next mark as quickly as possible.

Strategy is a plan that takes account of wind direction and strength, current, waves and the position of the next mark.

These factors are different every time you go out on the water and they change constantly while you are racing and often vary across the course as a result, the difference between going left and going right can be huge.

On the first beat, work hard to take advantage of changes in wind direction and velocity, current and the geometry of the course. The existence or absence of waves is another factor you should consider. 

Before you can actually plan a strategy, you must observe the racecourse. Collect a bunch of helpful information including data about wind and current. Do this before you leave the beach.

Weather

Look up weather forecasts and current charts and don’t forget to tap into the local knowledge of other sailors.

Get out to the course area early and start looking around and make observations about what is actually happening. It may not be exactly what was predicted.

After the race starts, don’t stop thinking about strategy, the wind and current are always changing. An added dimension is that now you have many other boats to help you see which side of the course is really favoured.

The best way to plan your strategy would be to view the racecourse from overhead. Since that is not possible while racing, you must keep your head “out of the boat”. Focus on the big picture.

Your strategic plan could be as simple as, “Hit the left side hard”.  It might be more detailed, like “Start 1/3 of the way down from the RC boat and play the oscillating shifts up the middle right  side.”

Don’t forget to keep re-thinking your strategy during the race. You will be constantly getting more information about the wind and other strategic factors. 

It is not always obvious which side of the course is favoured and there will be times when you’ll have no idea whether to go left or right and in fact, even the best sailors don’t have a strong feeling about which way to go on the first beat in as many as 50% of the races they sail.

When this happens, what should you do?

Unless you’re sure the right or left side is favoured,  stay near the middle of the fleet. Keep your eyes open. The beginning of the first beat is a great time for seeing what the wind is doing and which side is paying off.

Once you get some clues about which boats are gaining, head that way quickly. You will probably come out behind the boats that sailed to the favoured side but you took much less risk. Hopefully, you will still be in the top group at the first mark.

If you can do this every race, you’ll be successful. 

Sailing Specific Fitness

Brett Bowden
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Sailing Specific Fitness

Sailing Specific Fitness – I have summarised below some of the nuggets that I read in Michael Blackburn’s excellent book “Sail Fitter” and I highly recommend that if you are serious about getting faster on the race track your fitness is one of the major factors that will influence your results.

Michael’s book is full of excellent advice and training tips from a qualified person, not only qualified academically but with proven on-the-race-track achievements.

Be Adaptable – 

If you turn up to go sailing for a heavy air workout in your boat and the day turns out to be a drifter, cancel sailing and hit the gym.

When end up sailing, follow up with a hard gym session working on the muscle groups that would have copped a hammering if you had sailed in strong conditions.

If you have scheduled a gym session and you turn up in not-so-good condition such as lingering fatigue then you might reduce the volume and/or intensity of the session.

Recovery –

Use ice and cold water recovery practices and remember that you don’t get fitter from training until you get a chance to rest and let the body rebound.

You can recover faster for your next training session using recovery strategies like cold water immersion.

Develop Your Back –

The back is the part of the body that sees the most injuries for sailors. 

An important part of your fitness training is to include exercises for the lower back and deep abdominal muscles and you should try to do something with each of these muscle groups every day.

Shoulders –

These are the sailor’s next most problematic and injured body part and it is the sudden movements of the arms over a large range of motion that will affect your shoulder joints. 

If you have a weakness in this area or simply want to assist your body and to prevent injuries, sailors should include shoulder stabilisation exercises. Michaels’s book or YouTube are two great sources of these types of exercises.

Hip Flexors –

 Because of the way we sit in our boats, the hip flexors are in a shortened state. At the end of the sailing session, you need to engage in stretches. This helps the muscles recover, helps in reducing lower back issues and helps improve your posture.

Equipment – 

To assist with hiking, consider battened hiking pants, these will enhance your endurance. Grip on the boat with appropriate materials will enable you to move without slipping and sliding. The same goes for having good gloves, effective soles on your boots and a wetsuit with nonslip and kneepads.

A sometimes overlooked fact is that hot muscles are less efficient. Correct clothing for the prevailing conditions needs to ensure that muscles stay cool.

Be Scientific –  

Keep records of your fitness the aim being to find out by trial and error what works and what doesn’t. Body weight is something you should keep an eye on. Many classes have an optimum weight or weight range.

Keep a spreadsheet or notebook with exercises and food programs. It is sometimes helpful to look back over the years gone by to see what you have done by way of food and exercise to achieve different results.

Many elite sailors have records stretching back over 10 or more years.

Hiking Exercises – 

A Swiss Ball makes an excellent hiking bench to train your legs and work on your abdominals. This is a particularly useful exercise if you have had a number of light days. It keeps your muscles in peak condition for the next blow.

Better Technique –

Michael says that you are better off hiking at 90% rather than if hiking at 100% you end up fatigued. This affects your ability to steer, trim and decide tactics. 

What you lose in the righting moment you gain in these other areas.

 

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