Mistakes and Opportunism.....

I have often quoted the late, great master Uffa Fox on his observation that a mere three mistakes in a race will afford  you third place , two ... a second, while just a single, small mistake will grant you first place. This is a real focus on how to assess your sailing and polish your performance by working on the weaknesses that lead to mistakes. However how can you take advantage of OPM - other people's mistakes??

You will see a rookie making mistakes at every point, while a middle fleet racer making a catalogue of errors - many of which are made before they even hoist sails due to poor preparation- and then you can see the top echelons damning their mistakes and doing their best to fix their problem and get into a new positioning to attack and grab places.....and that is the flip side....you are waiting for someone else to make a mistake, or coercing them into it....

...here is what gave me this inspiration for writing about something  which we actually do by second nature as we become seasoned racers confident with tactics and able to interpret what other racers are doing...
http://www.sailingworld.com/how-to/tactics-how-to-claw-back

So what are the common mistakes a competitor may make which you can capitalise on ?

Ignoring boat and rig set up prior to the race, on the water.....

1) starts....there are numerous mistakes possible in those five minutes....but thinking of a single boat you want to find and exploit within a minute of the start-

a) the early reacher. Tis is the guy who wants to keep his speed on, or is just a bit over excited, and comes in early towards the line and then starts reaching off aloing the line or parrallel to it. If he is a lone maverick then let him go over you, but if there is a little fleet of follow the leaders developing then it's game on...if you are lying 'left' of him and a little low that is. Squeeze him up to a stall being vocal and dont let him sail over you . Pin him there and his hand braking will stack the pile of boats above him too, some may bail out and go round your sterns but they ae unlikely to be able to threaten your leeward side if you are in thw last 30 secs. You should be able to command a large space to leeward to bear off into at 20 seconds depending where the line is at that time. There is an inevitable time lag for the boats stacked above you and bad wind, which may affect you but you can reach a little away and punch out with better speed than anyone else in that rack.

B) using the pinner inner boat ! in a) you are the pinner and it is in the last 30 seconds. People who have read the standard texts onn'starts' will often try to pin a rack up, but as far out as 2 minutes. The smarter ones will wait until the fleet is committesd into racking up and ragging for a typical one design or closely banded HC race. The platu 25 world champions a few years ago showed how byou can tease this pinner even more and make him and his rack-to-the-right luff even more in order to close the door on you. Dont give the game away, keep your bow high but clear of all sterns just behind the rack, as if you are probing for a space. Then with say 30 secs left ( depending on boat and conditions and how muc attention the 'pinner' is paying you) you reach off and harden up into the space thwe 'pinner' thought they had to themselves. Killer bit of chess or poker.
Essentially you treat the pinning boat as if it was a mark or the committee boat and you are in pole position to reach in and harden up to sail past it and start.

C) Bias Versus favoured side and the port tack flyer.

Quite often race committees will set a bias to the pin (port) end in championships as it makes spotting early charlie chancers much easier as the committee looking up the line of boats, thus avoiding usually not drenched in boat end starters in an unbiased or RHS biased start.

Whichever end is biased, that bias may not reflect the actual best side of the course to sail on. It is then a judgement call based on good knowledge of the beat, and preferably a practice beat to affirm the side which will pay - it can be tidal, a wind bend, convergent wind along the shore or flatter water. It can be a new wind is about to fill from one side, or there is a river mouth giving a monster lift or hit.

Biased start lines usually result in an early qeue developing because people want to buy a ticket for front row seats. It is very much the case that most often in a biased end 'stramash' there is only one boat which gets a perfect start there,  being able to stretch her bow into clean wind immediately. The bunch are locking each other in, and the boats furthest right will be bunched and have difficulty in tacking off, or will want to roll over the boats to their port side. Typically there is a big old gang with only one or two boats leading out at full speed, and the rest continuing for at least 15 seconds post start while they establish their speed or if they can tack off.

So the start can often be a slow affair at that portioin of the line, and given that the bias is actually less than 10 degrees from true wind angle to perpendicular line angle, it can be worth avoiding - a kind of gain verus risk pay off. Starting further out towards opposite end,  at high speed and thus being able to get to the side you want to be on in clear air with minimum tacks and 'ducks', can put you in the top ten and past most of the biased end mashers. Yes the 'best' starters from the bias end will be ahead of you

Given a RHS course favour in addition to a notable RHS line bias,  it can be worth starting on port tack if the fleet is early and you can stand the IDM and committee boat, with a space opening at the start from the line to the idm for you to punch out through.
WARNING! Port starts "go bad' in a messy fleet with a great ruck at the IDM which will result in other boats tacking over to port immediately thus killing your tactic, or boats charging in late on of course stb, blocking your route. Also you can give your own game away too early and someone spoils your fun by bearing down on you on stb, or tacking over to port and taking your nicely planned lane away from under your feet!!!

