Is FUN a Four Letter Word?

On the plane on the way over to Europe a couple of weeks ago I was reading a book about neurology and cognitive science (as one does) called What Makes Your Brain Happy And Why Should You Do The Opposite by David Di Salvo.

It's an easy to read popular science book that is all about how our brains lead us into all sorts of errors and biases and distortions, and how those stupid brains generally get in the way of allowing us to make good decisions and do what we ought to do.

As I read the book I couldn't help thinking how the ideas in it applied to various aspects of sailing.

For example, as I have been putting some effort over the past few weeks trying to persuade people to come and sail RS Aeros at our club's regatta in June (15 boats registered now!) one chapter in particular made me question if I have been going about regatta promotion - and even the promotion of the RS Aero as a class - in the right way.



For me sailing is fun.

So I assume other people sail for fun.

So I have been telling everyone that our event will be a fun and friendly regatta,  in the hope that this will motivate them to come.

But this book made me question whether this is the right way to go about it.

Sailors having fun

Not in an RS Aero

There was one section of the book which discusses some differences between "high achievers" and "low achievers" a concept which surely has some relevance to sailing. I think we all know a few in the former category - the club  champions, the sailors who go off to national championships and do well. And we all know lots of people in the latter category -  the vast unwashed masses of the rest of us who enjoy sailing around in the middle or bottom half of the fleet at our local clubs.

Apparently some researchers at the University of Florida performed some experiments which showed that what makes "high achievers" and "low achievers" tick are very different, and that the two groups need very different motivations to perform up to their potential. One experiment they did really caught my attention. When high and low achievers were told that a test of verbal proficiency was meant to be "fun" the high achievers actually did significantly worse on the task than the low achievers.

Huh? How could that be?



It reminded me of a conversation that my wife and I had a few weeks ago about one of my sailing friends who is definitely a "high achiever" in sailing. Big time high achiever.

"Does S. ever go out sailing just for fun?" Tillerwoman asked me.

I thought about it and realized that I had never seen him just going out for a blast around on the water for fun. It seems like every time we have sailed together he is either racing - or training for racing.

Another high achieving sailing friend told me this week that it had been "ages" since he went sailing just for fun.

Sailors having fun

Not at Massapoag YC

It made me think.

If somebody tells me a regatta is going to be "fun" it will make me more interested to go to it.

But maybe that word FUN actually turns some people off and makes them less likely to want to go to such an event?

More people having fun

Not at Massapoag YC

What do you think?

Is FUN a four letter word?

Looking at my Feet

Looking at my feet

Before heading off on my vacation in the BVI last month, I downloaded a copy of Nick Craig's book Helming to Win to my Kindle. After reading Damian's review of this book on his excellent sailing blog The Final Beat, I was eagerly anticipating learning some new tricks to improve my sailing.




I think I read most of the book while sitting on airplanes and/or sitting in airports while waiting to sit on airplanes.

I guess there was also a bit of time for reading too while I was at the Bitter End Yacht Club i.e. when I was not actually sailing or kayaking or eating or drinking or walking back and forth between our "tree house for grown-ups" and the places for drinking and eating, and the places for sailing and kayaking and other good stuff.

Tree house for grown-ups

Place for sailing and kayaking and other good stuff

Place for eating

Place for drinking

Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes. Nick Craig's book.

There's a lot of good advice in it, but one thing that caught my attention early in the book was the chapter on Where to Look when Racing. Nick says there are 5 modes (places to look.)

1. Your feet
2. The telltales on your sail
3. The water
4. Spotting the next few shifts
5. The big picture


Of course there are times when you need to use each one of these modes - yes, even mode 1 - but generally speaking, as you become a better sailor, you should be spending most of the times in modes 4 and 5, with modes 1, 2 and 3 coming instinctively. Your boat handling should be slick enough without having to look at your feet, you should be able to sail fast without staring hypnotically at the telltales all the time, and a fleeting glance should let you know what the wind will do in the immediate future.

Hmmm.

