How to Win

Shake it up

From expert training tips to unusual race formats, Jon Emmett shares his advice for getting the most from racing at club level

Club sailing is the grass roots of our sport and the key to our future success. It provides sociable, fun, safe racing and is the introduction to racing for many, long before open meetings or class training. Even if you are not an overly competitive person, racing is a great way to see how much PHOTOS JON EMMETT; SPORTOGRAPHY.TV your sailing has improved. Don’t be daunted by the rules; they are there to avoid boat-on-boat contact, so that everyone ends up with the same amount of gel coat on their boat as they started with – which is particularly relevant on busy start lines and mark roundings.

Learning from the top

In handicap races it is great if there are several boats out in your class to benchmark your sailing. Enthusiasm is infectious and it is amazing how a simple WhatsApp reminder of up-coming racing, or a write up of a previous race online can encourage more people to participate. Larger fleets not only mean closer and more exciting racing, but better preparation for open meetings or even national championships. Some of the best sailors come from very active sailing clubs because learning is accelerated in these environments.

To gain from and also progress the quality of the fleet, a buddy system can work really well, pairing the most experienced members of the club with those new to the fleet, either informally - someone helps with your rig settings, or perhaps gives advice for launch and recovery - or more formally - perhaps a prize for the most improved mentor-mentee pair, or a combined score series.

Another good incentive for improvement is a personal handicap. This can be calculated alongside a main series: the better the people perform in the main series, the more their personal handicap is reduced, giving, at least in theory, everyone an equal chance of winning the personal handicap series.

Making the most of our top club sailors will also encourage them

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Club racing is a great way to raise your game, regardless of your experience level

to race at the club. Rather than be worried that they take things too seriously (remember, the rules are there to keep sailing a noncontact sport, which is good for everyone) or unbeatable (shifty/ gusty conditions can a be great leveller), take the golden opportunity to learn from them: What is it that makes them successful? Is it their mental approach? Is it their rig set up? You may be surprised, but most will readily share: the higher the standard at the club, the more the top sailors themselves get pushed, and the better they will do when racing away from the club.

The top sailors at your club can be used to gauge your performance and set yourself targets. Knowing your weaknesses is vital. Some may be obvious like fitness; the harder you hike/trapeze the faster you will go, all things being equal. We gain more from working on weaknesses than strengths. If, for example, you do well in strong winds, only training and racing in strong winds will mean your strengths get stronger, and nature. Hike or trapeze just as hard in a club race as you would if you were winning a championship race!

because you don’t work on them, your weaknesses get weaker.

Pre-race priorities

Make time to get afloat early to test the course and do a quick prerace warm-up (like in athletics), rather than only just making, or perhaps even missing, the start.

Time permitting, ideally you want to sail a whole lap of the course, if for no other reason to be absolutely sure where the marks are. Not knowing where the first mark is can be disastrous!

Prioritising time for a pre-race routine is your chance to get a little extra practice in every single week and also do a good warm-up for the race, which is a standard part of preparation for elite sport and should be the same for club racing. See below for some ideas to practise.

A good start is an important part of a good result. In light winds allow plenty of time to get to the start line, and in the medium to strong winds to practise your techniques. Your body doesn’t want to go from 0 to 100 per cent work rate all in one go.

You need to train by pushing hard on the club start line, just like you need to at championships, so you form good habits that become second

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Build time into your pre-race routine to perfect the basics

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Practice your time and distance skills at every opportunity

What to practise and when to test yourself

Holding position

Every race - Even before the start line is set you can practise holding position by a mark and then ‘trigger pulling’ (accelerating from a standstill) to see in the given conditions how long it takes you to get up to full speed and how easy it is to hold your position (how quickly you drift along/over/back from the line). You can know the current, know the wind, but actually doing the routine will help you sort out your time and distance.