However port starting can be killer because they always save you one tack and usually many, many dips versus having to work over the fleet from a stb start, say half way down thenline at the gun.  What you need is an orderly, early racked up fleet wit no huge boat end bias, such that a gap will most likely open up either before the start or as the fleet moves first to gather speed and then to get  over then line. A very biased line will result in people holding onto their hand of cards and creeping out rather than falling off to get start speed because the gain in places from the bias is worth holding onto, and all and sundry will have spotted the bias and be around that end .
Port tack starts are effective for a number of reasons - Remember you are saving a tack when compared to the rest of the fleet and if lucky, into clean air immediately you clear the last stern and making up towards the layline wuthout having to duck a single boat ! Soon into the race, you are then at an apposing tacking sequence to the fleet- they are falling over onto port tack to get up to the layline juat when you want to get a bit of starboard in- thus you force many boats to duck you or tack, and then you get the luxury of choosing exacrtly when you will go over to port again.

An alternative to reaching in on port when there are too many messy boats around the committee boat and further out to the RHS, to pull it off is to start in a second row on STB after the leaders, but as near to the the boat/idm as you can, squeezing later boats to your right out and behind you. Yoou then tack to port as soon as you have enough speed and will clear the committee boat and its anchor line. Even if a couple of the early first rack of boats tack over ontop of you, you will be going to your chosen side and avoiding so many dips, and have that starboard attacking advantage when you choose to get out from a wind shadow /cover one of these boats has on you. If someone tacks immediately infront of you on this lane, then you are in no worse a position as at the leeward mark when there is a procession of boats, and you are going the right way.

Tacking sequence, line bias and favoured side of the course are all just arithmetic measures which give you enough advantage in placings to be justify the pains described. Tacking sequence with the starbord attack advantage will also play in finish line tactics.

The Beat

There are a whole load of mistakes and indeed major weaknesses in boats and theirnteams. We sail against a pretty geriatric bunch in our melges fleet, who incklude a former whitbread guy, so they can beat us usyually on strategi and boat speed. However we know they are slow in tacking duals, and we can make up many boat lenghts on them by sweating them and eventually get an ' out of sequence' effect and pin them behind or to lee of us. In HC fleets some boats are heavy and favour few tacks so forcing them into a tacking dual as the smaller, quicker accelerating boat can make them stay behind you or knock enough off their time to give you the edge.

Some boats are perpetual layline flyers....theynbare worth keeping an eye on to see if that side is paying, while very often just tacking up a text book 60  degree cone in outset keeps your optiins open, and with no tidal bias, the shifts you get right may make up for any course bias. Also you can often pin a lhs flyer out as he makes his long approach on port if you stay a little beligerantly on stb.

Other boats go onto port at the wrong time, with too many stb boats to duck . if you are going over to the rhs on port and you see oine below you it can be worth tacking into what would give them bad wind if they chose to tack to avoid a stb boat who is only a partuial threat to you.

The Windward Mark and trip mark

I include also the bear-away, gybe set in this.

The most commin mistakes are over standing and the opposite, not  'fetching the mark'. After that there is coming in on the death slot into a line of nicely paraded lay line experts with no space.

If you qre in the top echelon then often the mark is quite spaceous with the chasing bunch being a few boat lenghts back. Here a port death slot can pay, espscially if lhs pays more on the beat, or that side has kwept you in clwaner air with fewer tacks and ducks. Alternatively if you can see you are going to hit the pack then tack over with a couple of hundreds meters of layline to go. In a dinghy or sports boat this may affors you the benefit of covering the fleet whilwe beung able to tck in windshifts which the layline loibby won't be interested in. You get a feel thenif tere will be space for a later port tack entry to the layline, or if you have to go over to the layline asap to minimise damage and hope for over standers or that the 'layline lobby' are all sailing low of the mark and a nice gap is about to open due to tjhis mistake. You tack once less often and it nis likely that many will over stand so you can be cheekier by tacking ino  their bow as long as they do not have to sail too high to avoid you when you are newlyclkose hauled. Risky, but a good sailor will call it and overstanding is a very commoin, large error made by midfleet racers.

A trip mark affords you rule 18 and the chance to squeeze in on a boat sailing too high and not noticing your dive to their leeward and oveelap.

Bearing away has two mistakes you can make on- a) the wind is lifting noin the last stb tack on the layline, so a gybe set is favoured. b) folk bear away but end up reacvhing to defend their wind or try to get boat speed up.

The Reach/Run

Common mistakes are poor trim and henxce boat speed and as above, over defending air and sailing a banana curve with much extra distance to the mark, and a deep slow angle evwntually to get down to it. Abother is doing a two gybe only leeward leg. This exposes the lazy boat to both missing windshifts and also being vulnerable to starboard ' ambushes' near the leeward mark, forcing them into a poor position on the mark AND letting another boat close to them through into the clear ahead at the zone. A pretty good tactic then is to keep the boat in free air by gybing away in stead of luffing oponenets, sailin tjhe best vmg in the cleanest air thereafter, and gybin on the favourablwe wind shifts or to stay in anblock or band of wind. Coming in on starboard near thwe 3 boat zone is a biut of a killer tactic-you have the basic rule 10 right and are rule 18 overlapped on the entire fleet, with the right to gybe at any point in the zone until you are 'at the mark'. However it relies on very comeptent gybing, a consumate drop and a well executed harden up to be worth doing.

