Deconstructing your Sailing - To Reconstruct!

In my last blog I I mentioned that some sailors can become frustrated with their lack of progress - skills wise, and results racing wise. I include a former version of me very much in this. " I should be better than this!!" frustrations taken out on boat, crew, weather-gods or other boats! If you read the last blog and are in a tantric state of mind even, then read on because now we will delve more into " learning to learn again" Deconstruction In sport this is a term used to encompass analyses of your technique, attitude and performance. It means breaking down the constituent parts of performance, from motoric movements and hand-eye coordination to motivation and channelled agression. It means visualising your past successes, failures, weakness and stregnths. It may well be the case that from deconstruction as an open ended start point, you uncover an issue you didnt identity as important before you took things into little bites of the cherry. There are as mentioned. the mental aspects and the movement aspects. Elements from performance " on the day" and in training or practice or when you are being taught by someone. Let us Look First at some Deconstruction of Physical Movements Tacking as an example to deconstruct This is a good example of a sub-set, a first level "deconstruct" to then drill into. How is my tacking ? Am I and the crew doing things slowly or incorrectly ? Always though the attitude is " how could I possibly improve?" and this is part of the power of deconstruction. The mental aspect is something we will come back to ie "should I tack?" We are looking at the movements here and now. Timing wise, we have the pretack set-up, the entry to the tack, the mid point , the exit on the new side, the completion of the tack and last but not least the after tack movements. Now you can break these down into actions relating to equipment and then to movements of your (and the crew's) body Actually I am not going to write anymore on that. You can think through it yourself. So take this as a visualisation on the quayside, while motoring out to sail, or on the bus for that matter! When you go out and practice in light of deconstruction, do everything a little slower and when possible take a micro pause to evaluate and describe in your mind even, what you have just done. Define your base line like this. A tack can be done quite slowly with time to reflect at each of the main deconstruct elements as above. Just a two second assertion of what you have done, then onto the next movement of your body which is not being focused on, but for sake of completion alone. You dwell a little on your pretack, or when the helm goes down rather than attempting a perfect tack after that element is completed.
Analyse that part of the tack, and try to improve it. eg less helm used. See if that works better or faster? Or just more fluently which is important in sailing. As mentioned below, maybe get some video of your start point and how you attempt to improve this. Or some external advice from a club coach. When I teach sailing I now dont initially teach tacking and gybing. Firstly I teach starting and stopping. Then I teach hardening up, then falling off. And stopping from different angles to the wind on outset, on the same tack. This was my own deconstruction because these are the basic elements of good sailing I have identified from many years of sailing myself and teaching youth and adults. Now I hope you can see the philosophy. You divide these skills up into packages which you can focus on. Each one is a building block for improvment. Focus on each then as in a tack, you can string them together So going into a tack, set up, you dont even maybe need to tack! just repeat the set up - how you maybe stand up, or luff the boat, or even bear away a little in some older designs to get some way on for the inevitable braking during the tack. Putting the helm down, once again focus on this, doesnt matter if the rest is sloppy, you have been able to focus on this element and then REFLECT a second on how it went, ignoring the precision of the rest of the tack ( colision and other safety factors included though so you dont crash!) Now move on to a weak area for me for example. Knowing when you are head to wind - this is important because it relates to the amount of helm you need to use, which varies between boats and in different conditions. I have identified this as one important "deconstruct" - in my case, should I look at the windex? Can I relate this to the sail position and other eye level queus from the surroundings? How quickly do I achieve this and lastly how quickly do I come out of this so the jib begins to fill on the new side? A dinghy sailor in a performance boat may not want to use this deconstruct. They may rather want to get a feel for the sweep from helm down, to jib filling and how much helm they use initially and when they can straigthen the helm. Another element being looking at " choreography" with their feet and the crew. SO two instead of maybe four elements in my case Self Help Vs Schooling Deconstruction can be then a personalised thing, your own ideas and your own distillation of the elements and how to focus on them. You can very much benefit from outside help too. This is because in sailing as in many other physical