Recovery after a Bad Start
Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: Dinghy classes
Forum Name: Dinghy development
Forum Discription: The latest moves in the dinghy market
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10887
Printed Date: 16 Jul 25 at 1:16pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.665y - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Recovery after a Bad Start
Posted By: Telltale
Subject: Recovery after a Bad Start
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 9:49am
|
I'd appreciate some advice. I've been getting better results at club level recently, mainly
because I’ve been more positive at starting. Boat speed has been good and
sailing the beats has been fast. BUT why am I not as fast if I get a mid fleet
start. I know clean air is key but the boat speed is the same, beats are the
same. Shouldn’t I still make progress towards the front. How do I recover from
a bad start?
|
Replies:
Posted By: SoggyBadger
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 10:01am
|
I can only think of two ways: a) just keep plugging away in the hope that your competitors will make mistakes b) go out on flyer in the hope of getting a jammy shift Tactic a will often bring dividends, especially if it's blowing. Tactic b will probably work once in a while but most of the time it will put you further back. I suppose you could also try missing out a few marks and hope no-one notices  ------------- Best wishes from deep in the woods SB |
Posted By: Alistair426
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 10:24am
|
You've hit the nail on the head - Clear air is key. If you are bogged-down in the pack you have got to have exceptional boatspeed to just sail through all the bad air. There are two realistic options - get your bow down and go fast'n'low to break free of the dirty air, albeit to leeward, so that you can start to climb back to windward one you are travelling fast again in clear air OR tack off, take some sterns and get out to windward. Do something, don't just sit there. The good guys/girls who recover from indifferent starts tend not to do so simply by getting lucky, they make their own luck.
|
Posted By: GarethT
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 10:54am
|
Start your recovery before the gun goes. You will normally know 10-20 seconds before the start if you're not on the front row. Tack off then and start heading for clear air. You'll still not have a great start, but you'll find a lane much sooner.
|
Posted By: fab100
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 11:05am
Clean air is key as you say. But the leaders have the luxury of sailing their own race whereas back in the bunch, you are battling, among others,
It is also worth bearing in mind that some of the people in mid-fleet could also stay near the front if they had a dream start and first beat. There is the almost universal truth that many club racers sail really quite well for about 20 minutes but then fade badly. So:
------------- http://clubsailor.co.uk/wp/club-sailor-from-back-to-front/" rel="nofollow - Great book for Club Sailors here |
Posted By: Ruscoe
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 11:22am
|
Fab100, what a great post!! It’s all common sense, which is something I like to think I have in abundance. However seem to leave on the beach when I sail! The key Salient point for me is the truth that many club sailors sail well for the first 20 minutes or so. I have found this in the past. I have been well on the pace as fast as the very top boys, however I faded away as the race/Day went on. So I have concentrated on getting fitter, hard work on my bike and at the gym. Making sure I am hydrated etc. This hard work off the water has seen me improve and able to grind out results. Working the boat harder and longer and staying mentally alert for the shifts/tactics. Don't get me wrong I am now world beater and its true what they say about time in the boat. However for me it’s been time out of the boat and actually looking at my diet, lifestyle choices and exercise. So actually less time in the boat has seen vast improvements for me.
------------- |
Posted By: 2547
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 11:37am
|
What Fab said ... Note: don't hope for the best ... try and grind your way forwards. Taking a flyer sometimes works but usually if the fleet is going the other side that is for a reason ...
|
Posted By: Alistair426
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 12:00pm
|
Ruscoe said, 'So actually less time in the boat has seen vast improvements for me.' What is it about dinghy sailing that means so many (and I include myself at times) just go racing and make the same mistakes week-after-week without trying to iron them out through practice? Good golfers - even at club-level - spend hours practicing...they don't turn up at the last minute and stagger to the first tee still tying their shoes up. Gareth T said that you will know in the last 10-20 secs before the start if it's going Pete Tong. It may have started to fall apart 30mins ago when you were late launching...one last cup of tea! Oh yes...back on topic. I entirely agree with His Fabness's post and would add, 'get on the water earlier enough to get your race-head on'.
