Asymmetric techniques: How to survive the gybe

Trevor Baylis shares with us the secrets of his success.

Andy Rice speaks to Trevor Baylis (left), reigning International 14 World Champion, and 2002 18-Foot Skiff World Champion about his gybing technique.

Gybing is one of the toughest and most critical elements of skiff sailing, but here Trevor discusses some of the techniques he uses, that will help make heavy-air gybing a whole lot safer.

Last in, first out
Whatever type of skiff you’re gybing, I’m a firm believer that the helm should be last person in and first person out. My thinking on this is that, like in mountain biking, it’s better to be completely out of control for a tenth of a second than vaguely out of control for 10 seconds. So if the helmsman can minimise his time through the boat, the safer you’ll all be.

It also means that the helm is going in and out of the boat when going it is travelling at its slowest, when it’s less likely to bounce or buck around or accelerate too much. It’s much harder for the helm to get out on the new wing with the boat travelling at maximum pace. He’s got that vital moment of calm before it all goes wild again.

A lot of people go into skiffs thinking you’ve got to move as one, but I think it’s pretty important the crew goes in before the skipper, even by just a fraction. As a crew, you have to assume the skipper is going to sail the boat flat through the gybe, that is absolutely vital. But from that point, how quickly the crew goes into the boat is the main factor in determining how fast the boat is going to turn.



If the crew run in slightly before the helm, you can turn less quickly. When I sailed with Zach [Berkowitz, Trevor’s 14 Worlds helmsman, the pair are pictured above], he didn’t like being left out there, but there was a danger of the boat turning too rapidly as we both went through together. So we tried to slow it down a little, with me going first and him just a fraction behind. You should feel like you have time as you go through the boat. If you watch the good crews, that’s how it looks. Everything unloads nicely and the main comes softly across.

Verbal guarantee
One thing I will say to my helmsman in fresh conditions is: “I will be out on the wire on the other side. Don’t stop the turn.” A lot of helms S-turn out of the exit, but this is where you can start to get in trouble. It’s much more comforting for the helm to know he can keep on steering high out of the gybe, knowing that you’re going to be on the wire for him. Even if you can’t guarantee that you’ll have the kite set, at least you’ll be in the wire.

There have been some occasions, like at the 14 Worlds in Bermuda, that it’s been so windy that I’ve not even bothered picking up the new kite sheet. We had the sea wall at the leeward mark and waves coming back at you, and we knew that if we capsized there would be a high chance of breaking the mast. So we just had to be really conservative. We just crossed the boat, we’d both come out with the kite flogging, and get our feet in the foot loops. The boat wouldn’t be going that fast, but we’d be pretty safe. Zach would get settled, and then I’d reach forward and pick up the sheet, set the kite and get going again. If you haven’t tried it, you’ll be amazed just how stable the boat is even with the kite flogging like that.

One thing that I believe is really important for good gybing is consistency. When I started sailing with Zach, we had 97 variations on the theme, but I tried to make it simpler. For the helmsman, it is important that the gybe in six knots is the same as in 30 knots, with the same foot movements and more or less the same routine. When you start having variations it increases the chance of things going wrong. Even if there is a slightly better way of gybing for some wind conditions, you can make up for it with consistency through different circumstances.

This first came to my attention when I watched a video of the windy 49er Worlds in Melbourne in 1999. Adam Beashel’s movements look very choreographed. He did the exact same thing every time. Tina [Baylis, Trevor’s wife and 49er helmswoman] and I realised it was important to have that consistency of movement in the boat.



Ready to Gybe?
Before you gybe, prepare what you need to, before initiating the manoeuvre. On an 18, this is the middleman taking up the slack in the windward gennaker sheet, in the 14 it’s uncleating the jib, in the 49er there’s no real preparation involved.

The next thing is communication, and having a good understanding of what each of you is going to do. I prefer a call of: “Ready, one, two, three,” and then go on the “three”. “Ready” can be halted by the crew, at that point the boat has not started to turn. The crew can so ‘no’ to ‘Ready’, until he really is ready.

From there, the first response is for both helm and crew to reach up for their trapeze wires, as the helm starts to bear off. The most important thing is the helmsman has to start turning before anyone moves otherwise the boat will heel and you’ll get into trouble before you’ve even gybed. When the crew feels the slight unweighting movement as the boat begins to turn, that’s the signal to cross the boat, unhooking with the front hand and giving a quick tug on the old sheet with the back hand; I don’t know why this quick pull on the sheet helps, but it does. Maybe it’s something like shaking the airflow off the gennaker so that it gets easier to gybe it, but it also stops it hourglassing during the manoeuvre.

As I step into the boat, I’ll stay briefly on the windward side until the helmsman is crossing behind me. On the 14 I cross the boat with my new forward hand looking for the handle, and I hook up out on the wire. Hooking up on the side of the boat can be as fast, but if it goes wrong you’re stuck, you’re not giving the helmsman the righting moment he needs to safely complete the turn.

As I’m going out on the handle, I’m also easing the sheet, and getting my back foot in the foot strap, and only then do I hook up. I don’t hook up until the kite is sheeted for acceleration. Don’t ease it until it curls because you don’t want the kite to collapse while you’re hooking up, but set it to within a couple of feet of that.

From the helm’s point of view the gybe is about keeping the boat flat throughout the manoeuvre. That initial bear-off before the crew stands up determines everything. Beyond that you’re not really steering at all, the boat is steering itself. The subtlety is in the first two seconds of the gybe and ensuring that it is done the same way every time on every occasion. It’s really making sure your race gybes feel the same as when you’re practising by yourself, that’s where the consistency comes out.