Sailing tactics from P&B

by Ben McGrane, P&B 16 Feb 2015 14:54 GMT 16 February 2015

SAILING TACTICS

I view this as the most complex part of our sport. It is the hardest to teach and understand because there are so many variables. Nothing is set in stone, factors are constantly changing and it is a continual game of reading the situation to stay on top of what is happening on the race course, while also sailing quickly.

This is where double handed boats have a distinct advantage and while responsibilities vary from boat to boat two heads are always better than one. There is a lot of trust needed but it is crucial to split roles between helm and crew. Stick to what you know you need to be doing and always accept the outcome without blame. From my perspective as a helm this is what makes the difference between a good crew and a great one, while in a boat like a B14 or Merlin I generally make the final calls but my crews constantly feed information, what is happening across the course, our position on the course, mark positions, pressure, compass numbers. It’s gold dust! It means as a helm I can just focus on making the boat go fast, concentrate on my lane and the boats close to me and with the information from the crew plan the next few moves ahead of time to get where we want to be. Crews are a safety net that I continually rely on to stop me doing anything stupid! Single handed sailing the game changes but it does so for everybody, there is an increased requirement to sail the boat fast without thinking about it, allowing you to get your head out the boat for a great percentage of time.

There are no hard and fast rules how to approach your tactics but I’m very conservative these days, maybe sometimes I play it too safe but consistency is how you build a series, you can’t win a regatta on the first day but you can definitely lose it!

IMPROVE YOUR DECISION MAKING

The most important factor in how you sail around a race course is basing decisions on what you know. Sounds simple enough but it is all too easy to go with your gut or try something because it worked yesterday. There are no excuses in sailing tactics, there are the factors you control and there are ones you can’t. If the boats ahead or behind get a gust and take 200m out of you it is the most annoying thing but while it is all too easy to have a paddy about it the time is much better spent positioning yourself defensively or working out where the next gain is by thinking about your next few moves.

HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE VENUE

There are a lot of ways to learn a championship venue but realistically the only way to know for sure is to sail there a lot. There is no point turning up 2 days before an event and thinking you will learn everything about sailing the race course, I can’t remember the last time I went to a venue early and saw conditions that then continued into the championship, how many times have you heard someone say ‘It never normally does this here"? Unquestionably there are gains to be made by talking to locals and the race officer. Read anything you can find as a venue guide but while you may consider this in your race strategy remember that there is far more to be assessed and understood on the course that can allow you to make decisions based on fact. I know when it blows an Easterly in Portland Harbour, with the course on the South side of the harbour, there is better pressure and a wind bend to be had by getting on port early and smashing the right hand corner but without getting on the water early enough to sail the beat and check the wind is doing what you expect this is a high risk strategy. If you sail the beat, ideally with another boat and know the gain feature is there then your game plan becomes about executing a start that allows you to get onto port and heading to the right hand corner on the front of the group. Nothing else matters other than having an early port hand lane that will allow you to sail fast, you have made a decision based on what you know.

MANAGE THE RISK

Sailing conservatively and looking for small gains generally gives a better outcome. If there are 100 boats on a course and you are the furthest to one corner you have to know you are going that way for a reason. There is no doubt luck can play a factor in our sport, somebody can get spat out on the start, duck the fleet sailing on the port lift the fleet creates, bang hard right and the next time you see them they are leading, that is racing but it is unlikely someone will consistently achieve this. I always like to start near the favoured end but I would choose space around me and know that I am well covered rather than 1-2 extra boat lengths of line bias. If racing in a group of 5-10 boats and 1-2 split away I’d tend to stick with the main group where there are great gains to be made and fewer losses by keeping separation to a minimum, you can’t cover everyone but you can make decisions with lower risk.

USE YOUR TIME WISELY

When you get out on the water it is important to have a process you work through. Getting the boat on the right settings and then working through looking at the course and identifying what will impact on your race strategy. You might have only 10 minutess before you start at a club race or up to an hour if you are keen at a championship. The more time you have to understand what is happening on the water the more decisions you will make based on what you know, you will have less risk in your race plan and achieve more results more consistently.

KNOW THE IMPORTANT FACTORS

There are many factors that affect tactics and strategy on any given day but generally 2-3 factors will override the rest and these are therefore the ones to consider. At Stokes Bay in a SW there is a lot of tide which is the overriding factor, change it to a Northerly and while the tide is still a factor the changes in pressure and shift become far more relevant as the tide reduces further up the course and the shifts will be up to 30°. At Cowes Week last year I got an absolute schooling on a few occasions where I focused on the wrong factor, with a Southwesterly wind and flooding tide I was sucked into the persistent 20° wind shifts, I started in the middle of the line, held pace and had options. To leeward of me was John Tremlett, I took 4 tacks and the next time I saw John he was 200m ahead of me 2/3rds of the way up the beat, John had done his homework, came out of the line got his head down and went straight for Bramble Bank. I’d sailed a good beat on the right shift in clear breeze but overlooked that I was doing it in 4 knots of tide when I could have been sailing in none. If I had taken the time the night before I could have sat down looked at the wind direction and identified Bramble as a massive potential gain feature.

STICK TO A PLAN

I always aim to start a race with a clear strategy of how I will sail the first leg as well as discussing the rest of the first lap to give myself an idea what each leg will most likely consist of (Kite up? Stay high? Stay low?). There is plenty going on during the first beat, the fleet is at its most condensed and it is too easy to worry that the opposite side has made a gain ½ way up the beat; it’s out of your control, stick to the plan. Manage the fleet and work with what you have got to get across the course at the best time. The separation here can be massive so focus on beating the boats around you to get the best possible rounding should the conditions throw up a factor you hadn’t considered. How you manage these situations can make the difference between rounding in a recoverable 20^th or a much more difficult 50^th, if you make rash panicked decisions you will more often than not lose more positions than if you focus on your race and the small gains on the boats around you.

HOW DO THEY DO IT?

Some days are harder than others but more often than not you find the main contenders still get the job done and achieve a result they can count towards their series. You can argue they are lucky but a more realistic answer is ththey have done their homework, been one of the first hulls to hit the water and addressed the important factors in their strategy and race tactics.

My advice is to read as much as you can, there are some great books out there like Mark Rushall’s RYA Tactics, trying to read the whole book is hard to digest but there is some great input on how to plan your race and all the factors to consider. Try to review your races, at what point in the race did you make the biggest loss and what factor caused this, what did the others see that you missed? Through studying how you raced and identifying the mistakes you will find you gradually become more aware of where you were going wrong and the number of mistakes will reduce. Ask others, pick the brains of the guy who won the race and speak to others to see where they felt they made gains and why, tactics and strategy is a minefield but with a plan of attack and with practice it slowly becomes easier to get it right more consistently.

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