|
Posted By: Telltale
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 12:02pm
| Now that is exactly the kind of post I was hoping for. Brilliant advice, very true that concentration wains at 20 mins, I'll try that Wednesday night, trouble is knowing my luck I'll get a blinding start...... oh hang on thats what I want isn't it !! |
Posted By: tick
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 12:02pm
|
This Sunday we had our annual 'sprint' day where we sail 12 one lap races. The courses consist of 3 or 4 short legs and take about 5 mins. If you make a bad start then it is very difficult to do anything about it but you can try! 2x Gp's, 4 Lightnings, 3x Supernovas, Phantom, 2x Byte c2,s, Topper, RS Q'ba. The 'boy' in his Lightning finished first in all races and won on py for ten of them. It goes to prove that recovery from a bad start even in a faster boat is all but impossible on a short course. I do not know how many clubs have tried this racing format but it makes for a fun day and as the day wore on everybody's starting showed a marked improvement.
|
Posted By: Chris 249
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 12:33pm
|
Something I read years ago which works very, very well is to bail out as soon as possible. As Gareth noted, you normally know before the start that things are going to be cactus so you normally have time. Even if you don't, putting an emergency plan into action (such as stopping so you can tack behind boats each side) AS SOON AS POSSIBLE will normally get you out to one side and into clear air with a smaller loss than if you hung in for minutes, taking gas and losing time throughout. But this can often depend on having good boathandling skills that allow you to stop and tack, or duck and foot, and that is something you get by NOT racing. It's often said that a good start is 1/3 (or some similar fraction) of a good race but how many of us spend a similar amount of time concentrating on starts? I did for some time in Lasers and it was fascinating to see how you could pull out of a bad start (although that didn't always help me since I was slow to learn the simple rule of how to do good mid-line starts when you can't get a transit). Like most things, it gets easier as you get better. If you have worked on your low-speed boathandling on the start line, you become confident that no one will get under your bow and squeeze you out easily, and after a while people start to leave you alone because they know that they are in trouble if they are to windward of you. It's one of the things that makes it actually easier to win or place in a championship than it is to finish 1/3 of the way back, in many ways. As with everything in sailing, Sail Race and Win by Eric Twiname has some great stuff on this. One other thing is that speed when you get a bad start is different to speed when you get a good one. If you are struggling to hold height off lee bows or in the chop that can build up if you drop back a fraction then you can be in real trouble..... at least I know I am when I'm out of practice and spend the first beat getting slammed and take all the rest of the race to grovel back towards the front once the air gets less dirty and you have freedom to move. It's one of those things where having a tiny edge in practise can give you an enormous edge on the racecourse but for those of us who lack talent in the area, it takes training to get the winning edge in this respect. |
Posted By: Ruscoe
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 1:29pm
So whilst time in the boat is valuable, i guess it depends on how you spend that time in the boat!
One thing is for sure i am more confident now tht if i have a bad start i am fit and strong enough to get the boat flat and the bow down and really puch my competitors and not just for the first half of a beat! ------------- |
Posted By: Neptune
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 2:07pm
The Musto fleet at Datchet actually spends most of its time doing that and only seldom race, probably why we have such a strong fleet, in that people are there helping each other to go faster. I actually finding that i am enjoying my sailing much more now as if i get something wrong i can practice it again until i get it right rather than wait another lap to try again. ------------- Musto Skiff and Solo sailor |
Posted By: Ruscoe
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 2:15pm
|
Thats right Neptune, this works to Alaistairs anology regarding Golf. Many golfers spend hours practicing 'Down the Range' where as sailors just seem to rock up Sunday mornings and race. Which limits what you are learning as you are confined within that racing enviroment. I would rather sail and set a goal. I.e. tight reaching with a kite, or tacking every 30 seconds. etc. etc. rather then getting in a luffing battle with a Solo. ------------- |
Posted By: 2547
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 2:29pm
Eh?? I guess that means bad ... Early action is the key ... at least you are doing something before the rest of the fleet are all racing at full speed,
|
Posted By: SoggyBadger
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 2:32pm
I think it means succulent but prickly. ------------- Best wishes from deep in the woods SB |
Posted By: transient
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 2:39pm
|
Cracking post Fab, something for everyone there, certainly something for me to think about. The folk who choose to sail slower boats in handicap fleets must get tons of practice in middle/back of fleet dirty air....hats off to them when they win. Cactus?.....Mmmmm perhaps: Cactus Pete - Pete tong - Wrong. Just guessing mind. |
Posted By: 2547
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 2:42pm
Indeed the faster boats have a significant advantage in mass start races but then again I would assume that is all evened out by the PY returns ... which would perhaps imply slower boats have an advantage in a pursuit race where the situation is reversed ...
