Mike Broughton's Cowes Week nav tips

Former Whitbread navigator and Cowes veteran Mike Broughton gives his top tips for winning this week

Last Leg analysis - Be truthful and objective, when looking back over the last leg, particularly when sailing over the same bit of water again. You want to go left again, but did going left really work? Have the conditions now changed sufficiently to throw out what you learned on the last leg? Continue what pays and learn from your mistakes. Objective decision making while sailing in a close fleet is actually quite difficult, own up to a mistake and get it right next time around.
Keep Advice Simple - Just prior to a busy start, the helm/tactician are very busy with the immediate problems of finding the best place to start, where the first windshift is going to come from, our position relative to the main opposition, timing the approach to the start and avoiding other boats. The last thing they want is complex advice that may well be heard but not digested. Advice even to a complex scenario may be as follows:
"I would like to go left for the breeze, but right is better for tide; the tide looks like the dominant factor so lets work the shifts along the best area of tide on the right".

Refine your advice once you have settled down. Off the start line you need to be hiking really hard when going to windward, the first two minutes are the most vital time, make sure all the crew are focused on helping the helmsperson hold their lane and not to slowly sink into another boats dirty air.

Anticipate the Helm/Tactician's next question - As a flying instructor I would always teach pilots to 'think ahead of the aircraft'. The same is true in sailing. Anticipating the next question is a vital part of the role of the tactical navigator. Work out the wind angle for the next leg, using the mean true wind direction (TWD). The best way to do this is to work in true wind angles, comparing the course adjusted for tide, with the TWD to get the True Wind Angle (TWA). Talk to the helm/tactician and find out what information they really want. One particular piece of information that Chris Dickson regularly wanted when he sailed in the British Admiral's Cup Team a few years ago was our position relative to the laylines ie 'four minutes on starboard and two on port'. This helped his mental picture regarding our position on the race course and the relative position of our main rivals, when it was really close, like any matchracer, he would often fight for the 'power of the right hand boat' going into the windward mark. Having tactical software onboard such as Deckman can give instant answers to such a problem.

Sail Fast in areas of strong current - Solent courses regularly involve a beat against the tide. Invariably this means a beat along the shore in the weaker tide, prior to striking out on your tack for the windward mark in the stronger tide. A common fault for those who slightly misjudge the layline is to sail high and slow in order to make it in the final two hundred metres or so. This can be lethal in fast flowing Solent tides. Slowing the boat at this vital time relatively increases the strong negative component of the tide and slows you even further. If this looks like occurring, bail out early and for the same reason, don't try to shoot the mark with little boat speed in a strong tide - it tends to leave scratches all along the topsides.

Wind Shadows and Tide Shadows - Never underestimate the effect on the wind from large moored ships, especially in light winds. There have been several large ships anchored in the eastern Solent in recent Cowes Regattas.The wind shadow can have a considerable effect on that part of the race course. Likewise wind shadows from a line of smaller spectator craft, in light winds, can have a large influence in reducing the wind in that area. The Brambles Bank creates a tidal shadow that can be used to good tactical effect. Sailing against a flood tide, it is very effective to use the area directly east of the bank to cheat the tide, which flows strongly around each side of it.