sailboat racing teamwork

The Importance of Teamwork: Lessons from a Racing Regatta

Discover the importance of teamwork in sailing regattas and how it can lead to success on the water.

Sailing is an incredible adventure that offers a unique blend of freedom, challenge, and camaraderie. One of the most exhilarating aspects of sailing is participating in a racing regatta. These events test the skills, determination, and teamwork of sailors as they navigate their boats through a series of races. In this article, we’ll explore the importance of teamwork in a racing regatta and share some valuable lessons learned from sailing adventures.

The Racing Regatta: A Test of Teamwork

A racing regatta is a series of boat races, usually held over a weekend or several days, that brings together sailors of all skill levels to compete against one another. These events can range from small, local races to prestigious international competitions. Regardless of the size or scope of the regatta, one thing remains constant: the importance of teamwork.

In a racing regatta, each crew member has a specific role to play, and the success of the team depends on everyone working together seamlessly. From the skipper who steers the boat and makes tactical decisions, to the crew who trim the sails and handle the boat, every person on board must be in sync with one another.

Lesson 1: Communication is Key

One of the most critical aspects of teamwork in a racing regatta is clear and effective communication. Crew members must be able to relay information quickly and accurately, as even the smallest miscommunication can lead to costly mistakes on the racecourse.

During a regatta, it’s essential to establish a clear communication system among the crew. This can include using specific terminology for various maneuvers, hand signals for when verbal communication is difficult, and even a designated “communicator” who relays information between the skipper and the rest of the crew.

By fostering open and efficient communication, a team can ensure that everyone is on the same page and working together towards a common goal.

Lesson 2: Trust and Reliability

In a racing regatta, trust and reliability are crucial components of a successful team. Crew members must trust that their teammates will perform their roles effectively and consistently, and each person must be reliable in fulfilling their responsibilities.

Building trust among team members can be achieved through regular practice and training sessions, where everyone has the opportunity to learn and grow together. By spending time together both on and off the water, a team can develop a strong bond and a sense of camaraderie that will serve them well during the high-pressure environment of a regatta.

Lesson 3: Adaptability and Flexibility

Sailing is an ever-changing sport, with variables such as wind, weather, and sea conditions constantly shifting. In a racing regatta, a team must be adaptable and flexible in order to respond effectively to these changes and maintain a competitive edge.

This adaptability extends to the roles and responsibilities of each crew member. While everyone has a specific job on the boat, there may be times when a crew member needs to step in and assist with another task or take on a different role entirely. By being open to change and willing to adapt, a team can ensure that they are always prepared for whatever challenges the racecourse may present.

Lesson 4: The Power of Positive Attitude

A positive attitude can make all the difference in a racing regatta. When the going gets tough, it’s essential for team members to maintain a positive outlook and support one another through the challenges.

This can be as simple as offering words of encouragement, celebrating small victories, or even just sharing a laugh together. By fostering a positive atmosphere on the boat, a team can boost morale and maintain the motivation needed to push through difficult moments and come out on top.

Real-Life Stories: Teamwork in Action

To further illustrate the importance of teamwork in a racing regatta, let’s take a look at some real-life stories from sailors who have experienced the power of teamwork firsthand.

Story 1: Overcoming Adversity Through Teamwork

During a particularly challenging regatta, one team found themselves facing a series of setbacks, including equipment failures and unfavorable weather conditions. Despite these obstacles, the crew remained focused and committed to working together as a team.

Through clear communication, trust in one another, and a positive attitude, the team was able to overcome the challenges and ultimately secure a respectable finish in the regatta. This experience served as a powerful reminder of the importance of teamwork and the incredible feats that can be achieved when a group of individuals comes together with a shared goal.

Story 2: The Comeback

In another regatta, a team found themselves trailing behind the competition after a series of poor starts and tactical errors. Rather than becoming discouraged, the crew rallied together and focused on improving their teamwork and communication.

As the races progressed, the team began to make a comeback, steadily climbing the leaderboard and ultimately securing a podium finish. This remarkable turnaround was a testament to the power of teamwork and the ability of a group of sailors to overcome adversity through determination and collaboration.