sports, there have evolved some really good ways of doing things! Some people are very See-Do, that they intuitively can relate to other's movements and copy them. I had one kid sail a laser at sailing school and he was just a natural. He had sailed a day or two the year before, but he was as good as 12 year old squad candidates. He just had great hand-eye coordination, body control and could the see-do thing Most of us, me included are far from this. We try to emulate movements but we mess up. More on that in the mentalising section. Outside help can be very beneficial. It may just be in the form of a pal videoing you from astern in the case of deconstructing tacking, to actually hiring a seasoned coach to come out with you for a day. In either case you want to tell them you are deconstructing and which element you are focusing on! This might surprise some dinghy instructors who havent come upon deconstruction, but it will give them a steer to analyse you and instruct you with a very specific focus. They can then correct your movements or actions, and reinforce them when you practice. I would say an hour each on each element on tacking for example, so the best part of a day at a dinghy school where the instructor comes over to you once in a while and you tell them exactly what you want to look at under the microscope so to speak and are receptive to tips, change and practicing new things If you own a larger keel boat then there is a good case for a "transom consultant" ie someone who does not need to participate in crew work, but can sit or stand behind you and analyse your technique. Once again tell them you are deconstructing your sailing. Tell them what you want to look at as a practice, or in the course of a race. The beauty of mobile phones with relatively wide angled video is no to be underestimated. A mini cam ( Go Pro etc) fixed on the push-pit rail or if it can be mounted on the aft stay, or lets be up to date here, send a drone out to follow you through some manoerves! Another area to consider consultancy and reading the books, is in rig settings. If you sail one design you may notice other boats fair better than you in some condiitions. Are yuou adjusting your rig correctly or even at all? The first element here, for example, is usually confirming the forestay length is correct, then the initial rake of the mast, then the prebemd, then the running rigging setting to get more or less bend, and fuller or flatter sails. There you have a " whole bunch" of deconstruction elements on a plate for you. They inter-relate, but can be taken one at a time. Mental Deconstruction I think the point about using an external pair of eyes, or video view point leads nicely into how to deconstruct your mental aspects of skills and performance In the case of external coaching you are forced to think out of the box. " Oh, would some Power the gift give us To see ourselves as others see us" as Rabbie Burns put it. There is a power in this form of advice, but only if it is focused and actionable. We also need to see ourselves objectively when we consider the psychological side of sport Here a simple place to start is reflecting on yourself " before-during-and-after" - you may benefit from doing this as an actual exercise rather than retrospective to last performance. Before I sail.. What do I think and feel? Am I having constuctive behaviours for myself and others ? Am I forgetting things I should have done/fixed/alterered for the sail? Have I considered the weather forecast and how conditions will suit or not suit my abilities ? I found I was very nervous before races I was helming. In early days of owning a dinghy, I wasnt mentally prepared to go and set up the boat correctly - usually I didnt have time and took it for granted but messing about with rig tension or forgetting to set a tight kicker and outhaul messed up a good few races. I analysed this. My nerves were related performance anxiety. I was an experienced sailor, I should expect to have a competitive sail and do well. There was a slight conflict between and entitled feeling and an expectation of maybe failing. A bit like the English soccer team perhaps. Worse though, my nerves lead to adrenalin and cortisone coarsing in my veins and that lead in my case to more mistakes and oversights. Now high adrenaline maybe is beneficial to some sailors in being able to challenge themselves to get a really ballsy start but in my case, pre race, it was very counter productive. So I deconstructed it. And challenged it. And when I sank my shoulders and moved over to helming yachts, I won my first race by a country mile. During the prestart I was acalm and collected, reacted well to the bowman not having a watch, ran up and gave him mine, got a clean start and then used all my dinghy skills to ease the boat up the fleet, then making a decisive roll tack out of a hole and into a wind band on the other shore which I then capitalised on. Ten years of dinghy experience crystalised into one yacht race. I could sail really well, but my pre start nerves destroyed the whole game for me. When I realised in my heart (so to speak) that I have nothing to lose, that I can make an ok start without busting a ball, that I can perform up the field as the race progresses then I developed more consistency and as mentioned, it actually came as a quantum leap