UKLA Chair blog #42

Written By Mark Lyttle

Today is about Series Strategy ………… Blog #36 discussed how hard work trumps talent and Blog #37 discussed a systematic approach to improving your ILCA sailing through that hard work. Then we discussed event preparation (blog #39) so this week it is about putting a series together.

In a weeklong regatta with 12 races – regattas are not won on the first day, but they can be lost! The trick is to avoid major mistakes like:

  • Not getting off the line in a decent lane / avoid being over

  • Capsizes

  • Penalties especially on the 1st beat

  • Sailing the wrong course

  • Gear failure

  • Getting the wrong side of major shifts / the strategy wrong.

These mistakes clearly have a big impact on your results. Poor boat speed is also a killer but once you are at an event, you can’t do not much about that.

Analysing your performance between races and at the end of day is also critical, focussing on what can be improved rather than the results themselves. I remember doing this after the first race at the Master Worlds in Dublin in 2018. I was particularly worried before racing began around my boat speed and fitness in 20knots having not done a Worlds in recent years. After the first start in those conditions, I became fixated on boat speed and missed the first big shift but caught up by the end of the race to 11th. Between races I thought – ok boat speed and fitness are great, forget about them for the rest of the week and get your head over the boat to get the strategy and tactics correct. After the 2nd race,  where I was 4th, I could see that results at the top were going to be up and down so that an 11th and 4th could be counters at the end of the regatta. That analysis over the first day ensured I remained confident of the following days

This assessment of risk is important. That was a 12 race, 1 discard series where consistency and avoiding major mistakes was going to the critical. But think about this, the Olympic regatta in Savannah was 11 races with 2 discards, a completely different risk profile. After the first day there, I had a DSQ (a story for another day 😉) but that did not stop me pushing the line in every race and getting an OCS (early starter DSQ) in Race 8. That’s because the risk profile was going to reward strong race finishes rather than consistency.

The other thing about risk is that it is better to take opportunities that are presented during a race rather taking risky decisions to force a result. It is about weighting the risk – e.g. the difference between responding to a right shift that is forecast and starts to develop on the race course rather taking a punt and heading right before signs of its development.

Energy conservation is also key over a week as the body never fully recovers for the next day. So you want to do all you can to aid that recovery.

Finally I always like to say that the last few races count the same as the first few. We are inclined to be super motivated and prepared for each race at the start of the regatta but it is important to sustain that over the whole regatta.

Snippets:

Mark Lyttle
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