Participating in a racing regatta is an incredible experience that offers valuable lessons in teamwork, communication, and perseverance. By fostering a strong sense of camaraderie and working together towards a common goal, sailors can achieve remarkable feats on the water and create lasting memories with their teammates.

As you embark on your own sailing adventures, remember the importance of teamwork and the lessons learned from racing regattas. Whether you’re competing in a local race or setting sail on a long-term voyage with your family, the bonds you form and the experiences you share will be an integral part of your journey.

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How to Build a Sailing Team

• By Jonathan McKee
• January 11, 2022

The past two years have been strange ones, on land and on the water. Big-boat racing essentially stopped on Puget Sound in March 2020, stranding any racing ambitions for my teammates and me on the 44-foot Paul Bieker-designed Dark Star . Gradually, I figured out a way to race the boat doublehanded, and a few local events opened to allowing shorthanded crews. It turned out to be a really fun period, but during this time my regular teammates moved on to other boats. I couldn’t blame them as I had nothing to offer.

One of the first fully crewed events on Puget Sound was the Seattle YC’s Grand Prix Regatta in October, and for this important local event I decided to resume Dark Star ’s full-team race program, which meant I had to put together a crew, something I had not done for a while. I wondered whether I should simply call up my old mates and get the band back together or try a different approach.

I chose the latter.

In my career as a professional sailor, I have been involved in many new teams and rebuilds. Usually, the motivation of the owner is to reset his or her team, create new energy or a new identity, as well as improve performance. When involved in this process, I think about the skills and experience each crew brings, but also their attitude and team focus. Are they truly interested in learning and improving, and helping the whole team get better? Are they able to admit to their own mistakes? How will they interact with the other crew? Now that I was picking my own team, I had a chance to put these ­principles to work on Dark Star . 

But where to start? First, I needed a trusted lieutenant. Two obvious choices were my longtime friend Jay Renehan and Alyosha Strum-Palerm, a 23-year-old rising star from Tacoma, Washington. Both are expert Tasar sailors and had raced with me on my doublehanded adventures. They were familiar with me and Dark Star . Renehan, however, had just bought a J/111, so he was out. Strum-Palerm eagerly agreed, so we set to filling in the crew.

Next, we had to determine which positions we needed to fill. If we could find a good driver, I was happy to do pit, runner and tactics. Strum-Palerm could steer, but he preferred to trim jibs and kites. While either of us could have chosen to drive, we both felt it would be more interesting to take on other roles and find a good helm. Strum-Palerm suggested we contact Scott Smith, a local legend who is one of the most talented and experienced sailors around. I called him and he eagerly agreed. Now we had a first-class helm who was also a good starter. But he is my age, and it’s always good to get some young blood into a program.

The next day, the phone rang. It was my friend David Schmidt, who called to ask about racing on Dark Star , and whether there were any races coming up. Schmidt had done mast and midbow for Dark Star for years, back when we had a full crew. He knew the job, and is super-enthusiastic and in great shape—perfect. He also mentioned that his friend Chris Burd was looking to go sailing again. Burd is young and super-fit, but he’s also experienced on the bow. He was a previous winner of the Race to Alaska, so he was clearly fearless and tough as well—I like that in a bow person.

The crew was coming together nicely. I had the young gun, the grizzled veteran, the eager and athletic mast person, and the rock-solid bow person. But who could trim the main, probably the most important job on the boat? I asked Stasi Burzycki, the son of an old friend of mine and an up-and-coming Tasar talent. I realized it would be a stretch for him to trim main on a technical boat like Dark Star because most of his experience was with dinghies, but I knew he had the focus and the feel. He eagerly agreed, and the roles were filled.

We sailed two afternoons in October as practice, and it was clear we had all the pieces to succeed with our six-person squad. We worked together well, everyone got along, and there was a lot of mutual respect. For the Grand Prix, we faced a small but competitive fleet of similar boats, and the regatta had great conditions. We ended up tied for first and won the tiebreaker. 

