Dwelling on the pint half empty side is not productive, because staying too long in the gloom leads to negativity and doubt which comes to haunt you on the race course as nervousness and indecisiveness.
However analysing your mistakes is a vital part of sailing at every level. The difference from the former is that you leave emotion behind - you lost big chap, take it on the chin- and then rather set out to see the mistakes for what they were and try to understand them so you can avoid, correct or build on positive learning from them.
The great Uffa Fox said frankly that if a boat makes three mistakes on the course, then she may deserve third place, while a boat in second place has made only two. The winner, well they have made then one small mistake, one less than the boat behind.
I think that is a very good philosophy. It focuses on the individual moments when something goes wrong and a boat gets ahead of you. Think then of Uffa's wisdom if you finish constantly 6 to 8th out of an OD fleeet of say 14 and feel frustrated? You need to see which mistake you make most often as a priority, and then tackle those others you can describe and take action on.
As you go further up the learning curve you will find mistakes display themselves or you see gaps in your previous mind set and boat prep that now hinder you.
Many people including me come out with a rather general reason for not doing all that well in a race: usually for me and many other helms it is "we are not good at starting" , or it may be the often toted in IRC racing. " we have a hard handicap" , both of which you can do things about. but only if you begin to break down the general problem and work on specifics.
My starts are goddam awful on average and that is why i am not second helm on the Melges sailed by four helmsmen. My lack of prowess comes from starting sailing dinghies when i was an adult and lacking the whole oppie, topper, mirror, 420 circuit which drums into young sailors how starts go and why they go bad while on the water. I once said to Julian Bethwaite at an ISAF party that i was the worst dinghy sailor in the country to sail one of his family's fine boat designs. Yet i could sail in light winds against much faster boats and generally sail pretty well apart from starts and windier days. Dinghy sailing informed my keel boating and especially sport boating immensely, so much so that I won the first yacht race I ever helmed back in 2000 in challenging conditions.
So how do I break down my issues when I am a good sailor with an achilles heel on one side for starts and the other on windier days?
If you ask any sailors who are in the top 20-30% of a fleet but rarely higher scoring, what they could improve, I am sure 4 out of 5 would answer that they could do better starts. Where to start with mistakes on the start then???
Firstly lay myself flat. Starts are loaded with emotion for me and many other helms and crews. Then there is the technical tension in getting it right. That is the key mix which I get wrong. So that is my big metastatic mistake which colours the technical bads and hinders my progress. Solution? Remove the emotion, reduce the nerves, go back to learning and make mediocre or outright bad starts while one learns to get better without butterflies in the stomach feeling the size of a flock of crows.
My next technical level mistake is the all important timing, and that is usually too late. That is something I can address with practice and there is a wonderful new tool: "burn time". This means that you prepare in the start area for where you are going to start, and how, and run through it with a stop watch. You have a very good idea of your position and how long it takes you to maneuvre and sail to the line, which for a keel boat will be about 45 seconds to a minute in light winds , and down to 30 seconds in more wind: at that time then you are on position and have the lane you want and are clear to do the final harden up and get the crew out. What is important is to then not get lower than that prestart block of water, "on your marks" , and not compromise too much of where you want to start. All the other time then is "burn time" and it is that which you count down to; and during which you rag and jostle for position. At burn time Zero minus 15 you must know you are going to hit your mark , that starting block, or be just a little low of it to avoid PMT. You must also assert if the wind is the same stregnth and direction and if the tide has built, plus if you have space for your lane.
In well disciplined OD fleets then, burn time is used up mostly by ragging your sails and keeping your bow level to the guy to windward. The ideal is that you move off at burn zero on a cracked off beat with just a little space to leeward in order to bear away to avoid OCS or to speed up if the wind has dropped.
With the burn-time start method you focus on where you need to be and when prior to just pointing and going, rather than getting somewhere which looks okay and then counting to the start and guessing how you are doing as the fleet packs around you and moves forward. Usually you will be nervous and burried. If you have a transit for the burn time zero position, or a gps alarm or a pair of sight lines to the boat and pin then you know that you can just power on and get over, which is more than most of the other boats in an amateur event.
In poorly disciplined and especially that type of HC fleet, you need to take the view point of being safe and in control. I liked the Y&Y article on starts from some edition so much that it is my biblical testament I return to. In that the author writes of being the "controller" rather than the aggressor. That takes outt the steam from the ears a bit, shoulders drop now as we shall contol our destiny.
Good forms of controlling are choosing an early position and putting the brakes on the whole mobs charging to the start. For example rhs of the line from the boat end, a little low, and basically sitting there, forcing a few boats to sail over you but mostly behind you. At this point you are still far enough back from the line to fall off and go round the group who are likely to have stalled up now at the IDM, you controlled them to go early, and you can then choose a lane to their port sides and transoms which essentially blocks out interlopers pretty clearly while giving you a boat legnth extra acceleration and a half boat legnth to fall off into lee. Alternatively if they are starrting to reach off along the line to avoid OCS you let them go and press up to keep late interlopers reaching in from the boat end and start on your mark.
An alternative for the less experienced or for outright bumper car fleets, is to use burn time to get a great start half way down the line. Your burn time mark is likely to be 45 second to a minute and a pure beat to the line. Point and shoot delux, but dependent on a very confident judgement of that mark, by a transit, and in the final count down is correct and that your boat speed is not too fast.
Going back to mistake analysis I can see that it is not good enough to have a really nice position prestart or the perfect theoretical burn mark. Other people will reach down into your windward space while some will squeeze up on your quarter. You will therefore be best to nustle up into a space between two boats, but you will then be tempted to match their bows in a dinghy or SB fleet. As long as you know your burn mark and keep your bow at least on the transom of the windward boat or let them beat a little early before getting overlap at burn zero plus some seconds, then you have your lane booked.