|
Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 2:50pm
|
All part of the art of race management... especially how you time your starts and class splits if you have staggered starts
. One can even imagine that there ought to be subtly different handicaps for pursuit races, but in practice of course the variations in sailor and weather completely submerge any subtleties like that. I'm increasingly of the opinion though that in normal club handicap racing its impossible to set a perfect course or a perfect race and what you should seek to do is to ring as many changes as possible over the course of a series so every dog has its day. In that respect picking a course from a set of fixed marks may actually be fairer than setting the same course with movable marks every week. What we do at my club, which seems to work well for us, is to have a fixed set round the reservoir plus one or two movables so a good RO can have a decent shot at setting a true beat and run combined with other legs at varying angles. |
Posted By: tick
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 2:51pm
| To win on PY slow boats have to start fast. At our club it is usually a short dash to the windward mark. If a slow boat can get water there and force faster boats wide then the battle is half done. |
Posted By: transient
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 3:06pm
| ....and of course, if a slow boat is pushing tide on any part of the course it's a double whammy.....dirty air here we come. |
Posted By: getafix
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 3:12pm
|
One thing I've often found, is that may will try and point stupid-high / pinch badly off a start line, usually due to a 'ripple' effect from someone pinching at the half-way point or a 'luff at all costs' type somewhere well to leeward of you, you can often gain a great deal by going under this boat, or even group, and gaining clear air that way... it's particularly do-able at a wavy venue as, in my experience, the pinching only makes the slamming worse for those now to windward of you, and shortly to be left behind. The other thing to bear in mind, and perhaps this goes against some of what Fab100 has (very excellently) posted, and that is to think about covering tacks to create space or widen a gap before the windward mark rounding (whether that be first or last time around). Its painful to get covered at the top of the first beat, but if you're the one doing the covering and enjoying a bit of separationafter the first bear-away, you will enjoy the benefits of being able to attack anyone in front of you rather than worry about being sailed over by those behind
|
Posted By: fab100
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 3:51pm
Fair point - approaching the ww mark is one of those pinch points I referred to. If giving someone uncomfortably close a dose of dirty air so they have to tack twice and give me that post-rounding gap, be warned, I will take it. I just did not think to include it. ------------- http://clubsailor.co.uk/wp/club-sailor-from-back-to-front/" rel="nofollow - Great book for Club Sailors here |
Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 3:58pm
|
Young Clive has nailed most of the textbook stuff, but a couple of observations I've made of dinghyists I race against might help, I've had this very problem recently, even sunday straight out of the gun at the pin end the bloody trailing rope hooked around the wiggle stick thing and we were spinning for a few seconds. (one second lost at the start can cost you twenty places, whereas a second or two lost at the top mark might cost you nothing). Anyway off we set last off the line with the fleet quickly banging over onto port because the line was port biased, so we had to starboard away from them out the back door and then flack over to ensure some sort of clean air.
There are two useful things that help in fast oscillating shifts that we had on Sunday and enabled us to round first despite the tragic start. The first is being able to spot by looking behind wether the fleet is sailing away on a lift or a header and you gauge that by the angle at which they are sailing away from you at (do they look more side on or more pointy away). The second being able to spot when 'they' are on the other side of the course wether they are ahead or behind you and you do that by looking at boats coming toward you, if they're crossing there will be more view appearing behind them and if you are crossing them there will be view appearing in front of their sails. That's an easy way to spot what's going on globally without compasses and telltales, then it's just a question of sailing the tack and shift that's taking you closest to the mark and tend to under stand the mark using the lifts to sail the shortest distance, I've noticed the dinghys I race against tend always to over stand which is bad in shifty conditions. Offwind it can sometimes help to sail below the rhumb line on the first reach if the wind is constant, if it isn't as was the case sunday then you sail high, on the logic that the highest boats get the gust first. Obviously sail in your own water like the man said, don't have anyone near or around. I used to think you had to be one side of the course or the other, but you don't, unless there is a distinct reason, i.e. valleys, trees, you can get lifts and headers wherever you are and it is not uncommon for boats on both wings to be lifted or headed simultaneously in those sort of conditions, which I guess inland sailors sail in all the time. That said a different set of wind conditions can change all that advice but as I said it's what happened to me on sunday so fresh in the mind. I seem to have forgotten more than I know these days, judging by the crap start I had on Thursday night forgetting my watch and letting the whole damned fleet get clear whilst I was still sailing the opposite direction on a reaching start and missed a classic downwind end of the line pin end and only one boat had spotted it so was able to recover by diving below everyone early and climbing back to the mark late rounding second. Oh and something else very important, always have a plan for the start and 1st beat and tell your crew what you're going to do and why, even if it's bullsh*t, it gives them hope and yourself a base upon which to build if it was wrong. 
