Prepping For The Upcoming Sailing Season

Provided by Eric Hood

Over the years I have learned from my 400 plus regattas on just what makes a successful day at the race course, or successful series of races, or successful championship series.

Surprisingly it does not include having an absolute victory or win on the course to be successful. As I have gotten older the desire to win is still there but somewhat diminished by the fact that I would rather have a successful day, weekend or series on the water than necessarily win the event. Winning is great, but for many participants it is the only thing they say they think about. They are probably not enjoying the event or events as much as someone who has had a successful, well planned and executed day of sailing.

Here are the key ingredients for having a fun and successful sailing season.

Boat Preparation – The most important and very basic items
Physical Preparation – Whether old or young this is a must
Mental Preparation – The ability to focus on the sailing day ahead
Realistic Goal Setting – Set realistic goals based on history and untapped potential
Time Management – To be successful you must have good time management
The Rules – Understand U.S. Sailing and your class rules
Fundamental Characteristics Of The Boat I Am Racing
Fundamental Tactical Considerations You Must Incorporate Into Your Game Plan

When considering all of the important items to be included in our sailing game plan I like to keep one thing in mind all the time. Sailing and everything that goes with it is simply a game of mathematics. This includes math, geometry, leverage, weights, shapes, aerodynamics and hydrodynamics. Almost every aspect of what you do will include some form of mathmatics.

Boat Preparation
Whether you sail an Optimist, MC Scow, X Boat, C Scow, E Scow, Laser, 420, M16, A Scow or any of the other 80 plus one-design classes in the U.S.A. , there are some very important things we can do in the off-season. The off-season for most sailors is longer than their sailing season so there is absolutely no reason that you cannot be prepared for the upcoming season. Sailing failures on the course many times are because you simply have not put the time, thought and elbow grease into getting your boat ready. Here are the key considerations and all of this transfers from boat to boat.

Hull Preparation
A clean and smooth hull is incredibly fast. Your boat should be scratch free. A single 1” scratch can create turbulence ten times that length depending on the boats relative speed. So imagine a 1’ scratch creating a 10’ turbulence trail. Imagine 20 scratches on hull. For new boats we do not recommend any hull work other than keeping the boat clean and of course covered when going down the road. For older boats after scratches have been filled and faired then we recommend using a Teflon wax such as “Starbrite” in the gold and black bottle. For hulls with heavy stains and oxidation you may have to flip your hull and do a machine compounding with a liquid compound agent to bring the hull back to new like condition. It will take machine compounding for sure.

Foil Preparation
The same thing applies to foils. Your rudder and blade/board foils are extremely important when it comes to your boats overall performance. We are amazed sometimes at the poor condition we see on older boats and even in some cases newer boats when we go to regattas or have boats in the shop. Imagine flying on plane looking out the window and seeing some big gouges or scratches in the wings surface – you don’t. The relative speed of a plane is much greater than our sailboats but airlines absolutely understand the importance of smooth foils, same applies to sailing. Most common problems are damage to leading and trailing edges. You must protect these when you are not sailing. Blade bags are a great way to do this. We would not recommend reshaping of your foils for two reasons. One, it may be against your class rules. Two, the manufacturer has the foil at its optimum shape already.

Running and Standing Rigging
Every class of sailboats has a unique set of rigging areas that need special attention.

Standing rigging
The one common area among all classes except say the Optimist and
Laser would be the standing rigging or wire shrouds. The number one failure for rigs coming down is probably a pre-existing condition such as a broken strand before you even left the dock. You must inspect your shrouds top to bottom with particular attention being paid to the end fittings as this is where the most common failures occur. Most broken strands on shrouds occur from poor storage and traveling down the road secured in a fashion that puts strain on the shroud. Having spare clevis and cotter pins on hand is a good idea. Another area of concern would be spreaders, attachments both inboard and outboard on the spreader plus the bracket itself. Inspect all of these items.

Halyards
In the case of boats that have latches is a very important area to check. The number one reason a halyard breaks on a boat with a latch is usually because the mainsail luff rope has shrunk and you are now hoisting a sail that is shorter than what it was designed to be.

Running Rigging
Running rigging is another critical area on your boat where good preparation is very important. Over the years rope manufacturers have created stronger, smaller ropes with tighter and more water resistant core covers. It is very important regardless of what piece of running rigging you have that the ends are either burned or seized with a wax thread. This keeps the cover from slipping on the core and helps maintain the original shape and strength. On older boats we see a lot of older rope styles like the soft Samson Trophy braids. While they are soft, they stretch more, hold more water and also have a much higher rate of shrinkage. There are on most boats areas where shrinkage can be a problem. Examples would include bilge board lines, mast rakes. You must pay attention to these critical areas with the passage of time.

