Commitment, Preparation, Procedures, Strategy, Tactics, Focus, Communication, Evaluation, Teamwork and fun in SB20 Racing. The author is a mature amateur sailor that struggles to be in the top 30% of a competitive fleet of aprox. 20 SB20 teams in Cascais, Portugal. He loves to sail monotypes and his dream is to win. He had the good fortune of being SB20 National champion in 2007 as a bowman crewing for a truly great local sailor. But with an old boat, bad back and a low budget, it is not easy and every weekend is a humbling exercise of self-improvement and joy.
This article was written with the objective of explaining and translating the dynamics of dinghy sailing to company success for non-sailors or entry level sailors.
Oh well, where do I start?
Let´s start with commitment. There has to be an enthusiasm and a will to do well, and to sacrifice other aspects of life (or weekends) to dedicate oneself to an objective or a mission. In a nutshell – commit time and some savings. Then, just look in the mirror before racing and tell yourself some Obama inspirational words or listen to some favorite music to hype you up on your way to the Club. Just commit to doing your very best. Stay motivated! Evolving takes years and every set back has a lesson to be learned. Every race is a new race.
Let´s talk about preparation now. Every “hardware” aspect or function of a boat has to be “shipshape”. All systems, rigging, appendages, lines, sails etc must be in perfect order. The notion that you did everything possible ashore to guarantee smooth sailing is crucial. Budgetary constraints often dictate the age of equipment and its replacement. But “elbow grease” and handy hands solve many problems and get you ready for racing.
Procedures are vital in any boat or company. On the boat there are only about 10 maneuvers and events once you get going:
- starting
- sailing upwind
- tacking
- rounding marks
- hoisting spinnaker
- sailing downwind
- gybing
- lowering spinnaker
- rounding marks
For each maneuver or procedure there is a standard approach that does not vary too much. In reality it is the most efficient and easy way of getting things done, after much trial and error. If someone has a better idea of any improvement on a procedure I am very happy to try it. We do everything almost in automatic mode as a team. Teamwork to be addressed latter.
Oh boy, strategy! We could go all theoretical on this, but basically on a race course you evaluate the local conditions and decide to go left or right, middle or sides of the regatta, and hope that you are alert and lucky with the wind shifts.
Tide and clouds also play an important role. The funny thing is that the lucky ones are almost always the same ones…
Tactics is fun. You have your strategy in function of the local conditions and then you start racing. Someone tacks in front of you or blocks you from tacking, so you adjust your course in function of others. Often, the key objective is not to hit anyone, avoid collisions or messy situations, so you focus your energy in being fast. Having an asymmetrical spinnaker makes the SB20 run downwind quite openly and allows incredible recoveries. Some other boat classes just follow each other downwind in a cue.
This is where the focus comes in. Your focus is to sail fast, steering and tuning the boat, taking advantage of every gust and wave to get you in front of the fleet. If you are very focused on all these factors and at the same time able to sail in a relaxed fashion, you will survive three one-hour races a day and have great fun. Do not get too distracted with secondary aspects inside or outside of the boat and let each of your buddies help you and worry about their tasks, (this is one of my faults, looking out and in, instead of being hyper-concentrated on speed, waves and angle of the heel).
Communication is probably the most important factor. Each member of the crew has a set of functions and cannot execute them without the other members cooperating and being informed. So, telling people what is happening and what is probably going to happen in the next minutes gets everybody ready for successful maneuvering.
There will be a few races where everything goes well (race starts, roundings etc), so any member of the crew that has some sort of difficulty or glitch lets the others know and often gets helped to solve the problem. One way of making people aware of the difficulties is switching roles. As a bowman for many years, perhaps, I try to understand my crew´s difficulties and help them often.
We are all different ashore or on land with personalities that differ and on a boat you usually want:
- Bowman with courage, speed, strength, focus and good temper. Ideally with 4 arms.
- Tactician with foresight, intelligence, intuition, strength and focus (luck also good)
- Helmsman with deep pockets, focus, obedient to the tactician or bowman and prudent. Also someone calm who motivates the others, tells a few jokes and DOES NOT YELL, as many old sailors do or did, when things don´t go as planned, he is able to raise the morale and get everybody in a positive mood.
So, for proper teamwork these different personalities, communicating well, complete and help each other. No one has all these characteristics and the old saying “the whole is greater than the sum of all the parts” applies. People with a big ego or negative outlook are not welcome on my boats.
Evaluation is perhaps ignored too often. When we finish a weekend of racing or a championship we are tired and usually very happy. The adrenalin and focus make it impossible to think about life´s ugly aspects and problems. The back aches require rest and a few drinks at the Club´s bar. However, the team must ask themselves: what mistakes did we make, how could we have avoided a specific problem, and mainly how can we do better next time.
As I finish this attempt at describing one of my life´s greatest pleasure I must go and inspect the boat, and get ready for the Portuguese Nationals late June in-between Zooms, Skypes, Whatapps, etc, etc.. and keep dreaming about beating my friends and winning!
For me, amateur sailing is a bit like karaoke: it is not about singing perfectly, but having fun singing and trying to get better every day.
André Gray –Cascais Fleet Captain
SB20 POR3256 TLEVEL.PT
May 2024
Photo credits: Bow media, Luis Fráguas, João Saraiva Mendes