in my performance. I have written quite a lot in this deconstruction on what we have broken down to look at and how we may break it down into constituent parts again. But what about the mental process as a start point? Do you and your crew debrief post race? Is that not a deconstruct in itself? With major gains to be had in identifying errors and areas for improvement by taking time to talk through a race with your crew or objectively with a close competitior. It can be "why did we do well?" Often in the case of doing well, ie winning or podium, or doing badly that the crew lose objectivity. In the former boat packed up, off to the beere tent to brag and bask in glory. In the latter, taciturn crew, murmerings and whispered bitterness. Two good opportunities for objective analyses are lost. But a good start point in the bad day out is to just consider one " deconstruct" to get tongues wagging, then ask for more open, constructive criticism. SO let us talk about deconstructing mentally in how to approach this.- Is my whole approach philosophy good or bad? Do I really actually, factually, enjoy the type of sailing I am doing? DO nerves affect me badly or give me a positive energy and drive ? Do I have stress points in the course of a race or manoevre ? Am I able to analyse what I am doing underway and reflect on it after? Am I able to visualise good technique and comeptitive tactics before a race ? Am I capturing the information I need in order to then think through what adjustments to rig and running rigging I will need to do pre race and off wind ? Am I making the race enjoyable and challenging enough for the crew or pushing them too hard -? Summary Deconstruction is about compartmentalising elements of skills and performance. You are cutting things up into small packets. This enables you to focus on very specific elements both physically and psychologically as we have discussed. When you " fix " on packet you can then work on another, or string several packets together into a total manoevre, mindset, ability etc as we could do with tacking. Put all the packets you practiced together and practice the whole thing, being a little observant as to any poorer elements or now, as a package merged into one, if you are actually doing this fluently between the component parts you worked upon before. Tacking is a great example. But so is the verbal communication to the crew for a bear away hoist, during which you will maybe only swing the tiller but need to remind the crew what to do, and inform them if it is a gybe set, quick set, early pre hoist or wait until boat speed is up and hoist. In outset them you need to identify these potential "deconstruct" elements. You need to have a goal only to focus on these and see if you can improve. Perhaps there is a measurable target or goal, but I would suggest that is more in the realms of reptitive practice rather than deconstruction because stripping your skills down to basic small constituents is quite radical and can lead to a new start point for practice and repition to develop the skill further. In identifying elements and analysing them, do you need external help ? Remember to tell them what you want to explore - you are deconstructing one element, please focus on that. Maybe they will just film you from astern, but they need to be told what to film in detail. I would say for sailing start with starting!" How to start and stop the boat! How to sail over a start line without other boats to the shot of the gun! Are there sub elements you actually need to extract and focus on? The most difficult packages to identify are probably the mental elements which are holding you back. This is an area for reflection but also for another pair of eyes and ears. Ole Einar Bjørndalen is probably the greates ever biathalon athelete, and with 8 gold medals, one of the best olympians ever, winter and summer. One coach he turned to knew hardly anything about skiing. Ole Einar credits Oyvind Hammer, a Dick Vitale style pitchman for Filter Queen vacuums and motivational speaker on the side, for elevating his confidence and consistency of performance. A motivator. They had a long term business partnership and friendship. There can then be many elements, which relate to each other in a " work flow" or there can be mental elements linked to the physical ones. Where to begin? Given that you know you are very weak or error prone in one area, then begin there. Break it down. Ad infinitum should be obviously avoided, but a suprising level of detail should be worked on as a " deconstruct" element. If you are a seasoned sailor and are at a bit of a loss as to why you dont perform better then I would say get an outside pair of eyes in, a transom-consultant. Maybe you feel your sailing is rubbish, or that you have come to an impasse in performance, or just have a couple of bug-bears like for example tacking, then deconstruction is a powerful technique to strip down to elements and understand what you are doing wrong or how possibly you could do better. It is also a bit like a reboot for a computer with a lot running, you reopen with one software and its' settings at a time to use that analogy. Using it can be a positive turning point for your sailing or other sport or job for that matter. A major effect of deconstruction is that it breaks down barriers to learning.