Sails
The sails are your engine. We could talk about this area forever. The most important thing you can do as a sailor and not a sailmaker is to take care of your sails. Most importantly the 3 outside edges (Optimists 4). Always feed your luff and foot ropes in carefully. Once you cut or tear the Dacron rope cover then you have just created an area of friction. Also keep you luff and foot ropes free of dirt this includes the tunnels on your mast and boom. When not sailing during the off-season remove your battens from the pockets. This will help maintain a healthy lifespan for the elastic that is sewn into your pocket. One of the most important maintenance items of your sails would be monitoring the luff rope of your mainsail over time. Luff ropes are secured or seized at both ends of the rope. This is done so that when you pull on the Cunningham you will not pull your sail apart. The problem is that we have a stretchy piece of rope that has a small percentage of uncontrollable shrinkage incorporated into it. This rope can be released from its seized point at the bottom end of the luff rope and allowed to move up within the cover, and then be resiezed. This allows the sail to be at its original designed length again. Sometimes a small additional piece of rope must be sewn in if the shrinkage is more than a couple of inches. This also prevents undue stress on halyards and also prevents unnecessary bending of a mast in light air due to a tight luff.

The number one and two enemies of a sail are luffing and the sun. Cover or store your sail when you are not sailing. If you are caught in situation where luffing is unavoidable then sail of the back half of the sail preventing luff to leech luffing.

Physical Preparation
Whether we are young, old, large, small or have some physical limitations you can still prepare during the long off-season. I have found that working out a minimum of 4-5 days a week is the only way I can maintain my sailing abilities as I get older. That is something that never occurred to me when I was younger in my twenties and thirties.

Sailing is a tough sport on the body especially for those who are not prepared for it. You do not have to hike hard but you need to learn how to use your body weight in a leverage situation and you have to be able to hang in the straps. That being said probably the most important exercises to consider in the off-season are knee, lower back, neck and upper body exercises that will allow to you hang in the straps, look around the race course, not get a sore back and last but not least trim the sails. At a recent meeting I spent a day with Dr. Jerry May who twice was the U.S. Olympic Team Psychiatrist. Here is what he said the difference is between anOlympian and your average good athlete.

Someone who exercises 4-5 times a week for 45-60 minutes per session is operating at 80% of potential. Someone who exercises 4-5 times a week for 2 hours per session is operating at 90% of potential. Olympians operate at 98-100% of their potential.

Mental Preparation And Goal Setting
Wish goals, specific goals and action plan.

Wish goals tend to be general outcome or results desired. Wish goals can help motivate, give you a sense of mission, and lead you over time.

Task goals refer to a set of actions performed to develop a specific skill. Task goals can be divided into six areas.

• Sailing technique goals (i.e., boat speed, boat handling, tacking, gybing, speed off the line)

• Racing technique goals (i.e., starting, tactics, series strategy, lee bow situations, ECT...)

• Conditioning goals (i.e., strength, flexibility, endurance, quickness, etc.)

• Mental goals (i.e., increased concentration, improved confidence, tension control, having fun, etc.)

• Organizational goals (i.e., boat prep, regatta logistics, equipment selection, on the water training time, etc.)

• Personal goals (i.e., things to do with free time, personal relationships, education, work, recreation, etc.)

With your task goals specify the method that will assist you to achieve your goals.
In setting your goals, pick areas you have already perfected and want to enhance as well as areas you may be weak and need to learn something new. We improve by practicing what we do well in addition to trying to correct mistakes.

Remember, goals change over time. Be flexible, when appropriate, change your goals.
It is important that each day in your task goals you have an activity in each area that provides excitement and fun. Be realistic with your past history fleet scores and your potential future scores. Realistic goal setting is a key ingredient to having fun.

Last but not least. To be successful at anything in life you must have the ability to focus on the task at hand. That is a very difficult thing to do unless you have mentally prepared for the race well ahead of time.

Time Management
This area really falls with the above mentioned goal setting items. However, if you do not pay attention to this area you can show up to the races or regatta totally unprepared. During the off-season or even the week leading into the races mentally go through your upcoming event. You will be amazed at what a difference good time management will make. Know how you are going to get there, when is the crew showing up, where are we staying, have I read the S.I.s well in advance. Understanding the S.I.s will give you a clear picture of what is planned for the day, weekend or week of sailing coming up. Last but not least have you created the time to sail a full beat and run on the race course area at the beginning of each race day. You can watch a clear majority of the leaders from the docks taking off early each day.

The Rules
Many sailors are intimidated by the U.S. Sailing rulebook. You really only need to know a very small portion of the rulebook. In fact less than 15 pages of the book. Parts 1-4 which covers safety, fair sailing and when boats meet. If you understand this very small portion of the thick rulebook you will have a much better sense of what you are doing on the race course and can make better tactical decisions. Know your class rules and have your boat set up legally.

Fundamental Characteristics Of The Boat I Am Sailing
It is said that sailmakers have a huge advantage over other sailors. From the standpoint of are sailmakers just smarter, absolutely not. In fact I have met thousands of sailors over the years and I really have not met any sailors yet who are not just as intelligent as the next sailor. However, I think most sailmakers because they sail so many different classes have come to realize that each different class of sailboats each have about 10 secrets that you must focus on. Keep it simple; do not try to reinvent the wheel. Most tuning guides are short and sweet. I would say the 85 different tuning guides we have at North Sails for one-design sailboats are probably an average of 3 pages long. All of them include those 10 secrets. Focus on the most important things these tuning guides say and stick to these recommendations. Sometimes mast rake and simple statements you see in these tuning guides are in fact the 10 secrets of setting your boat up to have the same or better speed of the competitor next to you.

