A Few Lessons From the Last Few Months

After taking almost 2 months off after the Laser Worlds, I am getting back into full rig sailiing. Over that time, I have been working on my fitness, and have taken the opportunity to sail on Farr40, Sydney 38, and Laser Radial with some succes(2nd at Australian Farr40 Nationals, 1st at Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta-Sydney 38, and 1st at the Mens Radial World Championships). It has been a wonderful opportunity, and I have learnt heaps sailing these other boats.

I have had some really big takeaways during that time. First, I realized how important fitness is to sailing success-no matter what boat you sail. From my laser experience, fitness has a direct and dramatic impact on your boatspeed, however I thought that you just needed to be reasonably fit to sail on a yacht. Not so... Being fit will improve your grinding, trimming, hoisting, and most of all, will make you less likely to fatigue from race to race and day to day. On boats like Farr40s where there is a set weight limit, you need to make sure that every pound counts, and is more then just moveable ballast. Races are won and lost by feet, and if you are able to consistantly hoist 1 second faster then your competition, those gains will add up over the course of an event.

Second, I learnt the importance of pacing yourself in your preparation for a major event. While you don't want to slack off until the month or week before, you need to have an understanding of what needs to be done and when. More isn't always better, which brings me to my next point. All to often, people(myself included) have gone out and put in hours and hours of junk miles. While they will help your fitness they often detract from the ultimate goal. Training should always be done with purpose, and by going out and putting in hundreds of hours of junk miles, you often diminish your motivation, and typically end up practicing bad habits. If the intensity isnt there, then go in, and come back when you are ready. It is as simple as train like you would race. If you train at 50% intensity, you shouldnt expect to race at much more then 50% intensity. Obviously, you need to make sure that you break the skills down into managable chunks, but always train them with intensity.

Third, all to often, people follow the the basic general rules of thumb way to much(eg tack when you can cross, sail the long tack first, etc). Rules are meant to be broken. To call tactics successfully, you need to constantly be analyzing what is happening on the course in terms of pressure, wind direction and current. Then you need to assess what other boats are doing, your confidence in your judgement, and determine the amount of risk you are willing take. Often, you will end up following the general rules, but there will be plenty of times when you successfully dont.

Fourth-be prepared to back yourself. I have seen many different tactical styles of racing. Some people are very conservative and not willing to take much risk while others as much more likely to take risk. This has been one of the biggest things I have learnt over the last couple of months. Watching Slingo call tactics on the farr has really opened my eyes to why he wins so many events, as when he is confident in his decisions, he backs them.