Another rally common mistake at the leeward mark is people charging in too fast right up the sterns of a pile of boats. In light or even medium airs this can be a veritable car park, worth sailing round the entire outside of. In more windnit meams you will be on the stern of a boat, potentiually going slower than you and potentially tacking right on top of you if you are forced to tack off his stern line. Better to slow te boat dowmn at the 3 boat zone, ealry drop , and even xcentre the main, and keep a nice rounding which you can either do a good tack at speed to clear your wind from the procession on port ahead of you, or take a big pinching luff wit your tight entry and try to sail then on a higher lane than the procession.

Gear Changes

An extremely common mistake at venues prone to unstable conditions or a rising sea breeze, is that many boats fail to make the gear changes in sail setting early enough.

This can even happen before the start, especially in yachts which carry several different genoas and jibs on board. Stick to your sail makers recommendations for max speed, and your own experience of what you hold given your crew wieght for that wind. If everyone is mashing around with No.1s up while it is really No.2 weather, then quietly get your No.2 out, but dont raise it until a minute or a bit more to go to the gun. Also while on the beat, you can look to force overpowered boats with big genoas to tack away from you on STB, and loose time in their inevitably sub optimal tacks.

The second beat

I blogged before about line to windward mark bias versus couirse, windward mark to leeward mark side bias. Also you may be in a new wind by the tåsecond beat or there may be a new area of bend or convergence up the course which were to leeward of a mid set start. It is important to react to conditions and what paid last time may not pay this time.

A big mistake even some good boats make is påclean getting lazy and complacent on beat #2. Being awake and determined can get you ahead of many boats. "We're no.2, we try harder".

Subsequent Mark Roindings

If you have worked your way into the top third of the fleet by a good start or ysing all these advantage-McInroe steals, then te marks will be less busy and you cam be more daring in terms of your approaches

However port starting can be killer because they always save you one tack and usyually many, many dips versus having to work over the fleet from a stb start, say half way down thenline at the gun.  What you need is an orderly, early racked up fleet wit no huge boat end bias, such that a gap will most likely open up either before the start or as the fleet moves over then line. Remember you are saving a tack and if lucky, into clean air immediately you clear the last stern and making up towards the layline wuthout having to duck a single boat ! Soon into this, you are then at an apposing sequence to the fleet- tey are falling over onto port taxck to get up to the layline juat when you want to get a bit of starboard in- thus you force many boats to duck you or tack, and then you get the luxury of choosing exacrtly when you will go over to port again.

Finish Line Tactics

For some odd reason, especially on wednesday night amateur set ups, the finish line often has an enormous bias which is maybe three or four boat legnths to one side or the other, ddw, which means in simple trigonometry, you have to sail a country mile further to even go over mid line, let alone if you go to the wrong end. It can be difficult to spot from  a distance if the line is outside the usual race course, but the skill in spotting the favoured end is worth the difference between accepting your fate with the boats around you coming in infront, or grabbing a grins all round couple of places in a coup d'etat at the last second!

Tacking sequence with other boats near you is then the key on a bias finish line, and can make up a few places on an unbiased line. The trick is to force other boats to sail behind you in port/stb duels, and to make less tacks to complete the finish sequence of tacks (when it is a beat of course! But the same is true of gybing to a leeward finish line, where a last minute starboard approach on something construable as 'proper course' )

On a left hand bias windward finish, usually the 'pin' , then it is important not to overstand and to hold starboard from as far out as possible. It does not matter if you understand a little bit because you have control until the last second and given there is no boat immediately to your rhs, you can tack to port to cross the line right on the bouy.

For a boat end bias, then you can do the same, with a long tack in on STB towards the layline on that end. However you have more to play with and you want to actively psych out the competition by getting onto starboard to attack them, shouting starboard early as you approach them....  or while on STB, either breaking a cover or tacking off the stern to someone when you are a well back from the line,  to make them feel you have seen an advantage and getting them to tack also to port. You then can attack on starboard again. Given your tacks are better and they are a little more tired out than you, this can draw them into a fruitless tacking duel where they loose boat speed and distance to the line as against you and you make up the boat lengths which you need to beat them.

Protesting

Finally one good way of penalising people for their mistakes and sometimes arrogance, is to protest them in the race and take it to the room if you have a good case if they do not take turns out on the course. This can be a mark touching, a port stb infringement or a more subtle rule 13-rule 17 infringement. Many boats wont bother to read the protest notice board, and turning up alone with a good case and preferably a witness boat can earn a nice DSQ to the chagrin of the offender