Life in the Pit
Life in pit lane.
It is generally acknowledged that sailing fast is all about developing and drawing on innate sensory skills, to be able to “feel” the boat and retrim or react to ever changing conditions, ensuring that the yacht is performing to her absolute maximum at all times with the helmsman, trimmers and tactician all focused on the fine nuances to squeeze every single fraction of speed from the boat.
This is all well and good but before we can even contemplate the development and practise of all these sensory skills, it is of little value if the mechanical side of the crew is not functioning. The base level of sailing around a course fast is the boat handling; if this does not function then the whole operation will fall apart. The best steerers and trimmers in the world would find it hard to sail around towing a spinnaker in the water behind them. All crews need to be able to carry out all the manouvers in a race in a competent and precise fashion before we can even think of sailing fast, let alone going the right way.
Working in the pit
The most important member of this mechanical side of sailing is the pitman or halyards person(s), this role can sometimes incorporate several people all working together in this area. I tend to liken this role to an octopus located in the centre of the boat with all its tentacles running to all corners and activities on the boat. He or she is the hub of every significant alteration to the boat from setting a spinnaker to taking in a reef, nothing happens without them playing an important part.
Get Organised
The single most important skill required in the pit/halyards area is organisation; you must be prepared for multiple eventualities. Over the course of a race the pit crew may have to cope with so many different scenarios and have to be on top of them all. You must be prepared at the relevant time to handle-
1/ spinnaker sets, bear away or gyge sets
2/ headsail changes
3/ taking in reefs
4/ spinnaker peels
5/ adjusting halyards during tacks
6/ spinnaker drops of multiple types, float drops, envelope drops etc
7/ spinnaker pole height and angle
8/ making sure the spinnaker is packed or ready to go on the upwind legs
9/ tacking, have you loaded windward winch ready to tack?
10/ sail trimmmer calls, adjustments to cunningham outhaul etc
These are the manouvers that are standard and can prepared for (albeit sometimes changed at the last minute). On top of these consider the situations that arise with no warning like a sail blowout or a roundup. In all these the pitman must be prepared and ready to act and have free an appropriate halyard, change sheet, snatch block, sail tie or whatever to necessitate a prompt and speedy response. It is not an easy job as all this time you are usually being told to keep your weight out on the rail so expediency is important.
Training
It stands to reason that training is absolutely imperative to be able to get on top of these requirements. All the manouvers must be practised over and over again until they become second nature and all the roles and tasks eminating from them are allocated and sorted.
The pit area at a manouver is often a frenzy of activity and sometimes a bit of out-scourcing is required to help out with the multi tasking. It can take sometimes two or three people to sort this out, for example on a spinnaker hoist whilst the pitman is tailing on the halyard as the mastman hoists the sail, someone can be helping on the topping lift or tackline, whilst a third person can be dropping the jib; I personally hate seeing the spinnaker up and stuck to the leeward side of the headsail waiting for it to come down, as one goes up the other should come down.
A good pitman
Needs to be someone who is well organised, reasonably fit and have a good sense of priority, when you are catering to several different parts of the boat, you need to be able to prioritise the sequence that you do these tasks, this is one area that can be addressed in training. If your bowman and your trimmer both have jobs for you that need attending to in the same manouver; then sort out the importance with them and address it; this is the value of training, make sure you train with the urgency you race with so you become aware of these areas.
The pitman is an ideal spot for the competent latecomer to sailing, whilst he or she may not have the dinghy background or years experience of mucking around in boats, they can use their skills to become a very important part of the crew. Women I have found are often ideal in this late coming role; they have an attention to detail and awareness that stands them in good stead.
Some hints
If you are one of the larger (or circumference challenged) members of the crew, delegate the tidying up and adjustments that can’t be done from the rail to someone lighter and more nimble, it is all about making the boat fast and your weight is best on the rail.
Speak to the tactician before the start and sort out the likelihood of what sails are to be used, put these in easily accessible positions.
Spend your spare time downwind flaking all the halyards and sheets so they are ready to run. Be prepared for the unexpected.
Make a mark on your headstay foil and a corresponding mark on your headsail luff so you can emulate the halyard tension used on the previous beat or adjust it to suit the trimmer requirements if the wind or sea conditions have changed.
Always when poised waiting for a call from the tactician or trimmer, make eye contact with him or her; it is a lot more expressive and reliable than having your back to them with a whole lot of noise going on and speculating whether that call was “trip” or “trim”.
If in doubt confirm quickly, it only takes a second and is better than catching everyone unaware. Once confirmed then look forward at the action to control the drop, hoist or whatever is happening.
You are part of the crew, so if you need the use of a particular winch or cleat that is being used then ask for it. The trimmers can usually compromise or the helmsman can sail to a cleated sheet for a few seconds prior to the sail being dropped or raised without using that winch you need. Don’t risk not using a winch to take load when throwing off a clutch, the loads are really big and can do serious damage.
So remember when out there sailing, boat handling is extremely important, we need to get that right before anything else will come together, once mastered to a competent level the trimmers and helm can concentrate on boatspeed and in a fast boat the tactician’s life becomes a whole lot easier. So we have a snowballing effect. Training and having a regular crew are so important to getting this all together. If you can’t train mid week, try and get out on the track early on race day and run through some manouvers in between the tacticians staring at the sky and compass and the trimmers fine tuning the sail shapes and jabbering on about headstay sag and chord depths.
From the moment we start sailing in anything with more than one crew, we need to begin to delegate roles in the crew setup. As the boats become larger and the crew more plentiful so the roles will become more diverse and individual. But always at the hub of it all will be the pitman keeping it all together.
