Practice Makes Perfect!

by Ben McGrane, P&B 23 Mar 2014 21:01 GMT

SET YOURSELF FOR THE SEASON!

I’m not entirely sure where this winter has gone, the sailing season is here and for many classes the first open event of the year will have been completed by the end of this month. A pretty scary thought that for many the main championship of the year is 4-5 months away which gives little time on the water to find the form of last season and build on it further.

This time scale starts to highlight a couple of main points for me. Firstly knowing where you left off last year goes a long way towards building on the previous season, not only the rig settings and equipment that were fast but knowing what your strengths and weaknesses were gives you a perfect foundation. Second is identifying how many days sailing you have between now and your main event to get yourself performing to your best potential, and alongside this how productive is your time on the water?

For many the answer to the above is I will go sailing one day each week, completing 2 races along with a few opens, this will mean that by the time they get to their nationals in August they will have sailed around 25-30 days and completed 50-60 races. Then allow for holidays, bad weather and real life which will take away at least 25% of these and it’s more like 19-22 days. Not a lot of time on the water?!

So where am I going with this? For me personally it makes a strong case for making sure every chance you get to sail you take, while a drift in 3 knots or 25 knots and heavy rain might not be your cup of tea, it may be the only time you practice in those conditions this year and there is also every chance of it happening at an event. It also makes a strong case for taking note of what you did well and badly in a certain race condition, identifying where you made gains and losses means you can focus on the important areas each time you sail.

A small amount of time on the water, if used productively can be far more useful than repeatedly going through the same process each week. A couple of hours spent focused purely on boat handling or boat speed in the first few sails of the year can quickly get these areas up to a decent level, meaning you can get more from your racing each week. In 2012 I won the POW with James Hughes at our first attempt together with 15 days sailing and this was largely because each time we sailed we worked on the aspects that needed the most attention.

To get the most out of your time on the water there is no question that your boat needs to be at its best with no risk of breakages and your sailing kit needs to contain everything required to make sure you are on the water and comfortable no matter what the weather throws at you. P&B South has the most extensive range of dinghy chandlery on the South Coast and our workshop can help you prepare your boat to its optimum potential, furthermore our staff are here to help you get the most out of your sailing this summer.

Visit us in store or call us on 01489 577748 for further information.

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