|
Posted By: fab100
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 4:26pm
That from grf? Blimey, call me an ambulance, I think I'm in shock 'most' though? Not quite, there is far far more in this book aimed a Club Sailors, including 10 ways to spot a wind shift and those benefits of starting on port if the line suddenly gets pin-biased. And lots of really unexpected stuff too. But grfs point about taking the tack taking you closest to the mark is a good starter for 10, as long as there are no wind bends, shadows or tide to factor in. The point about not getting to the laylines too early is a corker too. Wow, this thread is bringing out the best in us all (book plugs notwithstanding)  ------------- http://clubsailor.co.uk/wp/club-sailor-from-back-to-front/" rel="nofollow - Great book for Club Sailors here |
Posted By: sargesail
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 7:40pm
| I'd add understanding the factors and opportunities around you is key: sometimes the winds and currents will give you what cricketers might call a "flat track", a very obviously biased course due to tide, gusts or persisitent shifts....if that is the case then you need to adjust your mind set to making small gains sometimes by doing things a little different (ie with a different lane on the beat you make a gain on those in dirty air sailing the same way as you). But in those situations you won'r be a comeback king. Other times, typically oscillating shifts, you can work the opportunties and fight through the fleet. |
Posted By: tick
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 8:27pm
| It seems to me that most of you are not talking about puddle sailing. Where we sail is a totally different experience. Shifty wind, compact courses and gusts. What matters here is boat handling and taking good advantage of whatever nature throws at you. If I was a good sailor (which I am not) I would sail a nimble boat capable of being thrown around and sailing close. Asymmetric? forget it. |
Posted By: fab100
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 8:53pm
I am, mostly. Was the OP? Not stated. Hmm, not sure I totally agree though - it's great handling practice sailing a 100 on Frensham Pond - and its far more fun than my Laser - if more of a challenge to win. Far better physical workout too - no easing off the pulse on the run! Evidence:  ------------- http://clubsailor.co.uk/wp/club-sailor-from-back-to-front/" rel="nofollow - Great book for Club Sailors here |
Posted By: fab100
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 8:54pm
------------- http://clubsailor.co.uk/wp/club-sailor-from-back-to-front/" rel="nofollow - Great book for Club Sailors here |
Posted By: sargesail
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 9:11pm
|
Didn't notice the Laser - no sense of movement coming off it! |
Posted By: tick
Date Posted: 28 May 13 at 10:53pm
| One of our members has bought a 100 but I have not seen it do very much yet. I will report back when he has more experience. |
Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 29 May 13 at 8:52am
|
I've had a fair bit of practise at this on the lake where I also seem to get crap starts. I found the most important thing seemed to be lining up for an inside line at the next buoy and good water calls, and always tacking on the mark into the direction of the next buoy, never sail away then tack, it's a small lake and processional sailing so if you get to head in the direction of the next mark early then let the next knock force them line astern and use any lift to free off on.
