Rod Davis
What happens next
The future is always in the hands of those who know how to anticipate – Enzo Ferrari Let’s start sailing in the future. We won’t go a long way, that would be too hard – how about just go forward six seconds or so. That shouldn’t prove to be too difficult. When you do, you will
become very tough to beat for those who choose to stay in the here and now. And an impossible match for those who rely on just numbers from the past. I am talking about how the world’s best sailors really use
instruments and data. You know, all those numbers on the back of the mast that tell you to sail faster or higher. Your VMG in percentages of polar target VMG as developed by some VPP… Often resulting in a final mental WTF number. The best helmsmen and trimmers in the business recognise those numbers in the past. They are what we call ‘old news’. The boat speed you and your trimmers read on the back of the
mast, the one that your life shouldn’t, but does, revolve around, is old news. It has about a six-second average. That blessed number is not telling you how fast you are going – it’s telling you how fast you went in the past. Same with the wind speed, and wind angle. Why does that make a difference? Ah, glad you asked! Because
if we can work in the future, just by that little bit, we will steer better and the boat and crew’s performance will go to the next level. It is what I call racing speed vs testing speed. We have all seen
boats that seem fast before the start in those short line-ups before racing. When it comes to the race they don’t seem fast any more… There are two different beasts: testing or tuning before the start,
and racing among other boats, with different end goals. When you’re testing or tuning the position of the two boats is fair to both boats, and if a boat gets too big of an advantage we
34 SEAHORSE
simply re-line up. In racing there is little fair about boat positioning; and there is no coming back to re-line up! It’s all a spin-off of the two-boat testing world that came out of
one-design and America’s Cup sailing. When you test something, say a new sail, you want to isolate as many variables as best you can. The goal is to see if the new sail is better than the current one. So you set the boat up for the conditions and let her rip. Careful not to make too many adjustments so the only difference is the sail, which is what you want to test. This is as opposed to racing your sailboat where you are
constantly making adjustments for wind, wave and moding. On top of that you’re tacking, gybing and living in uncomfortable positions in relation to other boats. Testing fast and racing slow means you’re losing the transitions.
When the wind or sea conditions change just a little bit, the top racing sailors make their adjustments, not when the change comes, but before it arrives. That is how top sailors make a jump on you when it all seemed fine in the minute before. Racing speed, as in winning the transitions, is achieved by what
I refer to as ‘Anticipate and Act’. Let me explain… What if you knew the boat speed was going to change before it
actually did? What if you made adjustments that caught those speed changes before they swung very far? You can, but it takes practice to be in the future by five seconds. It takes anticipation and action. Think of it this way. You’re walking uphill though the bush. Your
boat speed and instruments tell you where you have been. Like a camera facing behind you. Head down looking at your feet tells you where you are at this moment. And when you look up to see what is coming… ahhh, the future! Convinced? Great, here is the good part where I tell you how to
be in the future. Winning the transitions: where the battle to adjust sails and crew
MAX RANCHI
ROBERT DEAVES
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