After the awards, I reflected on the qualities that had created a strong team: We had no big egos (except maybe mine), but everyone had enough experience to do their job well. Equally important, each crew had to stretch their skills to really excel. We all trusted each other to do our job well while also helping each other improve. This combination of trust, experience and continuous learning keeps it fun and rewarding while still challenging. It was satisfying to be part of a new group coming together so smoothly. Even if we had not won the Grand Prix, it was still amazing to see each of us have a great sailing experience, becoming better sailors—and a better team —along the way.

Maybe you are looking to change up your team for the next season. I would suggest following a similar approach: Find good sailors, maybe even some younger ones, but make sure they have the right attitude, and think about how they will work together. Pick a team that can have fun but also help each other improve every time you sail. Then cultivate a culture of respect and continuous learning. Like me, you will find yourself smiling every time you step on board your boat.

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Positions on a Racing Sailboat

‍ The success of a racing sailboat depends entirely on the ability of each person on the boat to know and execute their role in high-pressure situations.

While boat-dependent, all positions are some combination of the responsibilities of driver, bow, tactician, trimmer, and pit. The driver makes the final decisions and steers, while the other crew members play various roles providing information, trimming sails, and keeping the boat moving fast.

The fundamental responsibilities of sailboat racing do not change, regardless of the number of people aboard. Someone in a one-person dinghy has to be able to keep track of the course, make tactical decisions, trim sails, steer, watch for new breeze and other boats, and ensure that they are set up for the next leg. On a larger boat, with more sails, more controls, and more required coordination, these jobs still exist and are distributed amongst various crew members. We will go through the basic crew setups of various one-design racing boats from one through four crew members to develop how the increase in crew and complexity begins to distribute the responsibilities of making the boat go fast across the team. Then, we will make some general claims about bigger boats, but as everything gets more confusing in the larger crews, we will not specify too much.

Over years of racing boats of all sizes, I’ve seen these crew roles respond to personal skills, different boat setups, strange habits, and teamwork to the point where everyone can respond to different events seamlessly. Sometimes these roles are perfectly well-defined, but sometimes a quick-thinking crew will switch positions on a dime to make up for a mistake in an entirely unorthodox way that is somehow perfect. On smaller boats, people have different priorities and different ways to work through all their responsibilities, but on all the best boats it is the people who know how to excel in their role, and how to make life easier for all their teammates by knowing exactly what they need, who make a sailboat go. Let’s get into it!

Table of contents

‍ The One-Person Dinghy: It’s All on You

You could argue that sailing, at its most basic, boils down to one sailor, a handful of lines, and a tiller against the breeze and water. Perhaps it would be a ridiculous argument, as sailing has always relied on people working together, but there is something to seeing who can go out there and be the one to make it work the best. When all the responsibilities for every inch of the boat fall on one person, it is interesting to see who has everything in sync the best. There is no specific title for this position, but I suppose you could call them

The Single-Handed Sailor

There are fundamentally three aspects to sailboat racing: boat speed, boat handling, and tactics. The single-handed sailor has to excel in each dimension. The best case study for a single-handed boat is the ILCA Dingy, once known as the Laser, but other notable racers include the Opti, Finn, RS Aero, Moth, and Wazsp classes.  

Boat speed comes down to trimming the sails properly for the angle to the wind. This means adjusting not only how far in and out the sail is, but also tuning specific control lines to give the sail the ideal shape for wind strength and direction. Making micro-adjustments to sail trim while dealing with all the other aspects of the race may not seem like much, but they can make the difference between winning and falling behind. While on larger boats there are entire positions dedicated to this, the single-handed sailor has to deal with this the whole time.

Other factors in boat speed concern steering through the wind shifts and wave sequences properly and keeping the boat flat by hiking out. This often includes being able to shift weight in precise ways to keep the boat optimally balanced and cutting through the waves.

Boat Handling

While boat speed forms the basis of all sailing, it is also crucial to know how to maneuver the boat through course changes. Windows in sailing races are small, and being able to get a boat into a lane is often a fraught affair. Having the confidence to trim the sails properly and maneuver sharply while still maintaining speed is a huge boost to a racer. Turning points at marks or directional switches while tacking and gybing are where many of the gains in a race come, and a clean tack coming into the top mark on port can mean the difference between leading the fleet and having to duck behind a parade of 30 boats. Being able to put on the brakes and accelerate quickly is key in tight spaces along the start line, and is a weapon for the best sailors.

