Get your priorities straight!

 

As the old saying goes, you can't do everything at once. You can't be in two places at the same time. And you can't have your cake and eat it, too. The game of life requires that you make choices. Sometimes these are easy to make; sometimes they're hard. But in almost everything you do, the quality of your choices will have a large impact on the success (or failure) of your effort.

In sailboat racing, we have to make choices all the time. Should you go left or right? Tack now or wait three minutes? Trim the main harder or tighten the back­stay? Jibe set or bearaway?

To be successful, you must be a good decision-maker. And in om» in, make good decisions, you need to have your priorities straight.

Setting priorities means that you put your possible choices in some sort of order. For example, let's say you are in second place going down the final run of your next fleet race. You could decide to attack the leader and try to win the race, or you could defend your second place against the third-place boat. Which will you choose? It depends on a lot of factors, including your relative boat speed, the personalities of the other two skippers, your series score, (he ability of your crew, and so on.

It may be that you've finished second in your season series for the last three years, and this year you've decid­ed you will go all out to win. In I hat case, your priority may be to do what­ever you can to win this race.

Here's a real-life example where setting priorities played a key role. If you watched the last race of the '95 America's Cup Defense Trials, you may remember that on Mighty Mary we had a four-minute lead over Stars & Stripes when we started the final three-mile run to the finish.

Though we planned to cover S&S, we had basically two choices: we could protect (i.e. keep our air clear ahead of S&S on) the left side or the right side (looking downwind). The left side was attractive because the wind had shifted far enough right that port jibe was twice as long as starboard. However, the right side was also tempt­ing because it looked like a little more pressure there.

It was an interesting situation because two basic rules of thumb were in conflict (sail the longer jibe first versus stay in the best velocity). Because the wind had been quite shifty that day, I chose to sail the longer jibe first. I couldn't bear the thought of letting S&S get their air ahead of us on the long jibe to the finish.

However, that was probably a mistake. The light and dying breeze had done two things: First, it widened the jibing angles considerably and meant we weren't close to laying the finish on either jibe (thereby negating the geometry factor somewhat). Second, it put more of a priority on finding even a small increase in wind velocity.

Here was a perfect example where a change in conditions (i.e. wind velocity) should have changed our priorities. In seven or more knots of wind, it usually pays to protect the longer jibe. However, 4-5 knots was a different story.

Below are a bunch of graphs showing the tradeoffs between different race fac­tors under various conditions. The point here is to demonstrate the need to prioritize and to show that priorities change when conditions (e.g. wind velocity, boatspeed, stage of race) change.

Keep in mind that each of these gi -aphs shows only one variable (on the x axis). In reality, our racing decisions are made in a complicated, multi­dimensional environment. However, if you can start thinking about priorities in this way, it will simplify things and help you become a much bet­ter "prioritizer." You still won't be able to have your cake and eat it, too, but at least you will make a better choice more of the time.




Strategy is the plan you make for how to sail around the course as quickly as possible, while tactics are the moves you make to implement your strategy and control your competition. You always have a choice about the relative importance you give to each of these. On a run, for example, let's say you are sailing on the headed jibe. A pack of three boats just behind you is going the opposite way. Should you jibe to cover them or continue until the next shift?

The answer depends on a number of factors. Here I've graphed your rough priorities based on where you are in the race. As you can see, early in the race you generally want to focus more on strategy and less on tactics. As you get closer to the finish and the fleet spreads out, you can afford to give more of your atten­tion to the boats around you.

Here's another situation where two rules of thumb sometimes come into conflict. In general, on a beat you want to sail in. clear air and also stay on the lifted tack. It's nice when you can do both of these, but what if you can't? What if you could sail either on the lifted tack or in clear air? Which would you choose?

It depends on your priorities at the moment, of course. Here are mine for varying wind strength: In light air, being in another boat's wind shadow can be deadly, so I usually choose clear air over strategy. In a breeze, however, you can often sail in bad air without losing too much. So in that situation I would choose the lilted tack over clear air.

When the wind is relatively steady, it doesn't matter so much where you go as long as you arc always going fast. In shifty breezes, however, it's more impor­tant to go the right way because the gains you can make from the shifts will far surpass any gains you might make from boatspeed.

Consider this example: You leave the dock a little late for your next big race and arrive at the course area only about 20 minutes before your start. Do you spend that time Inning up with one of your competitors or sailing around the course to get wind readings? It depends. If the wind is fairly steady, focus on speed. If it's shifty, however, collect as much data as you can.

Above I explained how you might prioritize strategy and tactics over the course of a race. It's not really so simple, however, because other factors come into play.

For example, another variable that affects your rel­ative focus on strategy and tactics is your boatspeed. If you arc slow, you will generally lose most boat-on-boat situations, so it's better to make going the right way your priority. When you're fast, however, stay near otiu'r boats so they can't gain on you strategically.

Note that in every graph shown there is a point where the two lines cross each other. This middle area can be the toughest because there is no clear priority.

Half way down the first run of your next race you

start to get lifted. Because the wind is oscillating, you know it's time to jibe. However, you see better wind pressure straight ahead. Should you stay on the lifted tack to get to the puff, or jibe onto the header?

This tradeoff is not so easy to figure out. Generally, in fighter winds you should favor increased velocity because that will make a relatively large difference to your boatspeed, both upwind and downwind.

In heavier air, go for the shift because you may already be at hull speed and a velocity increase will not help you much, if at all. (Note that we could add more variables or priorities - e.g. current - here if we want.)

David Dellenbaugh, former starting helmsman for America3, publishes Speed&Smarts, a monthly newsletter of how-to information for racing sailors. For subscription information call: 800-356-2200. To order a new subscription, click