More on the Learning Curve

I guess it is a little to do with the 10,000 hours thing that some skills become intuitive* , and you can focus on the challenges of the day, the competitors and conditions. If you haven't heard of the "10,000 hours' rule " then it comes from a book on exceptional performance in humans called "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. He based this on a study by K. Anders Ericsson,who considered musicians playing that most difficult to master instrument, the Violin. He concluded that on average musicians aged 20 had amassed 10,000 hours experience, tuition and practice. This is just a single observation and not an actual rule, and neither authors have stated it is an absolute rule or major factor. The related factors are natual ability, aptitude and attitude to learn in the student and a programme they are on, or set themselves which is focused on targets. However " directed practice" , repition and the physical aspect of form, stregnth and condition are very much in this 10,000 hours philosophy One thing that is related and people often forget or find frustrating, is the finding that performance can plateau. That is to say gains in how good you are at a sport, instrument or other skill level out for a while or in fact you just dont get any better during an extended period of repitition or training. George Leonard discusses this in his book "Mastery" , with his main inspiration being martial arts. Repetition is important. There is the one element of motor-neural pathways being reprogrammed and " hard wired" so they become intuitive movements, while there is also a more cerebral Too many sailors I have known became "frustrates". These are either people who really don't have a clue about how to learn and progress. They got so far in sailing and seemed to be pretty contented, even smug about their abilities and the boat's -set-up. They were complacent. Mediocre performances were discussed in terms of lady luck, other competitors messing up their chances or the misfortune to have chosen the wrong side of the course for the favoured wind conditions, or that old bad penny in HC racing, " my boat never goes well in these conditions for its' handicap" . Good results were taken as a a sign that all was well. Usually few and far between and usually due to fortuity of other, better competitors messing up their game for once. A self congrtulatory, sometimes rowdy after sail followed with some taunting of other competitors. As the great Uffa Fox postulated, if you make three mistakes in a race, and only three, then you deserve a third place. Two? Second and of course you may make one mistake but that is few enough to earn you the win. With the frustrated sailor, and I can include myself for some time back, does not only fail to learn from their mistakes, they even fail to recognise their mistakes. Once you learn to count your mistakes as coins in the learning bank, then you can start to solve them. You focus on correcting them, rather than the larger over all goal of winning a race. This is why goal setting is a little dull in fact. Gains are based around correcting mistakes and proceeding in new, alternative ways. These are very often marginal gains. But embracing your mistakes " ah there is something we need to consider and learn from" is the first step. The second step is HOW to correct mistakes or errors in training, skills etc. What do we need to do ? Which new knowledge do we need? What must we practice on? Who and where do we get help? The latter in many sports is difficult for adults as the sport's coaching is focussed on children and youth, then a very tight pyramid top. Some clubs do have coaches, but the quality varies greatly. Some I have found are not very good teachers and have a rather closed mindset on how things are done, and anyway are not the best sailors in the club by a long way. Like religion, the new converts can be the most evangelical so you tend to get that type too who cant really answer specific questions often relating to correcting mistakes, setting the next goals or learning a new skill. Fellow competitors are often not that willing to give away secrets of their success. The reverse of this is also an ok thing - to use a crew or helm from a better boat for a race or two on yours. Once again, depends on the teaching skills and attitude of the person you approach. It can often be quite uncomfortable with a very domineering or the reverse, a very reticent crew coming aboard. One good way round this is to sail with better sailors as crew. For anyone who has mastered the basics of sailing and can sail safely in a racing fleet, then this is the real area for a quick win. A major gain in knowledge. The other approach I always recommend, is go back to a dinghy sailing school and get some one on one instruction. One hour in a wee boat is worth five in a keel boat. Back to school then. You can either use "external resources" as above, do some reading, or just go and practice. What you are armed with by this point is a small list of mistakes you want to correct, and a couple of defined skills' goals. You could say that a gap in your knowledge is a "mistake" or you could say that a mistake is a gap in your knowledge! You have to prioritise correcting mistakes though imho. So you may find one mistake to work on and one goal to improve to focus on. So for example this could be the phsyical mistakes you make tacking as a goal, with a related goal of knowing when to tack , usually on a shift.' Now you need to go out and implement these tasks. And then practice them. THis is the plateau. You make a gain, you consolidate