Wake up and Go Racing

Go for a walk around any marina on a Saturday afternoon and you will be struck by the numbers of boats sitting idle in their pens or swinging on their moorings. It always surprises me that these craft sit indolent weekend after weekend. In my line of work I come across all the spectrum of boat owners. From hard-core racing sailors to long distance cruisers, but easily the biggest group would be the recreational sailor. This individual or couple that own the boat see themselves as fun sailors who wants to have a bit of a jaunt with friends on a leisurely afternoon sail or even partake in the odd twilight race. Mention weekend racing and they recoil in horror, no way they can deal with all that angst and screaming with boats crashing and bashing. Let alone the cost of keeping up with the true racers and their arms race mentality as they turn up with their paid hands and the latest genetically engineered tungsten fibred 6th dimensional mainsail. Not for me they say!
But there are a myriad of reasons why these recreational sailors should embrace the racing aspect of our sport. One of the main ones is nearly all these people have a longer term plan, which usually involves a significant undertaking like a major voyage, once they become more competent and confident as seafarers.
Better sailors.
The fact is they will become better sailors with participation in some aspect of racing. It will be beneficial for them and their boat’s integrity. Some of the highest profile cruising sailors readily admit they learn more on the race course in a few days racing than months of sailing around at a leisurely pace. First of all you will be tested; races are run in all conditions and around set marks, there is no shirking a big gust or taking the easy route. You and your boat will be tried and as a result the learning curve greatly enhanced. Once you have made a commitment to meet up with your crew you are much more likely to sail in inclement weather. A bit like having to get out of bed for that early run to meet someone rather than snuggling further under the doona. You will learn a lot more about getting through tough conditions on the race course than lazing on a Sunday afternoon, as the song goes.
Take it gradually.
When beginning to race, you can ease in slowly. You can pick and choose your race courses and just do the less demanding ones. Most of the yacht clubs will have a variety of racing to appease all levels; you don’t have to do every one, just those that suit your situation. It can really be no different from a cruise in company depending on your mindset. A leisurely sail around some marks with other boats and some added interest with results at the end.
The start of a yacht race is the one that seems to create the most anxiety. Well you don’t have to be gung-ho in your approach, you can simply keep away and sail through the line after the bulk of the fleet has started. A lot of long-time racing sailors follow this approach (some that don’t actually intend to) and it makes for a quite minimum fuss start with no hassles. After a little while you and your crew will become familiar with your boat’s nuances and begin to move closer and closer to the line as the starting gun fires or even to start on the line in the less congested areas.
Crew
Another reason for non-participation is the need for of a lot crew, well if you have enough crew to go for a sail then you have enough to race. There is no absolute need for teams of gorillas to run up and down the boat trimming, roll tacking and sail changing. You can race as you cruise! If you are shorthanded you don’t need to fly that spinnaker or push your vessel really hard. You can take a few rolls in the furling genoa and take in a reef or two to make it easier, remember what I said earlier about improving your boat-handling skills?
Cost
The cost of racing does not need to be prohibitive in order to be competitive, for all the whinging and wailing that “real” racers carry on about arbitrary handicaps (your scribe included). It does serve a great levelling purpose in regard to the arms race mentality. After a few races your handicap will reflect your performance so far as it levels out, with the crew numbers, older sails and less physical sailing taken into account. The whole process of arbitrary handicapping is to reward improvement over your past results. So you will eventually find an appropriate handicap and will find yourself moving up the scoreboard as you improve, which you will.
Insurance
Extra Insurance for racing can be easily added to your cover, this in most cases would cover up to 100 miles offshore and may require a higher premium and excess but that is to be expected and well worth the mental reassurance
Social
Participating in your local races will greatly enhance your social contacts around the club as you converse on the anecdotes from that days racing over refreshing ale. As a result of this contact your knowledge base will broaden further and one thing about sailors, they like to spend time in each other’s company.
So seriously consider getting out there and dipping your toes in the waters of the racecourse. It will only help your sailing knowledge, boat handling skills and preparation.

Don’t just own it, sail it!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spiinaker Drops Part 2

Image
Add caption Last edition we spoke about the need to have a default program to dropping our spinnaker. Develop this and practise it.  As the competence level increases so does our ability to incorporate more complicated manoeuvres into our spinnaker dropping techniques. The first variation is the Port side windward drop discoursed last time which enhances the boats tactical options and reduces the need for a lot of the spinnaker packing/ tidying up around the boat. It is really refreshing as part of an afterguard to have a crew that can respond quickly to a simple call from the back when approaching the mark. If they can respond to a change of mind at the last minute it is even better. Regular enthusiastic crew and practise is needed to reach this level. So let’s have a look at a few more variations The Kiwi Drop Mostly used on asymmetric spinnaker boats. Called a Mexican drop in the northern hemisphere, it is a procedure where the spinnaker is dropped as the boat is gy...
Read more
Image
Losing the kite A lot can go wrong on the race track and retrieving the spinnaker is one area that is fraught with danger and too often goes wrong. A successful drop relies on a few key points. It is a drill that involves multiple crewmembers all working in synchronisation. They must all be able to do their roles in the right sequence. So allow a lot of time for each to do their job. One of the bigger issues these days is to find regular crew and this can be a real problem for a lot of racing boats. If you have a chopping and changing of the guard on a regular basis then it is important to have a default setting for your spinnaker work. This would entail a tried and true retrieval system that is fairly safe. A familiar dousing technique enables you to incorporate a few newbies into their roles with a minimum of fuss. Be precise with your instructions of when and where they need to be and what they need to do and look out for them. You can work all this out doing very conservativ...
Read more

Turbo sailing, using your staysail

Image
More and more on the race course we are seeing staysails becoming increasingly prevalent again. Once upon a time the staysail was a very popular sail. In the days of the RORC rule in the late 60’s it was commonplace for every serious racer to have a reaching rig of overlapping staysail and a series of yankee’s for different wind conditions. In the IOR days that followed there spawned a whole range of “under the spinnaker” style staysails, mostly sporting ridiculous names; Tall Boys, Lazy Boy’s, Golden Dazy Staysails and even the ubiquitous Blooper and numerous others as all sorts of combinations and rigs were tried. As the IMS and later the IRC rules came along, the staysails narrowed down to two main groups, sensibly called the Spinnaker Staysail for off wind work and the Genoa Staysail as the name implies for closer to the wind. The use of these sails requires a lot of thought and attention, if not used correctly they can slow a boat down drastically, but when used ac...
Read more