Singlehanded racers have total control over their boat handling. Changes in direction come down to perfect synchronization of sail trim, steering, and body weight, and the single-handed sailor has to account for how every single adjustment affects these maneuvers. Some of the best boat handlers grow up racing single-handed boats; the feel developed sailing solo is hard to beat but requires years of fine-tuning and muscle memory.

All the speed and maneuverability in the world does not do much if you don’t know where to put the boat. Like any sport, the fundamentals are simple, but becoming a master takes a lifetime. The single-handed sailor must hold the entire course, the regularity of the wind shifts, the tendencies of the current, the positions of the other sailors, and their own plans in the front of their minds while pushing the boat as hard as possible.

While this is no place to discuss the intricacies of upwind tactics or the fastest lines on a downwind in different boats, the singlehanded sailor has to be able to think and make decisions tactically then execute those decisions themselves. This is such a large task that bigger boats will often have someone whose entire job is just to call breeze and tactics.

The single-handed sailor is without a doubt a jack-of-all-trades. We will discuss various terms for different crew-members on bigger boats, and while you could use the terms ‘skipper’ or ‘driver’ for the single-handed sailor, this does not quite say it all, so we save these positions for the bigger boats. We will not explicitly break the other boats down by who is in charge of boat speed, boat handling, and tactics, but roles can generally sort into various levels of responsibility for these categories.  

The Two-Person Racer: The Best (or worst) Way to Get to Know Another Person

On a two-person boat, of which common examples include the various 420 classes, the Olympic Classes (470, 49er, Nacra 17) among many others, responsibilities are slightly split, but this distribution comes with the tradeoff of greatly increased complexity and coordination requirements. Double-handed boats tend to have at least two, and often three, sails, require more involved tuning, move much faster, and occasionally require single or double trapezing. The very best doublehanded pairings move as one, but this type of coordination requires both sailors to have an intimate knowledge of their role and the dynamic balance of the boat. Without further ado, the common positions:

The Skipper (Driver)

The skipper of the boat steers the boat. On different types of boats, they have different trimming and setting responsibilities, most often including the mainsheet--though the 49er is a notable exception. You can call them either a skipper or a driver, but you rarely say that ‘you skipper;’ instead, you would say that ‘you drive,’ so the latter term has begun to stick as the position as well.

As they are the person driving the boat, the driver tends to make the final tactical decision. They do this in collaboration with the crew, who is often going to be feeding information about the course and competitors to the driver, but the final decision comes down to the person holding the stick (forgive the vernacular, if you may).

Different double-handed teams often have different dynamics. In some, the driver will primarily be focused on tactics, while the crew has to keep their head in the boat making it go fast, while in others the skipper lets the crew make such calls while focusing on the breeze right in front of them, it all depends. Boat handling requires nigh on perfect coordination, and skippers must keep their crews alerted to any upcoming maneuvers.  

The unsung heroes of many a double-handed pairing, a good driver can sail well with an ok crew, but a crack crew can take a skipper with some potential to the top of the fleet.

Responsible for trimming the headsail and setting and managing the spinnaker on boats that carry them, the crew’s primary roles is to keep the boat going fast. They often can make the small sail trim and control adjustments that the driver cannot. Especially upwind, the crew scans the course for new breeze, other boats, lay lines, and any information that the skipper could need to make the best decisions possible.

A good way to consider some, but not all, skipper-crew relationships is that the crew can get all the micro-considerations out of the way so that the skipper can focus on the big picture. The small picture adjustments in terms of sail control and angle of heel keep the boat moving and the skipper zippered into the feel of the course. In turn, this allows the skipper to plan ahead and keep the crew involved in decision making, making sure that they don’t screw their crew with a crash tack or sudden gybe.

Still, on some teams, the crew makes all of the outside the boat decisions while the driver just drives the boat as fast as they can. This often works with spacier skippers, of which there are many, and highlights the value of a strong-willed crew. Crews are often on-the-water coaches for high-strung skippers and are key to the success of a team. On more athletic boats, a crew can crucially contribute to boat speed and handling through trimming, ooching, and body-weight adjustments.