Fundamental Tactical Considerations That You Must Incorporate Into Your Game Plan
Here are some of the most important tactical considerations that are a must at all times to be consistently successful on the race course. The group at the front of the pack I can guarantee you live by these rules. (For those at seminars this will be reviewed on drawing boards or by slide presentation)

Remember, keep it simple, do the basics correctly and consistently for best results race in and race out.

Understanding The Race Course
Understanding the race course means that you several considerations for each day of racing and they vary from day to day. Only a full beat and full run at the beginning of each day will really get you started in the right direction here.

• We need to understand the water condition, the easy tack and the hard tack.

• We need to understand the breeze, is it steady in both velocity and direction. Is the breeze steady, oscillating or persistently changing?

• Do we have shore influences or currents to take into consideration?

• How is the PRO setting up the course, marks and their anchor lines? Is the PRO setting a long course, short course, prone to changing or not changing mark locations or starting lines with wind direction changes?

All of the above are easy things to check out. You have to get out early and observe all of these conditions. Evaluate what happens on your boat and your competitor’s boat before the race.

The Start And General Course Direction For The First Beat
When at the starting line there are two decisions that should be your primary concern going into the last five minutes.

• First, we already understand the race course and have factored in those discoveries into our starting decisions.

• Second, when you see teams going eye to wind with their boats just above the starting line before the start they are not only checking which side of the line if any is favored but also checking out which side will present the long tack to the weather mark.

• Principle upwind rule – sail the long tack first. The math and odds are with you.

• Example – if when luffing eye to wind at the starting line you look upwind and your bow is pointing to the starboard side of the weather mark that is telling you the long tack is starboard tack. That does not mean race to the starboard side of the course but you might want to be on the inside of the wheel by protecting the starboard side of your group going upwind.

Upwind Primary Rules
Again, very basic but the leaders live by these rules I would say better than 90% of the time.

• Stick with the group. If you have done your homework and practice then sticking with the group should not be anything to be afraid of. You are safer in numbers. The correct tactical thinking will be reflected by large groups doing the same thing.

• Be flexible though and do not be afraid to lead a group into something new.

• Also, while sailing with the group always at least be going the same speed so you are not losing ground. This may require basic sailing strategies that include sailing a parallel course to the closest boat you happen to be racing. You want to match angle of heel.

• Constant angle of heel is constant speed. Very few boats like constantly changing angle of heel.

• Clear air is essential. The dirty air shadow is 8-10 boat lengths in light air, 4-7 boat lengths in medium air and 1-4 boat lengths in heavy air.

Downwind Primary Rules
Downwind the closure on the next mark is more direct than the upwind leg. That being said a primary rule one must understand and live by is the weather mark approach and how you can make that first decision on which way we are going once we clear the offset mark.

• Primary rule to remember. Example- On a windward –leeward course when approaching the weather mark say on a starboard or right hand lift that would suggest that we would want to be on the headed port tack gybe after clearing the offset. We want headers downwind unlike upwind where we are looking for lifts.

• Question to answer about the move to make at the offset. Do I gybe right away or extend on starboard. There are two answers at minimum. If in the lead group extending unless there is a huge port header would be the smart move. The rich get richer at the corners. If you had a port gybe header at the offset in light air you might extend a little to escape the “dead zone” created by the upwind fleet approaching the weather mark. If you have solid breeze and the port gybe is favored then you can gybe without fear of losing horsepower.

• Know the favored gybe with regards to wave action and include that in any tactical decision with regards to the best gybe or shortest gybe leg to the leeward mark.

• The wind shadow downwind from a windward boat is for sure a certain way to get passed. Pretend like your telltale extends 50 yards to windward of your weather shroud telltale. It is clear and in free air? Clear air is absolutely critical.

• Sail the boat at the proper angle of heel, always. Limit body movement and tiller movement.

• Again the corners are critical. Whether you have a single mark or dual leeward gate marks understand the new upcoming favored upwind tack. Two ways to do this is too understand the favored downwind gybe as you approach the mark. The opposite tack upwind is more than likely favored.

• Having good boat handling and a good mark rounding is critical so you can survive and extend on the same tack that you rounded the mark. Never tack immediately at a bottom mark. Tacking at a bottom mark as you round is doing a 180 degree turn in most cases and generally puts you back into traffic, without speed and in turbulent waves slowing you even more.

The Rules
As I stated earlier that understanding the rules will help you when making tactical decisions especially in crossing situations, starts and at the corners. Also, it just makes sailing safer and a lot more fun.

In closing I would like to thank all of our friends and customers for all of their support over the years. Please feel free to call any of us anytime for specific questions on how to better prepare your sailing program for the fun season of sailing ahead.

Good luck!