Training : Page 2

At this point it is worth reminding yourself that there are many aspects to a dinghy race. Not only do you need speed, tactical awareness and good boathandling; but you also require a degree of fitness, a boat that stays in one piece, good communication with your crew and to get to events with time to spare. All of these aspects and others will affect your performance and must be considered.

Now with our improvement areas identified and prioritised we need to decide on how they are to be brought out of the improvement area and taken into the strengths list, so on the next page we will look at some of the possible techniques.

                Part 2 - Tuning, Boathandling & Starting

So how do we improve those aspects of our sailing that we have identified as improvement areas.

Well the first thing to realise is that we all learn in different ways, some of us are activists who will rush out and immediatly try anything that is suggested to us, rejecting it if it doesn't work first time; others are pragmatists who take on a very practical view and often decide things are not worth trying but will find other methods more to their liking; some may be theorists who will study an idea in great detail before giving it a try, and there are more, but the first message here is to do things the way you find best, not what some book or somebody said you should do. The second message is be creative and don't dismiss outlandish ideas you may come up with, all the best ideas sounded foolish the first time.

At this point lets look at some of the widely used techniques used today, always remembering that if we copy others we can reach their performance levels, but are unlikely to exeed them, however this may be enough to get you to your goals.


Two Boat Tuning One of the most widely used techniques to improve boatspeed is to go tuning with a partner.
Both boats need to be set up in a similar way, so that adjustments can be measured and evaluated and it will only work if both crews are committed and feel they will gain from the exercise. For this reason I suggest you find an ambitious competitor who has a boat equiped as near as possible to yours, and who sails at approximately the same weight as yourself, same make of hull, mast and sails would be an advantage but may prove difficult to find.

Firstly go out sailing on a quit day in moderate conditions, set the boats up as near identical as practical and sail upwind with one boat 5-10 lenghts to leward, and ahead by a similar amount of the other. Make a signal to each other and sail without tacking for at least 5 mins, or until one boat is gaining an obvious advantage. You will then need to discuss this, and if one boat has a speed advantage try to evaluate this by adjusting the slower boat to reach the faster boats speed, setting all in a similar way each time. When both boats are sailing at the same speed it is time to experiment and change settings to get a further speed gain. Don't forget all the possible variables like centerboard position, shroud tension and length, crew position, jib and main tention, kicker and outhaul, but whatever you do, only change one thing at a time, or you will not know what has changed your speed. Yes this will take time, but what would you give for an extra 5% in speed, that means 4 1/2 minutes in a 90 minute race! & 0,5% increase means nearly 30 seconds!!

This technique is well proven, and has been used by many top helms over the years. Time is thekey, and both boats will need to devote themselves to the process, this may involve giving up some racing to train!
Remember also that you will need to look at the other points of sailing, reaching, 2 & 3 sail, running etc.

Boat Handling.  Essential to every boats speed is how quickly and efficiently the boat changes tack, manouvers, hoists the spinnaker etc; all loosly described as boathandling.

Boathandling is something that can be improved by sailing alone. Lets think about what we are trying to achieve here, we want to execute our manouvers faster, we want to make less errors, and we want to maintain boatspeed as these happen, yes much of this is practice and teamwork, but lets try and speed up the process and eliminate some errors before they occur. 

As with the setup of the boat we can learn a lot from others, look at the top guys in your fleet, see how they tack, bear away round the top mark, hoist the kite and generally handle the boat.  Take a weekend off and go to a big open, get out in a powered boat somehow, try offering your services to the rescue of race organisation, or if the racing is nearby watch from the bank.  Find the best and watch, make notes, this is the standard you must aspire to.

When you have seen how others do it get back to your boat, but don't go sailing just yet, rig the boat on dry land and consider the manouvers you wich to improve.  Look at where you will sit or stand, what ropes need to be adjusted or sails hoisted, where will the tiller be, and how will you control it.  Talk to your crew, how difficult is it for them to execute the manouver, are they havingproblems you don't know, and decide on a sequence of events, who will de what and in what order, this is critical and ensures that all events run smoothly and you are not fighting each other.

Now it's time to get on the water, either go out just to practice or get on the water an hour early one day.  Firstly go through the sequence of events slowly, this may be difficult at first but will get everything in the right order. Now try the manouver at regular speed, go through it many times until it feels natural, you will probably find things begin to speed up, to a point this is good, but don't go too fast yet, at least until you are very confident.