Roll tacks

Light winds - This is absolutely a top skill. Big, smooth tacks are key here. The first tack off the line (whether you can cross or have to duck) can be crucial. Tacking practice can also be a great physical warm up.

Gybes

Strong winds - As a minimum prerace, you need to make sure you do a spinnaker hoist, gybe and drop to ensure that everything is well set-up, and respect the bear away. One of the biggest issues in strong winds is confidence, so getting a few gybes out of the way early can help a lot. Maybe start safe and then gradually push it harder to see how close you can get to the limit.

Two-boat tuning

Any wind - Two-boat tuning can be really useful to make sure that you have your rig set up correctly for the

conditions. You can either line up an equal distance upwind with two or three boat lengths between you, shout "3,2,1 go" and both sheet in and sail upwind at the same time to compare speed and pointing; or you can start with a rabbit start, with the rabbit tacking after three boat lengths.

Course testing

Any large course - With your training partner (now you are of similar speeds!) Here, rather than one boat going hard left and one going hard right, you want to make an ‘8’ shape (or two diamonds). So, sail for two minutes on port with the other boat on starboard, then both tack and sail for four minutes, crossing in the middle, then both tack again and sail for another two minutes. This way, both boats have the opportunity to go left and right and you can see if, for example, the right is paying due to pressure/current, or maybe it is just about being in phase with the breeze.

Other ways to gain

After racing, stay and have a beer, chat and get to know your fellow club members. You may learn some new techniques, improve your old ones or even get the opportunity to try out different boats.

While you’re there, why not discuss other types of racing you might want to explore as a group? Competition often brings out the best in us, because it forces us to care more about the end result. Interclub competitions can be great fun – perhaps organise a local series with the top three sailors' results from each club determining the winner.

Racing doesn’t always have to be everyone has something to learn.

Continuing this theme, ‘fast and furious’ days at the club can be great. Analysis showed that the finishing order in most classes at the 2020 Olympics was almost identical to the average first windward mark position, showing something we intuitively know: starts and first beats are really important. So, for example, rather than just doing 2 x 1 hour races, why not do 8 x 15 minute races? Everyone will learn more and you will probably see, if only for one or two races, different people at the front/back of the fleet than normal. The key skill here is to be consistent, which means risk management, so going for good not great starts (and mitigating the chance of the very poor starts), being really careful on laylines, port tack windward mark approaches and other high potential loss areas of the race course. To add even more pressure, make it a no discard series!

Rather than a normal 5,4,1-go sequence, using a 2,1-go can keep the waiting to an absolute minimum; the 2 minute can start when the last boat finishes, another good reason to keep up - if you finish top then you get more rest between races, which is vital in medium to strong airs.

Finally, clubs need to be an open and welcoming place to come to. The signs which say ‘members only’ could be replaced with ‘new members welcome’. Barriers, real or imagined, to both sailing and racing need to be removed and all - young, old, novice, expert - should be encouraged to come to the club and indeed race whenever possible. Wherever we ourselves stand in that, it’s important to do play our part.

formal: rabbit starts (one boat goes on port close-hauled course and the rest of the fleet pass behind, then the rabbit tacks) mean you can start races without a committee boat, for example. Really encourage the top sailors to come and join; everyone gets an equal chance off the line which makes it fun and interesting. eSailing is now also a part of many sailing clubs, a habit carried over from lockdown – great for during the winter. It can be run as an official club series, or as a one-off if a weekend is blown off. The social aspect remains important and a Zoom meeting running alongside can work really well in discussing why a tactic works, or just providing friendly banter.

Perhaps one of the most fun aspects of our sport is team racing; I would love to see this at more clubs. The short sharp races are excellent for boat handling and tactics, and fit in especially well in the winter months as it avoids prolonged lengths of time on the water. Take advantage of the more experienced members of the club to balance teams and super close racing;

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Two boat tuning with a buddy is a great way to learn

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Trying out unusual formats such as sprint racing is not only fun, but allows you to focus on different aspects of your sailing

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