That and better boat handling than I'm capable of, minimum fuss in tacks, perfecting sailing by the lee, I've not been down there for a while it's an absolute nightmare even trying to rejoin, with an aggregate company who's office is always closed in between me and the club, but it's excellent practise, totally different to sea sailing and far harder to recover lost ground. The very last boat I'd choose for the lake would be an RS100, total waste of space, having said that, you'd end up good at sailing it if not achieving anything else, you'd certainly never podium. |
Posted By: tick
Date Posted: 29 May 13 at 9:52am
| Well, I thought it was an inadvisable choice when a 300 sails quite well here. Horses for courses, we don't have 11 Supernovas and 4 lightnings for nothing! |
Posted By: fab100
Date Posted: 29 May 13 at 10:23am
Err - sorry about this, but I do 'podium'. Regularly. Not quite as often as I would in the Laser perhaps, but probably not a dis-similar proportion to when I sailed a 200, even tho you can carry the kite higher in that when the need arises. This includes sailing the 10.2 off 992 And please don't suggest my clubmates cannot therefore sail. Frensham Pond is a pretty high-standard club Monday, for example, was extremely gusty with huge shifts and I was seriously overpowered up wind in the gusts (and would have been in the 8.4 or in a laser). I won by 12 secs in the afternoon, beating a laser I would have had a great duel with if i'd sailed mine. In a pursuit in the morning, I was first dinghy, 3rd, but could not reach the 2.4s So I can compete, Graeme thinks he can't. But impossibility theory disproven ------------- http://clubsailor.co.uk/wp/club-sailor-from-back-to-front/" rel="nofollow - Great book for Club Sailors here |
Posted By: pondmonkey
Date Posted: 29 May 13 at 10:45am
|
'Recovery after a bad start'.... There was me thinking this was going to be a D-One pimping thread, whilst the other was going rapidly downhill ;-)
Nice thread, nothing to add, plenty to think about. |
Posted By: hum3
Date Posted: 29 May 13 at 11:33am
|
To add my experiences into the mix, the size of fleet also comes into play. Thinking about the 'tack out early' advice given earlier. In something like the RS200 nationals, with gate starts and 100+ boats, you generally won't know what you're start is like until you've... er... started, and if you've gone early (ie towards the pin) all you will be doing by tacking straight away is sailing into a massive fleet, with the only hope of finding clear air being once you've sailed through EVERYONE.
It can pay to be patient, take your medicine and wait for a boat upwind to tack, and then try and nab their lane, especially if you think you're on the right shift...
|
Posted By: Ruscoe
Date Posted: 29 May 13 at 11:40am
But absolutely 100% right.
 ------------- |
Posted By: pondmonkey
Date Posted: 29 May 13 at 11:42am
But put it in context- you sail with the big sail, which by your own admission you'd rarely use at a class regatta on w/l as you'd get spanked. So you're using more power to weight, which is great as it means you get more return out of your boat. It's the reason why the D1 has become more popular over at the club I had a 100 at... It has a bigger main so can unarig better, and at least attempt to hold a candle to its sub 1000 PN on a pond RTC. Personally if I were racing like that again on a small puddle, neither would appeal. A Finn, OK or 300 every time thanks. |
Posted By: Ruscoe
Date Posted: 29 May 13 at 12:08pm
This thread is now running the risk of going wildly off track. But Jimbo is right, albeit our hndicap is significantly lower than the 100. We do have the advntage of being able to run by the lee on very short down wind legs and have the power on tight reaching legs. having said that of the race i completed at SCSC I took line honors by some time and distance and still got walloped on PY. As class we can sail to 953 W/L but probably nearer 975 ish RTC. Would i get better results in my old Solo? Absolutely. Would i get better results with out the 2 duff tacks nd dropped mainsheet incident in the SCSC race? Probably but not so much as i would of won. I still enjoyed it more than i would of in my old Solo, besides as mentioned earlier I am not really interested in club racing. i would rather practice for the big events, which in itself is becomng challenging as currently i only seem to be doing demo's and dealing with boat sales. ------------- |
Posted By: fab100
Date Posted: 29 May 13 at 12:08pm
yessss, but as the pic shows, we are also surrounded by I not solely about power: weight. More that, as you say, it's the area up top that you need - provided by either the D1 square top or my 10.2 rig stump. Might be an interesting experiment to try the 8.4 sail on the 10.2 mast with the boom on the higher hole - the hassle would be extending the gnav and cunningham lines to fit. I wonder how that would fit in the class rules... ------------- http://clubsailor.co.uk/wp/club-sailor-from-back-to-front/" rel="nofollow - Great book for Club Sailors here |
Posted By: pondmonkey
Date Posted: 29 May 13 at 12:14pm
|
Annex the SIs and not worry about it ;-)
Back OT - I found the start even more critical on the 100- without clear air and a clear first kite leg, you'd get trapped in a pack without necessarily the space to pick your best course for the late hoist / early drop conundrum. |
Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 29 May 13 at 1:29pm
I wasn't talking about you and your lake, Frensham is like the Ocean compared to Redoubt, I won a few club races in it at Hythe, then using the 10.2 in light winds, I could probably give you a run for your money. I'd never do that on the Redoubt. Then they are not like racing against Frensham Sailing School for the Blind. |
Posted By: Mike Holt
Date Posted: 29 May 13 at 7:49pm
|
The key to recovery is in the following I believe, be calm (easier said than done) be decisive (tack, foot..) execute. Any time wasted not following that principle is distance given away at a very high rate.
