Another good one from Sail1Design, adapt it for teaching new skippers and crews to work on their tactical game.
http://www.sail1design.com/airwaves-sailing-news/tactics-strategy/1185-s1d-tactics-with-mike-tactics-simplified-the-power-of-observation Race Killers: This is an attempt to re-write one of my favorite sailing articles that I can’t seem to find anymore… How do you win or lose a sailboat race? Winning is usually the aggregate of many small successes or improvements and rarely won in a single knockout blow or Hail Mary. While races are very rarely won by big successes, they are often lost by single tragic mistakes; the race killers*. Let’s review those and think about how best to minimize them. (*Race Killers are singular, individual mistakes and are not to be confused with a lack of technique or skill; like the inability to start or tune your boat or tack properly.) Race Killers in order of severity: OCS Capsize Penalty Turns Starting at the wrong end of the line OCS – Don’t be over early… It’s painful, you get to sail backwards while everyone else makes progress up the course. If you are consistently OCS you either set up too early or you allow others to take advantage of you and should probably not be left alone at a bar. In big fleets where pushing the line is common starting closer to an end can be helpful because you have a better idea if where the line is and it can be easier to clear. This counts double if the I lag is up. Capsize – You stop and lose all momentum while others continue to make progress up the course. Its time consuming to recover and makes the boat weigh more, which is also slow. Penalty Turns – Well at least you get to keep your momentum, but everyone else is still going (except maybe the person you hit). Everyone has to do turns eventually, even the best sailors, but they are practiced enough that their turns hurt them less than others. **Extra bad = you have no rights when doing turns, so if you are not careful you could easily foul someone else in the process and have to do more… Starting at the wrong end – You keep your momentum, but you automatically concede distance to others and start at a deficit. If you do any of those things on a consistent basis you will never win. Notice that all of these things basically count as a free giveaway of distance and a more open racecourse to your opponents and a deficit and dirty air to you. Winning sailboat races is hard enough, why spot your opponents any points? Blake Billman SEISA Graduate Director (817) 366-5022 {m} (512) 472-6852 {o} iPhone ________________________________________________ seisa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=seisa Unsubscribe: Send a blank email to [email protected]
