That Extra 2-3%

"... who get all those things right every time they go out. "

Originally posted by ifoxwell I would suggest that its different every time you go out. If your sailing on a small inland venue then boat handling and coordination are key.  If your in a big one design fleet then tactics could be the thing that makes the difference Alternatively if your out at sea with minimal tide and constant wind then boatspeed is everything Ian

Spot on.

Fair comment :) I'd still say that disastrous starts happen even to the best and if you're last in a championship fleet it might still be worth taking a flier 'cos you're not going to win by sailing up the middle. If your bad start landed you 10th out of 50 the conservative/relentless approach is undoubtedly correct. 

Getting 'through' a fleet is only really er 'easy' if there are fast oscillating shifts and the reason you can do it is very often that far into a race, 'they' are all focussed on each other rather than the main event which is to get round the marks.
So, I tended to clear my head focus just on the next mark and ignore everything and everybody other than that, the mark provides a reference to stay in synch with the particular shift you are on, one must also always remember in these conditions, whatever shift you have, is not necessarily relevant to what others might have on different parts of the course, so you can only deal with what you have. By all means glance at other boat/board groups to ascertain what's going on and wether or not there may be more 'pressure' elsewhere, but fundamentally the mark is where you're going and you need to get there quicker than them, so just aim at it, as close as the wind will allow, on whichever tack that is - simples.

Er a quick qualifier to that, the only reason not to go directly to the mark is if there is significantly more pressure or direction on the horizon, likely to get you there quicker, that you should sail toward.

Edited by iGRF - 14 Feb 17 at 10:27am

This thread does have some great comments and information. I used to watch boats "sail through" a fleet wondering how the hell they did that? They weren't sailing any faster or marginally. So what makes up the difference? I believe that it is more than 2-3% more like 10%. If a race lasts 60 minutes, 10% is 6 minutes. Where is that won and lost? Not boat speed, that maybe makes up 1-2 minutes? But starts, tacks, marks and gybes. AKA race management. Making clear, fast decisions, getting out of bad situations and capitalizing on opportunities.