|
Posted By: RS400atC
Date Posted: 30 May 13 at 3:52pm
|
I think it sometimes depends on whether the race is in a series where you are in contention. If a middling score is likely to be useful, you should be more conservative, while if it's a stand alone race, you can take risks as 10 place is much the same as 5th place when it comes to prizes. If you take risks and it doesn't pay, try to recover something from the day by trying out different settings or techniques that you don't want to try when you are in front. If you end up coming last, but you've learned something and enjoyed an hour forgetting about work, that's not so bad. Other than that, try to get into clear air and the best tide as soon as possible. Pay close attention to shifts, Don't throw away small gains hoping for a big gain, you only need a small gain on each lap to make up for a sizeable deficit at the first mark. Don't get into pointless duels with slower boats! Try to sail around pairs of boats that are engaged in covering each other.
|
Posted By: fab100
Date Posted: 30 May 13 at 5:52pm
|
That reminds me of John Oakeley's advice in his book "Winning" Q: what do you do if you are catching up with a known, inveterate luffer A: let someone overtake me and let luffer have them instead, at which you pass both ------------- http://clubsailor.co.uk/wp/club-sailor-from-back-to-front/" rel="nofollow - Great book for Club Sailors here |
Posted By: getafix
Date Posted: 30 May 13 at 10:14pm
As long as its not the last leg .... I like the story (from Rodney P I believe) of the two FDs where the guy behind fake luffs each time the guy in front looks back, making him think he's out-pointing him and thus eventually stalling his own craft and letting the guy behind through to leeward
|
Posted By: Fraggle
Date Posted: 31 May 13 at 10:26am
|
I'm a great believer in taking risks after an awful start. If you are in last you can't get any worse so its worth a punt. I've got lucky on several races this way, couple of examples.
Poole Laser Open I hit a boat on start line, did my 720 at 5 sec after start which meant I was last by some margin. Entire fleet had gone left (paid massively previous race) so I went right as no point going same way. I actually rounded first mark in second place as no one (including me) had noticed tide had turned and I benefitted massively by being in the stronger tide.
Massive balls up on start line at Mudeford Open. By time I actually started rest of fleet half way up first beat. I took a risk by going over the shallows (never actually allowed boat to go flat) and caught up - finished second in that race.
When there is nothing to lose its worth a shot. Also in lasers (and I guess other classes) the fleet do tend to be sheep and just follow the leader. Even if leader goes the unfavoured side so will most of the fleet so there are usually options if you have the guts to go your own way.
Never give up, you never know what will happen. Find a clear lane, hike hard and keep your head out of the boat. ------------- |
Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 31 May 13 at 12:00pm
The best part of sail racing and why it's held my attention all these years. Nice stories Fraggle. Had a few like that myself over the years and they are the sweetest victories when they happen. |
Posted By: yellowwelly
Date Posted: 31 May 13 at 4:09pm
|
The course plays a big part in it too. When we get a 'good course' with some longish beats and deep downwind sections, there are opportunities for the risks to pay (and seriously screw you too). Whereas a naff course, maybe a bit fetch, or lopsided, can turn any race into a bit of a procession, where really the tactical options are far more limited. Sometimes I guess you just have to accept the start is the only 'competitive' bit you're likely to see from a race... but hey, could be worse, you could be in a shopping mall. ------------- |
Posted By: transient
Date Posted: 31 May 13 at 6:27pm
|
Some years ago now we were taking part in an inter club (5 clubs) handicap race. 3 starts as I remember, us in the medium fleet. Our fleet had a general recall, no problem I thought I'll just line up for the next start. The gun went off, we had a bad start and we were soon in filthy air. Now matter what I did we fell further back until we were spat out the back......Oh misery. When we finally got ashore and looked at the results we had won the medium fleet race ....it transpired that we had started with the fast boats and our correct fleet started after them. By the time we had been spat out the back of the fast fleet we were just ahead of the medium fleet. Our Club team urged me to keep quiet because we needed the points, I did fess up though. ......so it's true, a race is a box of chocolates. |