Emmett on tactics

The second selection from Jon Emmett's new book, 'Be Your Own Sailing Coach'

Olympic campaigner and sailing coach, Jon Emmett has launched a new book, available in the shops today priced at £14.99.

‘Be Your Own Sailing Coach’ is a book intended to help sailors get the best from their racing and provides information on how to set up a campaign and much more. Running to almost 300 pages this is a lengthy tome that covers, in detail, every aspect of a fully competitive campaign. Below, we have a look at the first part of an extract talking tactics.

Downwind Tactics

Downwind, your tactics as the lead boat are usually heavily dictated by the boat behind you. Often it is simpler to try and keep your air clean and sail as fast as you can! Where possible, encourage those boats around you to work with you to get away from the fleet. Try and avoid getting caught in silly luffing battles (as you may end up sailing back to the windward mark), unless you are trying to slow the other boat down (and are not worried about slowing yourself down).



Often the best opportunity to overtake comes at a mark, where you can possibly gain water or slow down and capitalise on someone else’s bad mark rounding. As the attacker you always need to think about whether you are going to overtake to windward or leeward. Remember, in an effort to stay in front, the defending boat may well end up slowing you both down. As a defending boat you want to keep your wind clean and also stay in phase with the shifts.

Tactics for each leg of the course should be decided on the previous leg (although you are, of course, allowed to change your mind). This way you know if you are going to attack or defend your position prior to getting to the mark.

If there are lots of boats just in front and a gap behind, you should be attacking, going as fast as you can. If the situation is the other way round, with boats close behind and not many places to be gained, a more conservative approach may be required. Also, on races of more than one lap, remember what you did (whether it worked or not) on the previous round. For example, did it work just staying to the right of the group?

You need to attend as many regattas as you possibly can so as to learn from real racing experience. That way, when you encounter a situation, you instinctively know how to react: to go high or low downwind, or duck or tack underneath the approaching boat on starboard tack upwind.

It is far harder to control the race from downwind as the sailors behind you will always get the new wind first! Being fast downwind (see Chapters 12 and 13) can turn you into a tactical genius. In relation to a group of boats you can always place yourself in the best tactical position: Keeping on the inside of a shift; being on the side of the run which is getting the breeze first (this corresponds to going high or low on the reach depending on where there is more wind); and, of course, (just like upwind) keeping your air clean!

Exercise

The best way to work on downwind tactics is over a small course. Start upwind for approximately the time you want to do downwind exercises (for a two-hour exercise, sail upwind for two hours, making the total sailing time approximately four hours) and have a downwind start. This is a follow-my-leader with everyone on a reach, tacking round and bearing away together to head straight downwind. The boats then go round the leeward mark, back up to the windward mark and downwind to finish at the leeward mark.



After the Windward Mark Downwind tactics are all about beating the boats around you, putting any extra distance in the bag. When you get around the windward mark this is not the time to relax. You need to consider what your best options are; your positioning in relation to other boats makes a real difference.

You have three options:

• Try and overtake to windward; do not go too close, as you need to keep clear. This means you may well be covering the boat in front. This works well if the next mark is being rounded on the tack you are on, as you will have the inside overlap (remember this has to be established at two boat lengths). This manoeuvre tends to work well when you can overtake quickly.

• Simply by sailing fast and going straight to the mark you can get past boats. Downwind they will often move out of your way to get clean wind. On a reach, when trying to get away from the chasing pack, this can also be the easiest way to get those boats around you to sail fast and not slow each other down.

• Going low can give you the inside overlap at a mark if this is all you need to do to overtake. This works well if you have a small speed advantage and can go the same speed as the boat in front, but slightly lower. If you are going to break through the wind shadow you need a bit of separation.

As the defending boat your options are to try and sail fast and keep your wind free. Often a sharp luff will be enough to deter the boat behind from fi ghting with you. A long slow luff can see both boats sailing lots of extra distance, while losing out to boats not involved who may simply sail underneath (it may be worth trying to point this out). Often it is a case of perception. As a boat heads up, it temporarily goes faster and therefore believes it can sail over the boat in front, but when it bears away it will be the same speed as the boat in front.

Of course, as the boat in front, the best thing to do is just sail real fast so you do not have to worry about other boats. If only it was as easy as that! Some classes of boats react better or worse to dirty wind (this may vary with wind speed), so here you have to manage the potential risk by seeing which is the greater loss. You may, for example, let someone sail over you and lose a boat length, but still be able to sail straight to the mark and keep your race strategy (see Chapter 8), thus gaining several boat lengths on all the boats who went high.



A good leeward mark rounding is essential so you have clean wind for the upwind leg and the option to tack. (If you sag to leeward you will be in the dirty air of the boats in front and may have no option to tack if there are boats close behind.) This is achieved by getting the sail controls sorted and entering the mark wide, so you can squeeze up tight as you exit. Remember, if there was a photo taken a boat length upwind, they should not be able to tell from the picture that you had just rounded a mark. When training, always try and fi nish on a leeward mark rounding, as this is one of the most diffi cult and important manoeuvres.

Key tactical ideas

• Clean air – keep your wind clean or get into clean wind as soon as possible.
• Stay between the opposition and the next mark (directly upwind on the upwind legs, slightly offset on the downwind legs) so as to have clean wind.
• Protect the favoured side of the course (the side with more wind, better current, etc.)

Advice from Paul Goodison:

I feel the key to tactics is being able to adapt quickly to changing situations. It is very much about weighing up the risk/reward for each action on the race course. Try and minimise risks and sail conservatively. Generally, the people who make the fewest mistakes win. It is important to be able to focus on the right thing at the right time. Different weather conditions and fleet positions will require different tactics. I try and keep things as simple as possible, and set myself small goals for different conditions. For example, in shifty conditions I will always be on the lifted tack, sometimes even if this means I am in dirty air. In stable conditions, I always make sure that I have clear wind. This may mean I have to take a small header to clear my lane. I set out these goals for each day, as they are dependent on the conditions and stage of the regatta. It is easy to overcomplicate this area of sailing: generally the people that are winning are just keeping it simple.