This is certainly an area in which I could improve. I think I spend way too much time looking at my telltales to focus on boat speed (mode 2.) I might occasionally look upwind to see if a gust or a lull is coming (mode 3.)

As for spotting the next few shifts, I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I have been able to do that. No, wait that's an exaggeration. I can remember only one single time in my whole racing career when I was in mode 4.

As for mode 5. The big picture is usually that most of the fleet are way ahead of me. What help is it to focus on that?



Turn out I was wrong. I am not even in mode 2 a lot of the time.

Here is a picture of me racing with the Newport Laser frostbite fleet on the Sunday before Christmas.

It looks like I am in the process of rounding a leeward mark and still sheeting in.

Am I looking up the course to see where the stronger wind might be?

Am I trying to see where the next shift - or even better, the next few shifts - are coming from?

Am I checking out the big picture of what the sailors ahead of me are doing?

No. I am not.

I am looking down at something in the boat.

Not my feet perhaps.  But there's nothing on my foredeck that's going to give me any useful information for the next leg of the course.

I am sailing in mode 1! Ugh!



One thing I learned from this photo is that I need an external view - a coach, a video, a photo - to remind me from time to time what I am doing wrong when I am sailing.

Maybe this year I will finally get around to buying a GoPro camera and videoing my own practice sessions.

As Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a lot by just watching."

And you can learn a lot by reading this book...

Damian's review of Helming to Win by Nick Craig

The Best Racing Advice in Six Words

If you only had six words to pass on some advice about sailboat racing to a new racer, what would they be?

For example, the first answer that springs to my mind when faced with this question would be the somewhat cynical...

"Win the start. Extend your lead."

But I am sure you can do much better than that.

Please leave your answer in the comments to this post.

---

This post was inspired by the post The Best Cruising Advice in Six Words on Windtraveler the excellent cruising blog about that "estrogen-rich family" Brittany, Scott, Isla, Haven and Mira. (The estrogen quote is theirs, not mine.)

That post was inspired by a recent New York Times contest calling for parenting advice in "six words or less" which was, itself, inspired by the book The Best Advice in Six Words: Writers Famous and Obscure on Love, Sex, Money, Friendship, Family, Work, and Much More.

Is that what they call a "meme?" Whatever they call it, please participate, and leave your answer in the comments.

Racing advice in six words.

First thing that comes into your head.

Now.

---

This challenge is a little reminiscent of the group writing projects we used to run on this blog.

For example in 2008 I asked people to write blog posts or articles on the theme of Best Sailing Innovation Ever which received 25 entries.

A couple of years later we turned that one on its head and had a group writing project on Worst Sailing Innovation Ever which had 28 entries.

Wurst - Worst. Get it?

Some of our group writing projects have had even more entries than that.

But today's challenge is a lot easier than writing a whole article.

Just six words.

Six words of racing advice.

How hard is that?

Please leave your answer in the comments.

Your name - or nom de plume - would be nice too.

"Nom de plume" is French for "name of pen."  Some stupid name you make up if you don't people to know who you are and, really, who could blame you.

Where was I?

Where am I?

Oh yes. Six words of racing advice.

Submit more than one idea if you feel like it.

In the comments to this post.

Now.

---

I don't know what I will do with all the answers.

Probably put them all in a separate post.

Maybe organize them into categories.

Perhaps use some of the best ideas as jumping off points to write some of my own blog posts, full of insane rambling and half-remembered reminiscences about races in which I used - or failed to use - your advice.

I'm not in this video but it does cover a situation which is pretty typical of my own racing career.

I really do need your advice.

Embrace the Boredom

Boredom is good?

I don't know what to think of this.

I would appreciate your opinion.

There appears to be a whole series of posts and articles lately on the general theme of how boredom is good for you and why you should "embrace the boredom."



For example, James Clear had a chance to talk to a top Olympic coach and ask him the thing we all want to know...

“What’s the difference between the best athletes and everyone else. What do the really successful people do that most people don’t?”  

He briefly mentioned the things that you might expect. Genetics. Luck. Talent.  

But then he said something I wasn’t expecting. “At some point,” he said, “it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day and doing the same lifts over and over and over again.”

