Sailing as a sport can be a bit like a jigsaw puzzle: there are many pieces which have to come together for your boat to become successful, and if you don't have sound corners and edges defining what you need to work within, then you will never ever get any better.
I blogged about strategy and mentioned in a very polite way that ambitions should be "right sized" - often maybe you need to take a step back from the jigsaw puzzle and see the whole thing- how far have you come? Have you actually got the corner stones and edges of your sailing skills in place or have you been trying to run before you can walk?
In shooting there is talk of "off centre, but a good grouping" ( I used to be a good shot with a sports rifle) - that is to say that your bullets fall in a tight circle- you are very consistent, but there is another factor influencing your aim- which in shooting can be corrected by adjusting the sights to "zero in".
Sailing is a bit like that too then: you may be consistently midfleet or consistenly just outside prize giving! You need to zero in on something to fix or improve on to get moved on.
Alternatively, like a Sigma 33 I used to sail on in OD, you can be consistently way down the pan, with only flashes of luck, or results being kicked along by a "management consultant" on board, or actually having a very focused days sailing while others are encountering problems. They clearly maybe only had 3 of the four corners in place, and had no idea how to complete the jigsaw puzzle, or even which picture it would make for them.
Rethinking the Foundation of Your Personal Ambitions
Ambition should then be informed by self knowledge otherwise it is just hope: there is no benchmark you see in yourself, the boat and the team to be able to orientate your thinking from.
The jigsaw, or puzzle for you is of course a different picture and complexity depending on which type of boat (s) you sail, where you sail and what level your club or class is at. So the four corners you have to have in place, where the focus of your building expertise and experience should be, are defined differently between a lake summer sailor in a wayfarer, an offshore or long passage racer, a development class boat owner, or a top level amateur SMOD racer.
I could suggest a few corners: boat handeling, starts, boat speed, knowledge of the rules would be good for a lake sailor for instance. However let us consider more your mental approach before you set concrete goals or ambitions.
To deconstruct your sailing will help inform your ambitions and help with more concrete goal setting which can then fulfill your ambitions. The first step is to accept you need to learn and you need to stop yourself making any excuses to other people or when reading or at lectures about sailing. Stop saying "yes but our boat type", stop saying " the other guy should have .." stop rationalising yourself as a reasonably good sailor who just had some bad luck and had some cheeky competition around you.
Eat humble pie, and if you cannot assess your weaknesses objectively then you need to get a transom-consultant on board before the end of season, discuss with your crew over the winter, and ask your competitors what they see you doing wrong and what could be a lot better.
The Upside
To the contrary of having to eat humble pie, you may find that you have had a pretty darn marvellous season- what do you do? Deconstruct. Are you on a steep curve still, or have you flattened off?One thing I heard both Larry Ellison and before Russel Coutts and Lawrie smith say, before foiling that is, was that "today we learned a lot about the boat". Top sailors are open to admit to still being on a learning curve.
Maybe your projectile curve is steeper than your local club can satisfy!? In anything over a one man boat perhaps your crew also have ambitions to go up a level. Even in a single hander class, perhaps spouses, partents and fellow competitors will expect, encourage and support your move up to say training towards an NM and doing some travellers at top clubs for the class.
Do You Need a New Direction in 2014?
By this I mean that a self appraisal will have revealed the weaknesses and learning goals for the season ahead. You may want to really rethink doing the same thing - only hopefully better- than you did this season in every way.
My own recommendation for any yacht helm or crew is to go on a dinghy course, or get into a small OD keel boat class locally. Smaller boats will both inform your sailing much quicker, one hour in a dinghy eqaulling 8 in a yacht IMHO. Also your mistakes are then amplified and you are instantly scolded for them, by position or by capsize! You take maybe back responsibility for spinnie halyard and guy and you are more aware of the steps crew must take in order to complete the maneuvre.
Even if you have sailed dinghies and small OD before, consider going back into it. Down size your yacht ambitions. If you are a dinghy sailor then consider going on courses even at a medium level because the instructors are likely to be better sailors than you and you can refine technique. Also you may need to look at getting better crew who can teach you, or occaisional crew swaps to better boats, to someone who can whip you up, while your regular crew gets whipped on their usual boat.
Alternatively you may be taking a leap of faith into a new boat or higher level of competition and then you need to really tame your ambitions and keep the learning goals as central for the year ahead- that alone being the single ambition- to apply your current skills, and see what you can learn
Deconstruct to Build Confidence in Your Ambitions
The route is still the same- deconstuct your sailing and understand where you are building the whole picture. Then set your ambitions with some concrete learning goals in the foundation there, and other aims which fit into a season strategy and race strategies.
I have not talked about a season strategy as really it is so much about boat preparation and learning, and really for any given class or region there will be obvious "training" events or milestone events which should be competed in. However your ambitions, your stake in the ground to get better will steer you towards discussions with other sailors in the class and planning around both preparation, training, boat speed and event calendar which points a season strategy to fulfill your ambitions.
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