All of this is to say that a crew, both as a single person on a double-handed boat and as an ensemble on larger boats, is never to be considered an accessory to the skipper, but are crucial parts of a competitive racing team.

The Three or Four Person Boat: I Thought That Was Your Job!

Having outlined the general dynamics of a skipper-crew pairing, it is not particularly helpful to discuss exact boat setups and interactions. From here, we will provide terms and positions with general roles. These are all subject to change, but once you reach boats of three or more people, roles become highly specialized, as boats of this size begin to get complex enough that you cannot do everything on your own. Let’s run through the general roles that must be filled on boats of up to four, with the knowledge that these can be switched around and combined depending on skill, boat setup, and breeze.

Things change yet they stay ever the same. The bigger the boat, the more boat the driver has to deal with, but the role does not fundamentally change. The driver still has their hand on the stick, and, despite the best attempts of various crewmembers, still is the final decision maker on the boat. Sometimes they will trim the mainsheet as well, but other times they will leave this to a member of the crew

The bigger the boat, the less running around the skipper does and the more focused they are on sailing the perfect line through the fleet. Even their ability to scan the course and make tactical evaluations wanes on the bigger boats, as they must put more trust in their crews to make the right reads. They are still ultimately responsible for putting the boat in the right spot, but they are ultimately unable to control everything that is happening on the boat.

Debatably the easiest analog to the crew on a double-handed boat, the bow is, if nothing else, the most likely person on the boat to get soaking wet. Sitting the farthest forward, they are occasionally responsible for trimming the jib--particularly on three-person boats--but primarily have to deal with setting the spinnaker and dealing with front-of-boat controls.

They can play a role calling tactics, breeze, and other boats, but because they are so often busy with the chaos of boat handling in crucial spots and are often far away from the skipper, they mostly need to focus on their role setting the chute and managing the complications near the front of the boat.

Trimmer/Tactician

Often sitting at the hip of the skipper, different boats have different assignments for their trimmers, which can range from main-trimming across the whole course to only touching the spinnaker off the breeze to controlling the jib instead of the bow. Regardless of the particulars, they need to make the adjustments that keep the boat moving fast, and need to be continually in sync with how the skipper wants to sail.

The person in this position is often responsible for communicating details about the course and from the rest of the crew to the driver. Their role gives them more time to look around and make fine adjustments, rather than having a continuous responsibility, so they are in the perfect position to survey the information at hand and collaborate with the skipper on decision making.

On three-person boats, this is generally one person playing both roles in active collaboration with a driver. On certain four-person boats, this can lead to two trimmers who alternate between calling tactics and trimming different sails depending on the leg. Other times, this role is fully bifurcated, with one person trimming and another entirely responsible for looking around and making calls, with only a menial role controlling the sails, but this looks different on every team.

While Nascar has its pit crews, beginning at four-person boats, sailing just has its pit person. As boats get bigger, sails and various lines are more prone to twists, knots, and the generalized snarls that give sailors across the world excuses to flex their famous propensity for swearing.

The pit is responsible for eliminating, or at least minimizing, these disasters via preventative prep. They do not have a conventional job trimming sails, per se, but they are the ones who make sure that everyone else can the sails set cleanly. They prefeed sheets, ‘run the tapes’ on off-the-breeze sails to make sure they aren’t twisted and are notorious neat freaks. They often are responsible for raising and lowering sails around mark roundings; these events are almost always chaotic and never go according to plan, so it is the pit who has to coordinate the chaos as much as possible and clean up the mess in time for the next explosion. Unheralded, often stuck below decks, the pit can be the difference between a boat running smoothly and a stream of curses over a huge gash in a thousand dollar spinnaker.

Now This Is Getting Ridiculous: The Road to Specialization

As of this point, we have covered the key roles on just about any sized boat. As you get to bigger and more specialized boats, the situations will call for more and more crew members doing increasingly focused work. While having talented sailors on a larger boat is no less important than having them on a smaller dinghy, there are simply not that many parts that have to be moving all the time to fully occupy more than a few people at a time.

