PREPARATION - there is another version of this expression which I will not repeat Perfect Preparation leads to Perfect Performance.
After months of preparation, after a few days sailing in Australia, my RMG winch blew up, the boat started leaking which I was able to trace and fix and the spiral drum spring retainer ceased to hold the endless sheeting tight. There is friction in my system but it had not been an issue until I got to Australia. Fortunately I had 2 Red Ant stinger winches so I was able to easily swop these out and then Grant Cooper gave me a 40mm standard drum. The leak was through the bolt hole for the fin bolt which I fixed wotj a bit of Silicon grease. Funny how you can have a sequence of faults. Glad I arrived a week early to test out the gear.
I learned top performance is dependant on such fine margins. Not only in boat setup where the odd mm can make a difference, but being on the front row of the start line, knowing when to duck starboard boats and not clipping them and neat mark roundings. The racing is so tight that the smallest error will mean lost places and that can be the difference between promotion and demotion.
Boat preparation is essential not just before but during the regatta. Over engineer shrouds to avoid failure, in top end A rig conditions wear and tear is high. Consider using a 50mg jib instead of a 35mg so it maintains shape to the end of the regatta.
Set up the boat so when you put it on the water it needs no tweaking. Pre measure as much as you can. At this competition we put the boat on the water in a flat calm and you only get to the conditions for racing 50 yards from launch. There was not time to return the boat if something was wrong with the set up.
It was very important to have a high mode and VMG mode and call on these in an instant. Whether you flick a switch or toggle. This is a must have.
Sheets shrink in salt water and brilliant sunshine. Monitor the sheet lengths throughout the regatta. Over a number of races this could change rig settings and slow you down.
Replace shrouds every 6-9month if you sail on salt water. Apparently the wire pits and that causes weakness
I learn from the Croatians to measure as much as you can before you go out. They were masters of putting their boats on the water with the perfect setup.
Make sure your boat is set up to be balanced when sailing upwind. This gives you time to look around the course for wind shifts, pressure bands and what the fleet are doing.
Regarding my own performance I was fast in light to medium wind but was just off the pace at the top and of the A rig so my best results were early and late in the day.
Don’t underestimate the impact of heat at an international regatta. We had 28 degrees plus in solid sunshine. It was only in the last 3 days I remembered to put a wet towel around my neck and soak my hat to keep cool. I made some very strange decisions and was a bit slow to react at times which I can only put down to the heat.
Starting
I changed my starting strategy. Initially I would sit stationary too close to the line thinking I had bagged a spot. I could control the boat but was very vulnerable to boats approaching from behind. If a boat had the slightest forward movement then it made less leeway than a stationary one. So my new approach was to hold back and look for a gap and gently creep forward. As I was making less leeway because of my forward movement, boats to leeward would fall away and boats to windward would compress to windward of me. All I had to do was pull the trigger on time.
The other thing about starting is to be near the right end of the line but not on the buoy. There were several pile ups which ruined people’s races. At the end of the day you want consistency and stay in A heat.
If one is to enter the Worlds or Europeans, make sure you have a tried and tested balanced design so you can focus purely on setup and racing.
On the course
Unless starboard boats are on a significant shift always go behind them. That way you keep control of your tactics on the beat. If you tack to leeward of a starboard boat you can be forced to one side of the course.
Always give a pile up a wide berth at the windward mark especially if the mark is some distance away and hard to judge.
Never, never, never, separate from the fleet especially if promotion depends on it. I threw away promotion in two races when I took the wrong leeward gate mark.
The middle is not always the best route.
If you are in doubt on hitting a mark, or not sure if you were in the right over an incident, do a turn before the umpire blows a whistle and makes you do 2 turns.
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