that gain. You remain focused on ensuring that gain is cemented in your skill-set. And importantly you dont move on before you feel this comes as second nature to you. Identifying a wind shift is big enough or right sided enough to tack on, and tacking smoothly in and straigtening up out of the tack. The case may be though that you take a week at a sailing school, or a whole regatta as crew on a much better boat. Here you will make major gains. Or should if you are receptive. Go into these situations with an open mind, dont be defensive about your own position or knowledge. Be huimble. True too if you get an ace crew or two for a week long regatta, be receptive, qualify their criticisms or suggestions. So take your entry to such quite auspicsous occaisions as a kind of ground zero. I have come to where I am, but now I am all ears and will learn like a child doing something for the first time. Russel Coutts was giving an interview I think for the IACC boat era of the Auld Mug , and he said basically " we went out an learned a lot today ". This struck me as strange. A modesty - even naivety - from one of the best sailors, and biggest egos in top flight sailing. But he had learned to learn - to be a child again. When you do change your mind set to this, dropping your shoulders and accepting change is necessary and being humble is your entry-ticket, then you will find it very rewarding. This is because gains go into your skill set without the pain of ego filtering your learning experience. " I shoud know this!" or " hmm, doesnt seem like much of a gain to me" or " can I really be bothered to do that" ( for example rig tuning each day pre-race, often a skill set the mid fleet lack to give them any edge to become top fleet). The gain becomes a joy. Wow this simple gain most likely won me places, or at least I felt a sense of mastery having practiced it many times and now it belongs in my mental tool kit, always there when I need it. ==============================
Personal note then I went out in the Grimstad keel boat , a lovely clinker keel day boat One Design, and came second last and last! wow how bad is that for a sailor who can win races!?? Well I had the goals of staying out of trouble as I dont know how the boat reacts so need to keep clear of tight situations, and I dont know how to get the boat going fast yet, and my crew wasnt confident with spinnaker use. That was all beside the point. I wanted to get a feel for tacking angle and sail round the course accurately and safely to give me a base line to then go and learn boat speed, set up and start line tactics in this wee long keeler I have a very open attitude to learning. Could even show faux naievity for fun in order to learn from someone new. Foot note - Instuitive - using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning - maybe sublte from instinctive which is more "born with"

When a Classic Provides A Bit of Excitement...and low on the learning curve with the Grimstad Jolle

I didn't want to pass up the invitation to helm a wee classic boat again at a club down the coast This was despite over 20 knt gusts forecast because I had been out in more than that in the Grimstad Jolle Jolle translates as dinghy but is a little wider in interpreation as these are a small keel boat. Long Keel at that too! However, they are light enough to make them far more frisky than many a lumbering design of yore. All went pretty well, a fiasco not getting the main down was a big lesson at the end of the regatta, but more on that later. Where I am on the curve with this boat? I had set out to get off the start line, go right and sail accurately round the course. Even a late start was acceptable. As it happened we were nearly on the pace and got a great line for the 1705 start, rolling over a competitor who had thought he could luff us, but I just seemed to instinctively know hwo to get ahead of him. He did though disrupt me enough to shave about 8 seconds off my start which could have been a real blinder because the fleet were low of the "boat" end. The wind picked up though and we struggled to find speed vs height . THis was just a puzzle to me now, not a frustration. We lost two places to then just be covering one guy behind who was dreadful. We lost a fair bit on boat speed being maybe half a leg behind the rest and woman friday reluctant to sort out the spinnaker halyard and hoist it. A bit of spreeing of the jib and we were soon holding pace with quite a few of the spinnaker boats, allbeit a little less VMG than their DDW course. A good rounding at the bottom of the stairs and having climbed up to the landing, the weather mark that is, we barely overstood and were in a nice 60 degree cone on the way up. This too came kind of instinctively. I just knew where we were and a quick glance at the boats confirmed this But having a little too much in the bank didnt hurt either, only once of four roundings were we bearing down on the mark cracked off Off wind prove entertaining. The boats surf readily and in some spurts of speed we started catching a spinnaker boat who wernt using the waves. I tried to settle on the jib spreed out but found the combination of wave chasing difficult. Final down hill rounding completed we were still well off the pace with the best part of a whole leg behind, but that was a function of no spinnaker and not enough know how on the boat speed vs height Learning goals then would be - Knowing the keel fly speed, by feel Knowing how to build speed and maintain height Having a bloody compass maybe or just being more aware of the angle of dangle Teaching the crew more about pre race checks so