Still, when they are needed, during gybes, mark roundings, sets, and douses, these extra crew members are crucial. On certain boats, there is an entire position dedicated to trimming the twings during gybes; the position is only slightly more serious than the sound of the ropes. Still, the other crew members are so busy during the gybes that they need the extra pair of hands. Furthermore, having a sharp sailor in a position like that ensures another pair of eyes and hands to spot problems and step in if needed. Knowledge and quick action are unlikely to go unappreciated on any boat, even if it is only in a very specific setting.

There is, however, one more term for extra crew members on boats of this size, and it is distinctly unspecialized: meet the ‘rail meat.’ On sufficiently big boats, where heeling is slow but a fact of life, every now and then you just need a big ole guy to sit on the edge and hang out to windward. A flat boat is a fast boat, and sometimes you just need someone hanging out over the rail, skilled and mobile or not.

Finally, on high-performance boats, like America’s Cup boats or the new-fangled SailGP league, rail meat is replaced by ‘grinders,’ who specialize in turning hydraulic cranks like they’re in a CrossFit gym. Sometimes drawn from other sports, famously including rugby players on New Zealand’s America’s Cup team, grinders may not have the tactical acumen to step into a single-handed boat and win the day, but they are key pieces to winning teams and are no less a sailor than anyone else.

Hopefully, next time you go down to the water and someone tells you they need someone to run their bow, this has done enough for you to know exactly what you’ve gotten yourself into! Happy sailing!

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Gabriel Hannon

I have been sailing since I was 7 years old. Since then I've been a US sailing certified instructor for over 8 years, raced at every level of one-design and college sailing in fleet, team, and match racing, and love sharing my knowledge of sailing with others!

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Sailing Team Communication with Champion Sailor Dave Ullman

Dave won three 470 world championships with his crew Tom Linskey and he credits his “total faith in (Tom’s) ability to handle tactics, which allowed (Dave) to focus on making the boat go fast”.

In general, when sailing upwind, the skipper is in charge of boatspeed, with the crew playing a mechanical role in that part, mainly handling the jib. The skipper also deals with boat-to-boat tactics. The crew is normally in charge of big-picture tactics as well as keeping tabs on the compass—headers and lifts—and velocity changes. For instance, let’s say you’re sailing on port tack approaching a group of starboard tackers. The crew tells the skipper what they should do—either go behind the group and set up on the group’s weather hip or tack ahead and to leeward of the group and lead them to a header or area of better velocity. The skipper then figures out where to place the boat to make it happen.

This is the division of duties that Dave thinks works well, but each team has to honestly consider their strengths and adjust accordingly, considering personalities and experience.

Next, the team needs to focus on getting so familiar with their duties that they become second nature. Recently, my brother Jeff Hudson and I were talking about skipper / crew communications in the C-Scow. The best crews can anticipate when a tack is likely to happen based on traffic, laylines, headers, etc and will have their hands on the controls to make the tack without needing to be told. As the tack begins, the crew can feel the turn and jump to action. As Dave says, “your senses tell you how the boat is going. If you don’t have to concentrate on physically sailing the boat, you can concentrate on the chess game that is happening around you”.

In boats such as the 470 (or 420, E-Scow, A-Scow etc.) that includes a jib and spinnaker, Dave shares this downwind guidance.

Downwind, the roles are clear and fixed, because flying the spinnaker is a full-time job for the crew. A good downwind crew never knows where they are on the course. They might be able to spare a glance every two minutes or so to see where the other boats are, but in between those, they shouldn’t have any idea what’s going on and must have total faith in the skipper’s ability to put the boat in the proper place. While the crew deals with the spinnaker, the skipper becomes the eyes of the boat, watching the compass for shifts and keeping an eye out for velocity changes.

Onboard Conversation

Dave shared some great examples of concise, precise exchanges using consistent terminology might sound:

There’s very little talking except to alert your partner to expect something. Upwind, you might hear Annie tell Bri, “ Going good. Nice call on that shift. ” Or, “ Need a little more report on the compass. ” Or she might ask, “ What do you see for pressure ahead? ” It’s important to make comments precise, accurate and brief. That’s something we’re always working on. Comments need to be a minimum of words because, in the heat of battle, the person you’re talking to only hears a part of what you’re saying.