Hmmm! The boredom of training.

It sounds right, If you are going to be good at anything - running, sailing, playing the guitar - you are going to have to do lots and lots of practice and training.

And sometimes that gets boring. The ones who succeed learn how to "embrace the boredom."

I can see that. The people who rise to the top are mentally tough enough to stick at the training plan and keep working at it even when they are bored with it. They "fall in love with boredom."



But is that really the only way?



When I was training to run marathons I had to do a number of really, really long runs. Longer than the marathon distance itself in some cases. And what's more boring than running? Put one foot in front of the other. Repeat for 30 miles.

I solved it - to an extent - by exploring different places to run. Trails through unfamiliar woods (until the time I got lost and had to run even further than planned to find my way home.) A trail alongside an historic canal in another part of the state. Actually it was still pretty boring at times.



It's much the same with sailing.

The top Olympic sailors are sailing on at least 100 days every year. I think even sailing would quickly become boring if you were doing the same drills with the same people in the same boat at the same place day after day after day.

Of course, we sailors are lucky in that the winds are rarely the same from one day to the next so that introduces some variety into the program.

But we can also avoid boredom and burnout by mixing it up. Sail in different places. Sail on the sea and on lakes and on rivers. Sail on flat water and in waves. Do solo practice. Tune up with one training partner. Attend a group clinic. Sail small regattas. Sail large regattas. Travel to other countries to sail. Sail in different boats.

But surely most of us sail for fun. Why do it at all if it's boring?



What do you think?

Do you have to "embrace boredom" to succeed.

If so, how do you make yourself do that?

Are there other tricks if you want to put in the time to hone your skills to a high level without getting bored out of your mind in the process?

Is embracing boredom the new mindfulness?

Does embracing boredom make you more creative?

Or is boredom just a bore?

Surfing a bore

Experiment

Definition: An experiment is an orderly procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, refuting, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis.

Hmmm. What do experiments have to do with sailing?



I had a bit of a revelation about how important experimentation is to sailing during one long afternoon racing with the Duxbury Laser Fleet last year. I was not having a good day. I figured I was of a similar standard to the top 5 or 6 sailors in the fleet but somehow I never seemed to be at the front of the fleet that day. I was getting a bit frustrated to be perfectly honest. I thought I was sailing the boat well. I thought I had a good strategy and was getting good starts. But somehow it never paid off in my results.

After the racing was over and we were back on shore, I asked one of my friends, who had had some excellent races, what her strategy for the day had been. Her answer was something like, "Well, at first I thought the left looked good so I went that way in the first race but that didn't work out. So the next race I went right and that was worse. So after that I just played the shifts up the middle in every race and that seemed best, so I stuck with it."

Ahah! That explained a lot. In every race, I had checked the wind before the course and thought I could see more pressure on the left so I always went that way. And it never worked out. But I was stubborn and kept persisting in my failing strategy. In retrospect I think there was more pressure out to the left but often it was beyond the layline of our (short) courses and so it did me no good. What's the definition of insanity again?

Another of my friends had capsized while going downwind in one race. I asked him what had happened. "Oh, I rounded the windward mark in third place but I wasn't prepared to settle for that, so I tried sailing by an extreme angle by the lee and heeling to windward more than usual." It didn't work out for him but he was experimenting, trying something a bit different, getting out of his comfort zone, testing a hypothesis you might say… and in the process learning something.

It's OK to use some races as learning experiences. Eric Twiname said so in his classic book about self-coaching, Sail, Race and Win. In fact he recommended that you use some races to experiment with your technique, recognizing that this means your race results will probably get worse before they get better.

Now that I remember it, on that long afternoon last summer in Duxbury, I did notice that I was doing mediocre tacks. But I didn't do anything about it. I was trying too hard to do well in the races. In retrospect I should have said, "I am just going to use the next beat to work out why my tacks are all wrong and try some different things until I get it right. Bucket."



The reference to a bucket won't make any sense to you unless you listened to President Obama's speech at the White House Correspondent's Dinner last Saturday night.