Last weekend in the Melges 24 we did some of this controlling due to line bias: sitting in a plumb spot to brake the fleet and force them OCS. This is not so realistic in a keel boat like a sigma 33, where you would not be able to accelerate fast enough to keep up with the boats who did squeeze through without OCS: then as above, you want to controll them way up to the RHS if the bias is there and brake that reaching madness early, building a little raft of hopefuls at the IDM while being able to fall down behind them and book you lane plus a boat length.
What other problems or individual mistakes with starts do you have? My next issue is the main sheet. Usually it is too far out and the traveller lines ar messed up! A common problem out of tacks too. Depending on the boat then a few seconds before burn-zero, you want to get the sheet tension maybe 90%.on, but either drop the traveller down in mid airs or take the sail to over mid line in light airs. You can then power on with just the traveller, set it for the conditions and then be left with just a fine adjust on the mainsheet. In heavier winds you would also want to point the bow up a little to stall the sails but still be low of head-to-wind on the birgee. You then fall off and let the main start drawing before pulling up the traveller at burn minus zero.
OCS is actually not a mistake I make, but being terrified of OCS is a big mistake. The only way to define this limit is unfortunetly to go over it, and that is best done in practice starts of course, or just admitting this season of wednesday nights is going to be bumpy on the results board because we are going to make mistakes in order to learn from them. Loose the spring series to win the autumn progress up the score board if you like.
My other mistakes are various, but one that seems prominent for me and other sailors is "going up the wrong side" or "not being sync'ed with the shifts". How to address this?
Well it is firstly about simplifying the variables. Crucially you need to get a good start , at the biased end if there is one, and then keep your wind free as possible. Otherwise slow speed and pointing can be wind turbulence from boats ahead to windward. Secondly you need to know the tide and keep it simple to begin with: avoid tide against you and stay out in tide with you. At some point you will probably have to take the pain of the tide , but that can be minimised. Thirdly sail up the beat if you can before the start sequence and check the compass bearings : get the crew working and sail a few long tacks seeing how it fluctuates. Try tacking just before some gusts to see if they are veered and if it pays to then tack into them on the compass, with an achieved tacking angle of 70' or less once close hauled in the gust on the new tack. Finally if there is no huge line-, tide-, gust-, bend or shift- bias, sail up the middle of the course from as good a start as possible, keep your wind free and then follow the best boats to see why they went that way.
An alternative for new beginners sailing a standard port rounding course is to start late at the boat end, tack away to the far rhs, tack back and then observe the fleet and keep an eye on the compass as you sail a long starboard tack, maybe half way up the course or more before double tacking again.
Another big mistake people make in the whole "paid to go on that side" is that line bias or a neutral line, can hide a course bias on the bearing of the windward to leeward marks. This is often why people talk about having a great first beat going right starting at the boat end, with a start on a bias especially when it is half way up the course. They then loose it all on the second beat going the same way as it seemed to be shifted left. You should then have a knowledge of the bearing on the line to windward mark, the offset from the rest of the course, then the bearing W-L marks and most fundamentally then, the average wind direction and how swung the shifts are, or how veered the gusts are.
In the northern hemisphere then, if the wind becomes a lot more gusty on the second beat for example, then you will find that staying on starboard tack longer will help you get to the windward mark quicker ( and the reverse off wind, staying more on port , especially with an assymetpric kite) because you get both the apparent wind lift and the veered RHS lift. However apply caution on a very right hand side biased wind course as you will then be sailing towards the left hand side, and despite these "scalloping lifts" you will need to get up right on port tack to take the main bearing bias advantage. Here you can choose to tack to starboard before the squall hits, while going to port as soon as they are passed.
To summarise: identify your mistakes and do not be general! Break percieved larger issues like starts, or poor boat speed down into smaller questions, problems and notable mistakes. Ask for help if you struggle to see the error of your ways.
The more individual mistakes you can identify and get your head round, the more solutions you will find and each one less mistake is most likely worth a place higher on the results board.
A good start renders you a tactical commander instead of a following foot soldier.
Remember there may be some pain to take while you learn starts or boat speedx ,or shifts, but keep to the basics on freeing your wind and understanding the bigger picture level of tide.
In sailing a course, gather information on wind direction ,variability and the courses bearings before the start sequence with a practice beat and run. Look at the tide too. Remember tide will also run quicker when forced to go over a shallow that covers the main channel, so you may need to go longer inshore or find a shadow in a bay with a possible back eddy to avoid its worst effects.
Other tips for helping you identify and train to correct faults
Take better sailors out with you but dont let them take over the jobs the mistakes are made in. Instead let them see the mistakes, telling them before hand that is what you mean by help, problem definitionx, management consulting, not new bosses on board for the evening!
Sail on better boats! If you are a helm then go back to crewing before maybe asking to helm a bit another time.
Vary the type of races you do.
Train outside racing events and series on all the key maneuvres: making way, stalling and stopping up, luffing up, falling away, hoisting, dropping, rounding marks and then tackle starts and learn about burn time and being on the "runway" lane to start at x seconds out committed.
Remember safety on board and camaraderie with and between your crew. Involve them in defining mistakes and inform them of actions to train out, especially the risk of many OCS's if you are trying to get better starts.
On a training session make each of your crew take the helm and sail a simple roughly triangular course at least on white sails: this will helpo them appreciate the difficulties and expectations of the "driver".
Last but not least, swallow your pride completely and be prepared on the one hand to tear your sailing and crew work apart to each small fault, while also taking bigger risks and challenges in order to learn, having the courage to go over your limits and not being embarressed to make new mistakes when out there.
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