the Spinnie halyard would be in place. Also starts, I think I know the game there, line up early and try and hold a lane, so in effect you can disrupt this big time if you stand on basic safe and luff when needed to force boats round you with say 20 seconds to go. The start is effectively 30 m or so behind and to the right of the actual line as these boats are sailed hull speed or die and that is the known game so everyone does it and jostles for the line when they choose their lane 15 to 30 secs out. Otherwise the take out in the races, 2 , was that, wow, yes a lot comes intuitively to me. The 60 degree cone is just something you know from sight. THe lay lines too. Tuesday it was front shoulder, tack. In light winds or very shifty stuff, it would be back shoulder, tack onto the winward mark layline. Generally not so happy with VMG or boat speed up wind, but very pleased with both off. Then came the fiasco. It had all gone so well. THe guy has the poor man's side of the pontoon, being lee of the prevailing wind. However we had two paddles so seemed no creek of the no 2 would be possible. How wrong I was. Guessin the main would come down pronto I came in pretty close to the marina - and it didnt come down and crew seemed to not be helping. There was a fankle maybe or feet on the halyard, but she just wasnt pulling on the luff. I got a sinking feeling but reckoned we had enough space to tackle it. Nope. We drifted beyond the point where jib alone was too far gone down wind. She had said we couldnt sail round the holm. Now here inexperience and nervousness showed. We were trapped in a funnel. The only thing to do was ...paddle ! but no good. Too much windage from the hull and jib. After some flaffing we tried main up, but it had twisted somehow, guess we got it down and it blew round. Eventually we grew tired and I bailed out to a leewwar mooring with a handle on the bouy luckily, just after narrowly avoiding a grounding by gybing round. Lucklily not everyone was off to See Norway vs Ivory coast and the club motor boat helpe us in, Ignomosity, but the crew needed some emotiuonal support not criticism I am so terribly reasonable in my old age but that is mayube a very good thing. Bark but no biting while all the fiasco was unravelling So that is another learnign point, crew must be better at doing things like prepping halyards for up and downie!! I would have been very, very staifsied otherwise.

Quality over Quantity, The Touchy Feely "Ouch!" of Boat Politics, and ' Confirmation'

A case of quality over quantity with one of my all time favourite races which continues to offer sailors many challenges over its' 3 stages and 80 odd nautical miles. I havent done much this season ...due to the boat politics or a personal grudge bombing me off a boat. Talking more then about the touchy feely stuff, no names mentioned apart from yours truly, the soggy bottomed boy- Now no longer soggy actually, as my Musto mpx's kept me bone dry despite my imodest weight being lifted from the rail. This was indeed a nervous moment of bouyancy which if not hanging on, could have resulted in MOB and in a sea running a good swell being pumped and stacked up with a dtrong 4m spring tide ebbing under it, would have possibly been fatal. Day two was nerve wraking then and I was rail meat, first in line for any waves. My compatriot forgot to secure her jacket and got soaked to her knickers in a previous wave to this one. I battened down all my velcro hatches and my almost 30 yo henri L offshore goretex actually kept me dry, and the day before too when it rained. Once again I got let loose on the helm on the preceeding leg to Tobermory, a race which I won in some glory once, it being the first yacht race I had helmed the whole way through. " Who's infront of us" me said, as I weaved my way down the gentle gusts on spinnaker and between cheeky class 4 white sail boats towards the line outside Tob'. " No one. Keep on sailing" came the reply! This time was a lot less certain, but we did all the right things...almost, Now then to the touchy feely stuff and crews, the ones you suffer a little and probably annoy a lot yourself Already there had been a tiff between owner ( who is a little on-the-spectrum) and one well experienced crew. His bidey in though was just plain entitled and not actually with any real entitlement to act like she did. This first little tiff was over the owners somewhat high volume, direct and precise instructions, or maybe a correction and ended in a little tantrum from the crew of not sailing today! Resolved by leaving them alone, both of them are a little challenged it transpired. Knowing that they were both sailors, I gave J the control of start. This prove to be a logical start, speed on the line seconds after the flag came down, clear for wind over the whole fleet, but most likely we firstly were in adverse tide and to exacerbate that, we had longer to sail and had to keep clear of most everyone being windward boat. Anyway I was satisfied we had involved a good crew who had never sailed before, and the boat itself had just been through its first start in many years, and over 20 years for this glorious race Tob Day 1 , to Bunessan day 2 and back day 3. To my chagrin two of the slower boats ( Elizabethan 30, fine design with suspiciously nice looking blue grey laminates) were ahead but we were chonking up towards them and could then avoid the nasty eddy holding them up at Lismore and shoot through the middle line, managing 9 knts surf on stadning waves, SOG though no doubt being less. Onwards, but the big westerly, with a charming HC on CYCA it transpired was probably quite