With a good team, they won’t be discussing how the boat is being sailed. They shouldn’t have to do so at this stage. There will be nothing like “We need to sail the boat flatter” or “Bring the jib in a bit more.”

When Things Go Wrong

When things go badly, the crew’s job is to keep the skipper’s head in the hunt or get it back there.  I can understand how skippers can take mistakes hard, since they are ultimately responsible. Dave Ullman has some tips:

The right words of encouragement do a lot to keep the skipper from getting into that psychological place where he or she can no longer focus. Sometimes you can do that by setting smaller, achievable goals, such as, “ Let’s get the boat in front of us. ” The crew can also highlight what’s working, even though it might not be a huge game-changer. For instance, pointing out that, “ We just gained on that last tack ” can help set the stage for even more positive outcomes. By the same token, the crew can also provide key information about point standings in the regatta. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen a team leading a regatta throw it all away on a flyer because they got behind in one race, when all they had to do was pass two or three boats to still be in it. When it’s going badly, the skipper especially must be more focused and concentrate even harder. The crew can help make that happen.

The original article can be found on Sailing World here .

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8 Tips For the First Time Sailboat Racer

By: Pat Reynolds Learn To Sail , Sailing Fun

Once you get through the ASA 101 course and are beginning to experience sailing in a more second nature sort of way, you may want to challenge yourself to a sailboat race. Racing is a great way to accelerate the learning curve. It mandates all of the lessons into a short amount of time, with the power of consequence as a motivating factor. On a normal round the buoy race sailors are forced to make sail changes, tack , assess the conditions and maximize performance every step of the way. Some don’t care for the pressure it can bring about, but a few sailboat races is great for learning the ropes quickly. Here are eight tips for the first time sailboat racer that will make the challenge a bit more manageable and a little less daunting :

• Choose the right race Ask around and pick a race that’s not ultra competitive. There are always races that are more mellow than others. Choose one that is centered around fun, maybe a benefit regatta or a barbecue race. Allow some time to get ready and view it as a learning goal. Ask a racer along for the ride.
• Ask a racer along for the ride Find an experienced racing friend to crew and be your safety net. Nothing will take the edge off more than having a patient pal along with you to whisper in your ear as you make your way around the course. Lean on him or her as you need, but try to manage as if they were actually just crew.
• Enter non-spin class. Even if your boat has a nice spinnaker and you’ve used it a bunch of times, do the first race without that complication. Depending on what kind of boat you’re sailing you might not have a choice, but if you do, go spinnaker-less for the first couple of times out to get the rules figured out.
• Learn the fundamental rules Sailboat racing is fortunately one of those sports where you don’t have to learn every rule in order to participate, but you do have to know the basics. Check out Peter Isler’s Sailing for Dummies or Getting Started in Sailboat Racing to get up to speed on the absolute must-know rules. Once you have those pretty clear you can get out there and get some on-the-job-training without hurting anyone or spoiling anyone else’s day.

• Read the NORs Make sure you grab the Notice of Race on the website of the hosting club and read it thoroughly. This precious document will tell you lots of important information for game day. It will discuss the course(s), order of starts, communication channel and lots more. Looking at them prior to the race and having a solid understanding of what’s going on is extremely important. Go to the skipper’s meeting.
• Go to the skipper’s meeting Lots of experienced racers might skip the skipper’s meeting for races they’ve done before, but as a newbie, definitely schedule that into the plan. There you can solidify your understanding of the NORs and ask any questions you might have.
• Blow the start If you’ve done everything according to plan up until this point you may feel like you could actually win this thing! That may be so, but don’t push too hard at the start. This is the one place that gets reliably intense – boats are very close to each other and a firm understanding of the rules is on full display. In time you’ll find this is one of the most exciting parts of racing, but in the beginning, watch and learn.
• Follow the leader Once you’re off the start line and there isn’t any fiberglass dangling from your boat, just watch what others are doing and emulate. If you like racing, there will be plenty of time for waxing the fleet, but today just be a copycat. Watch what better sailors do and attempt to understand why they are making these choices. There is arguably no better way to learn than immersion and imitation.

After the last race, the most important lesson of all is revealed – that beer tastes better after a day of racing. It’s a scientific fact – Einstein proved it, but it was never published… Enjoy!

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