So that's another resolution for racing this year.

Experiment more.

Bucket.

Sunday Speedlink - Take the Tiller

I'm always pleased when I come across a new blog that offers writing of real depth and quality to aficionados of the sailing blogosphere. A recent find, and one of of my favorite sailing blogs right now, is Take the Tiller which is written by Deborah Bennett Elfers.

Deborah has been writing on a variety of sailing topics but one of her major themes is about how to improve as a sailor - which as my regular readers know is something I have been striving (and mostly failing) to do for 35 years now.

I particularly enjoyed her recent post  What Makes A Great Sailor — Practice, or Talent? which explores the roles of mindset, motivation and practice and includes a couple of recommendations of books that support Deborah's approach to growth as a sailor. Much inspiration and food for thought! I'm currently reading one of her book recommendations on my Kindle. I suspect I will end up writing two or three blog posts on the same theme myself as I mull over and try to apply the lessons of the post and the book.

Deborah sails a Herreshoff Twelve out of Marion, Massachusetts and her family comes from Duxbury (also in Massachusetts) both of which are among my favorite places to sail around here, so I wouldn't be surprised if our paths cross some time in the future.

In the meantime, I will continue to draw inspiration from her blog. Check it out. Take the Tiller.



I looked on Google Images for a "tiller" to illustrate this post. This is all I could find. It's really of no use to me. Please take it.

Finish Every Race

An Optimist sailor reminded me recently of one of the most important tips for the racing sailor.

OK. Technically Damian, of the Final Beat is no longer an Optimist sailor. But he did write a couple of weeks ago a (typically) excellent post about the British 1988 Optimist Selection Trials in which he raced along with Iain Percy and (the now late) Andrew Simpson.

And 2015 Damian passed on words of wisdom about what 12-year-old 1988 Damian learned at this event.

There was something about ferrets.

And chocolates.

But the thing that really caught my attention was this…

One of the main things I learned was that

it is worth finishing every race,

especially in breezy conditions.

Oh, man, Isn't that so true?




I have been very bad at following this golden rule in recent years.

I have become lazy.

I have become a quitter.

For example, I quit early and skipped the last race of the first day at the 2010 Laser Masters Worlds. Actually I skipped the last race of the day three times that week, and skipped another whole day of racing. Not good.

Last year I called it a day before the last few races of the day at the 2014 Newport Regatta.

And those are only two example of many.

I have even got into the habit of quitting early at local fleet racing at Duxbury and Tuesday night practices in Bristol.




"Habit" is the right word. A bad habit.

I have invented excuses… I'm getting older… I have a bad back… I'm not fit enough… I'm only doing this for fun etc. etc. etc.

I even devised a self-serving "philosophy" complete with crappy chart to justify my laziness.

But Damian is right.

You should sail every race especially in windier conditions.




Why finish every race?

1. Sailors' high is one reason. I think it's much the same thing that runners call "runners' high." It's that amazing buzz you feel when you push yourself hard at a regatta and lay it all out in the final race of a long windy day. I wrote about such a race at the 2008 Buzzards Bay Regatta in Cannabinoid Moment. The last race of the first day of the 2011 Hyannis Regatta was another example - Lawn Mower Guy Goes Sailing. I used to get high that way pretty often in the old days.

2. The personal satisfaction of completing what you started is a second reason.

3. And then even a blind squirrel finds a nut some days.

Or to put it another way, if you hang in there for every race and work hard right up to the finish of the last race, once in a while even a mediocre sailor like me can go home with some silverware. Or even better… a towel. It happened on the day at the 2008 New England Laser Masters which I wrote about at Not Throwing in the Towel.




Let me finish by quoting some advice on this topic from blog reader SoxSail which he wrote in a comment to a post titled Stamina in which I tried to justify why I didn't sail in the fourth and final race of the Saturday at the Buzzards Bay Regatta back in 2010 using the usual pathetic range of excuses… I had "put it all on the line" in the third race… I was "exhausted"… I would only be "hacking round the course" in the fourth race… blah, blah, blah.

Here is what my wise reader said...