a bit ahead of us having been played a hand of cards or having known to stick to the Mull shore as previous WHW winners have told me, Always stick to the Mull Shore! I reckon the owner involved the crew a lot in trimming the boat and the Sound of Mull's inevitable fickleness. But said lady kept on wanting to do tactics and go over to the fleet of class 2 which had gathered mid sound where the wind was fighting itself, boxing for NW versus SSW direction to flow up and down the sound, and cancelling itself just here near Salen. There was no logic in this, It would be following a largely different class and then possibly being shadowed by them and losing time in fights with them. Also the wind was filling and veering NW on the Mull shore. She just wanted to be a boss and play and became ratty that we didnt include her suggestion I tried to explain the wind was filling but then she just became arrogant and said we thought, in her important opinion, that we should go eastwards and I was in her tone of voice, quite wrong. Anyway, I had otherwise a great day. Disappointed not to get the break away I had hoped for, playing the Mull Shore Card, but feeling I sailed a really good race. When the wind was SSW / SSE we could hold spinnaker and this was bracing, sometimes nervous as the helm was heavy and there was a lot of heel. I wanted to instruct the crew, but felt this was the owners job, to get weight out and use the kicker as I have done in the past, to flatten the main off and on. Underway I started really losing the helm and the owner was really pleased when I asked simply " what do I do?" which involved shaking the turbulence off a few times to allow the upwash over the rudder to re-establish and get attached flow back allowing me to bear away more. Two bodies on the rail would have been ideal though. Confirmation is a thing I used to hate seeing in other people. When they obviously are having a good old ego trip on the helm or trimming and get that used to grind my gears. In part because I wasnt in with the owner enough to get a job, or dare I say helm and in part because I needed experience, or later on, had possibly more experience than others Now I am more chilled about it, but it has lead to a fall out this year with another skipper who really was quite patronising, probably a personal grudge because his wife used to basically flirt with me. Anyway I enjoyed that day with confirmation a lot. It felt like years of experience pay even when you are a little rusty Last year I won my first time out on the helm of the Express so I know I can helm, and especially when other people do the thinking by in large of where we are going. However you do get a good overview from the back of the boat so the wind veering meant we were in an ideal place to take a steal for the day, while other boats were forced to lee by their spinnaker SOG ambitions! This is often the case. A heard under kite wander way off the course in order to cover each other, or are just bloody sheep. Said crew's calls to fall off lacked any logic and I tried to explain, which is what then pisses me off, but I have let it all go. I had a day basking in the sun of my own bloody ego, cut down to size on corrected time as many a helm has encountered! Things deteroiated next day with her. She had said the evening about how the owner was talking to them was unacceptable. Well I found her arrogance a bit annoying, She didnt ask for an explanation of 'the middle tell tales' when trimming just came with an odd response which didnt beckon an explanation, This irritated her and I did explain everntually, but she was irritated. Next day I think I shoved her out the way a bit. They had come late, delaying our exit from the dock and the Westerly, who were serious old fellas, from leaving. This cost us dear as the No 3 wasnt battened so we had to shift it off again. We over tensioned the halyard apparently giving swivel issues which persisted until next day. She not only was late up but her jacket and life jacket were on the cockpit with 2 mins to go to the start, which annoyed the HSE in me, and i got her to move perhaps in a abrupt manner. Things went down hill. She got scarred by the swell made steep by the tide and the bashing we got for 3 hours. My turn to be irritated as we went way too far out and into more sea most likely than needed, while the class 1 and bigger 4 boats chundered along the mystical north shore with its lighthouse, castle, sandy bays and wildness Nothing much got repaired on the touchy feely and to my relief, with the thought of a repeat holiday next year to include this most glorious of races, they said they wanted to follow the race perhaps in their own boat next year. I did tidy up and make coffee post race day three, and the owner had let the two newbies steer and trim the boat by in large, me doing foredeck and enjoying the sunshine and rather stunning views. It had been a big fall out before, which resulted in us splitting up for the 2002- 2004 seasons. I had been angry at a crew for shaking the boom onto my face and alomst breaking my glasses and knocking me out"! Time has healed this and judging by no " dont like how you speak to my crew" and also said owner getting several severe comments about how HE spoke to the two screwy crew, I think reflection was taken. Also I had apologised and my anbriuptness was in part caused by lack of sleep due to a feverish cough which many have had this bloody summer. I enjoyed it all immensely despite the cough, nerve wracking sea day 2, and the BS from said new members of the wee clan. How to speak to crew and other international matters of diplomacy.