It is generally acknowledged that sailing fast is all about developing and drawing on innate sensory skills, to be able to “feel” the boat and retrim or react to ever changing conditions, ensuring that the yacht is performing to her absolute maximum at all times with the helmsman, trimmers and tactician all focused on the fine nuances to squeeze every single fraction of speed from the boat.
This is all well and good but before we can even contemplate the development and practise of all these sensory skills, it is of little value if the mechanical side of the crew is not functioning. The base level of sailing around a course fast is the boat handling; if this does not function then the whole operation will fall apart. The best steerers and trimmers in the world would find it hard to sail around towing a spinnaker in the water behind them. All crews need to be able to carry out all the manouvers in a race in a competent and precise fashion before we can even think of sailing fast, let alone going the right way.
Working in the pit
The most important member of this mechanical side of sailing is the pitman or halyards person(s), this role can sometimes incorporate several people all working together in this area. I tend to liken this role to an octopus located in the centre of the boat with all its tentacles running to all corners and activities on the boat. He or she is the hub of every significant alteration to the boat from setting a spinnaker to taking in a reef, nothing happens without them playing an important part.
Get Organised
The single most important skill required in the pit/halyards area is organisation; you must be prepared for multiple eventualities. Over the course of a race the pit crew may have to cope with so many different scenarios and have to be on top of them all. You must be prepared at the relevant time to handle-
1/ spinnaker sets, bear away or gyge sets
2/ headsail changes
3/ taking in reefs
4/ spinnaker peels
5/ adjusting halyards during tacks
6/ spinnaker drops of multiple types, float drops, envelope drops etc
7/ spinnaker pole height and angle
8/ making sure the spinnaker is packed or ready to go on the upwind legs
9/ tacking, have you loaded windward winch ready to tack?
10/ sail trimmmer calls, adjustments to cunningham outhaul etc
These are the manouvers that are standard and can prepared for (albeit sometimes changed at the last minute). On top of these consider the situations that arise with no warning like a sail blowout or a roundup. In all these the pitman must be prepared and ready to act and have free an appropriate halyard, change sheet, snatch block, sail tie or whatever to necessitate a prompt and speedy response. It is not an easy job as all this time you are usually being told to keep your weight out on the rail so expediency is important.
Training
It stands to reason that training is absolutely imperative to be able to get on top of these requirements. All the manouvers must be practised over and over again until they become second nature and all the roles and tasks eminating from them are allocated and sorted.
The pit area at a manouver is often a frenzy of activity and sometimes a bit of out-scourcing is required to help out with the multi tasking. It can take sometimes two or three people to sort this out, for example on a spinnaker hoist whilst the pitman is tailing on the halyard as the mastman hoists the sail, someone can be helping on the topping lift or tackline, whilst a third person can be dropping the jib; I personally hate seeing the spinnaker up and stuck to the leeward side of the headsail waiting for it to come down, as one goes up the other should come down.
A good pitman
Needs to be someone who is well organised, reasonably fit and have a good sense of priority, when you are catering to several different parts of the boat, you need to be able to prioritise the sequence that you do these tasks, this is one area that can be addressed in training. If your bowman and your trimmer both have jobs for you that need attending to in the same manouver; then sort out the importance with them and address it; this is the value of training, make sure you train with the urgency you race with so you become aware of these areas.
The pitman is an ideal spot for the competent latecomer to sailing, whilst he or she may not have the dinghy background or years experience of mucking around in boats, they can use their skills to become a very important part of the crew. Women I have found are often ideal in this late coming role; they have an attention to detail and awareness that stands them in good stead.
Some hints
If you are one of the larger (or circumference challenged) members of the crew, delegate the tidying up and adjustments that can’t be done from the rail to someone lighter and more nimble, it is all about making the boat fast and your weight is best on the rail.
Speak to the tactician before the start and sort out the likelihood of what sails are to be used, put these in easily accessible positions.
Spend your spare time downwind flaking all the halyards and sheets so they are ready to run. Be prepared for the unexpected.
Make a mark on your headstay foil and a corresponding mark on your headsail luff so you can emulate the halyard tension used on the previous beat or adjust it to suit the trimmer requirements if the wind or sea conditions have changed.
Always when poised waiting for a call from the tactician or trimmer, make eye contact with him or her; it is a lot more expressive and reliable than having your back to them with a whole lot of noise going on and speculating whether that call was “trip” or “trim”.
If in doubt confirm quickly, it only takes a second and is better than catching everyone unaware. Once confirmed then look forward at the action to control the drop, hoist or whatever is happening.
You are part of the crew, so if you need the use of a particular winch or cleat that is being used then ask for it. The trimmers can usually compromise or the helmsman can sail to a cleated sheet for a few seconds prior to the sail being dropped or raised without using that winch you need. Don’t risk not using a winch to take load when throwing off a clutch, the loads are really big and can do serious damage.
So remember when out there sailing, boat handling is extremely important, we need to get that right before anything else will come together, once mastered to a competent level the trimmers and helm can concentrate on boatspeed and in a fast boat the tactician’s life becomes a whole lot easier. So we have a snowballing effect. Training and having a regular crew are so important to getting this all together. If you can’t train mid week, try and get out on the track early on race day and run through some manouvers in between the tacticians staring at the sky and compass and the trimmers fine tuning the sail shapes and jabbering on about headstay sag and chord depths.
From the moment we start sailing in anything with more than one crew, we need to begin to delegate roles in the crew setup. As the boats become larger and the crew more plentiful so the roles will become more diverse and individual. But always at the hub of it all will be the pitman keeping it all together.
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