A funny thing happened on the way to the port side..

I've just finished reading Clive Woodward's book about the 2003 Rugby World Cup called "Winning" (Sorry about 2007 lads, you did us all proud). Clive laid out his plan for elite rugby in incredible detail but the basis of his approach to coaching was apparently always 'Coach the basics well'.

This resonated with a something I read in one of Eric Twiname's books where he talks about tacking. It goes something like "A well executed tack is a thing of beauty, but it can also win you a race". So I had a real look at my aims and objectives and realised that my training sessions are not nearly focused enough. They usually are pretty nebulous and go something like "I'll do a little bit of this, some of that, then some more of this" and the whole thing usually goes tits up when I get to the lake and decide the weather isn't advantageous to what I want to do.

So when it became apparent I could grab a couple of afternoons sailing this week I decided to work things out in a bit more detail and be more specific about what I want to achieve. I've read heaps about what makes a good tack but to be honest its hard when nobody is watching you to evaluate a tack properly. I thought about ways I could know myself whether a tack was a good one and decided on the following criteria:

1. Don't lose any speed going through the tack


2. Be bang on the wind when the tack is complete


3. Be ready to tack again the second the last tack is complete

Although I would try to fulfill all the advice I've gleaned from Messrs Tan, Ainslie, Baird etc. my instinct is that, a la Turing test, if it looks and smells like a good tack it will be one, and it will be good if it fulfills the above. I decided one of my goals would be to do 30 consecutive tacks. As I've said before, the lake I sail is small and the wind was blowing 8-12 mph across its narrowest part. The longest string I managed to get in was 10 tacks so I did 3 sets. I tried really hard not to analyse the tack as I went through it but instead just tried to 'feel' it through my body. I didn't judge the tack until it was complete and then just said to myself 'yes' or 'no'.

One thing I've always had difficulty with when tacking is going round far too much. I usually have a quick look over my shoulder to see what general direction I should be pointing in when I come out of the tack, tack then trim up. I usually have to point up considerably, which of course means my sail is over trimmed and stalling as the boat comes flat.

After about tack number 20 as I moved across the boat I was suddenly aware of where the wind was and immediately stopped the turn by centring the rudder, jumping up to the side of the boat and flattening (I can do that since I lost 12 kilos!). Bang on the wind! I though it might be a fluke so immediately tacked again and the same thing happened. The next few were utter disasters - I dropped the sheet (first time this autumn with full fingered gloves on), left it too late to cross and nearly fell out etc. etc. but then did another good one.

I think my new sensitivity was partly gained by a combination of not analysing what I was doing and the successive tacking which combined to give me a 'feel' for what I was trying to do rather than an analysis of it, if that makes any sense! Now for the hard part - making all this work for me in a race.