Reflections on a Season

This was actually an important season for me I felt a little on the outside of the sport. Kind of a hasbeen. But I had often wise things. Kick the motor in reverse to get the auld 8mR's prop to fold. Hold the main in the centre to keep the kite flying. We gybe on white sails! After an " in at the deep end" two handed with spinnaker, where I warned I was rusty. But he admitted it was the best of all training sessions that season for a 4 mans crew usually no matter! Then more folk came out the woodwork. They too, didnt like the older one designs in town , or were tired with them. The new express fleet is looking up! Also I managed to figure out a cruising chute with snuffer for the first time. Never used on, been on racing boats or white sails. The owner I coach up in sailing and self confidence was delighted ! All in all in stead of feeling rusty, used up, has been, i got some major sense of mastery. 10,000 hours n all. I took a day when I was laid up sick to look at old Americas cup coverage, from the late seventies, through Australia II to Prada becoming the challenger and found I could challenge the skipper's decisions without actually it being trite after seen wisdom ( as they say in Scandinavia) : I can understand the enormous performance expectation angst affected their judgement. But hey, I won the first express race I helmed this year. It is about sinking your shoulders and getting the right information in from the rail. Not going out on the edge of the diamond. They maybe got caught up in micro metereologist and on board MBA consultant's power point summaries, they fucked up on some basics in these races ! That is why they lost, they made mistakes. Boat speed was up and down with the wind speed, every dog had its' day, seen much tougher match racing in IODs. Also I am not letting myself be in the box of ' not as good as he thinks he is' instead, show what you can do, take it seriously, the job in hand. Dont bitch ( i used to, but not often) get on with your job. Focus! Team only has ME if you fuck it all up and put it mack as TAME!

Breaking it Down

I have jumped at the chance of sailing in the fledgling Express fleet we have here in town, with three active this year and possible the club doing another hand-me-down purchase of a fourth next year. Ok, it is only crewing until maybe someone invites me to helm or I get in the woodwork enough to ask politely What though, can I learn about helming and racing from being crew? Well tonight's practice will have a fortuitous wind direction, hugging the coast line and making for two good course possibilities with shortening also possible given the permanent bouys and skerries to round on W-L So then I want to look at line bias, favoured tack , favoured side and maybe wind shifts This means looking at the compass 1. shoot the breeze 2. note compass direction on both tacks 3. See if it varies, look at the land for lifts and knocks and verify. 4. Check the bearing when coming out of each tack after we are near fine in the groove. That is it. Broken down.

Weekend that Was

I have been in the lull before the great vacuum of idleness which I may implode into. I have come to a place where the job is ok, I have been moving forward only very slowly with the job in terms of learning, being hindered by a boss who is wary of me. Sailing wise, I had to jump back in and get going again. My ideal goal is helming practice, but I also have to remember to practice what I have mastered before- so foredeck and mainsail are things I was pleased to get involved with. It is good to be back out in a decent boat, the Albin Express being a nice racing platform akin to the Impala, Laser 28 and Sigma 33. One other thing I need to learn is the bias on the course and where we are at any point in time relative to the average wind direction and indeed speed. It was interesting to read in the 707 class that day 1 leaders played the averages and did nothing outside the box. I had to just look up the old case about the jib top tell tales - it is a bit of a self explained if you think through it. As the top of the jib can be twisted off and fly at a more oblique angle, it shall break first inside with correct trim and the outside shall always fly. Also, fully vindicated on jib-leech tell-tales as they are standard. They should fly 80-100%, once again, top breaking first. Really the same principle as tthe main, and Ståle's boat lacked the top tell tale! I need to look at the chart and reflect!