I think you are overestimating your competition, and possibly underestimating yourself. The other guys don't run half marathons and probably hit the wall after race 1.5. You might have been tired, and not raced as well in that 4th race, but I bet there would have been tons of others who would have done even worse. Not to mention automatically beating all the other guys who wimped out early. No disrespect, but I think you should have raced, and that you would have done well. 

So this year it will all be different.

I won't be a quitter.

Laser sailors finish every race.

Jayne Mansfield and The Two Ronnies

I'm not big on New Year Resolutions, but at this time of year I do find myself looking back at my typically mediocre sailing performance in the previous year and thinking about what I could do differently in the coming year to be a slightly less mediocre Laser sailor.

But how should I go about this process?  How do I decide what sailing skills to work on? Should I focus on fitness or boat-handling the most? Or is the answer in sports psychology? Or perhaps what I really need is a new boat? Should I do more practice or more racing? Will I improve more from solo practice or training in a small group? Should I focus on one or two key things, or aim to make all-round improvement? Is it just about lots and lots of time on the water or could I make big improvements from a few small changes?

Choices, choices, choices.



The experts all advise different approaches.

One of my favorite sailing authors, Eric Twiname, in his book Sail, Race and Win, advises selecting three areas of weakness and discusses a potential twelve ways to work on each weakness. And he says a good starting point to identifying your weaknesses is to ask yourself, "What don't I like?" Hmmm. Do I really have to do all the things in sailing that I don't like? Hard to get excited about that.

Dennis Conner in his heyday had a philosophy he called No Excuse to Lose. Basically Dennis's approach was for him and his crew to put in the time and effort to eliminate every possible reason that would prevent them from winning the races. Then, in their minds, they literally had no excuse to lose. So they won. (Well, until that little regatta in 1983.)

No excuse for losing - 1983

Hmmm. That sounds a bit extreme. I'm not trying to win the America's Cup. I would be quite happy just not being in the bottom half of the fleet at local Laser regattas.

So the approach to improving sailing skills that has been bouncing around in my head for the past few weeks was in a post by Damian of The Final Beat blog. The post has the snappy title Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. I think that's a quote from the well-known Irish Laser sailor and avant-garde writer, Samuel Beckett.  Not the snappiest blog post title ever, but we will forgive Damian that because the ideas in the post are better than the title. And he's Irish too, I think.



Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes, Samuel Beckett's advice on how to improve Laser sailing skills.

Beckett's, I mean Damian's, post starts off as an idea on how to avoid the perils of the "pecking order" - that feeling that you just can't beat those guys who are always in front of you in every race because they are just better than you. And once you start believing that, of course, you are screwed. You never will beat them.

British pecking order - 1966

So this is what Damian says you need to do…

1. Decide where you would like to get in the pecking order. Be realistic, but ambitious. Ambitiously realistic. 
2. Look at who you’ll have to beat to get there. 
3. Figure out what your reasons are for not being there already. 
4. Do more than they do in these areas.

And then you will believe you can sail better than "those guys" who are usually in front of you. Your mental pecking order has you in front of them. So your mind won't keep on sabotaging you in every race and putting you behind them.

But wait. Those four simple steps of Damian's aren't just about fixing your mind. They are exactly what you need to do to fix your sailing performance in the real world.

For me, the instruction to "do more than they do in those areas" was, for some reason, very motivating. I guess it appealed to my competitive nature. My mind immediately started thinking about "those guys." How fit are they? What do they do get fit? How much do they practice? What kinds of practice do they do? How many regattas do they do? What do they do to prepare before racing? Of course the answer to beating them is to do more in the key areas than they do. It's pretty obvious when you think about it.



I was wondering whether it's a little pathetic that I need to focus on "those guys" to fire myself up to work harder at becoming a better Laser sailor. But then I came across this sports psychology article from the world of running, How Envy Can Make You a Better Runner.

We are brought up to think that envy is a sin.

Sophia envies Jayne - 1957

But the article discusses the two kinds of envious feelings that you can have towards the runners who are faster than you - benign envy and malicious envy. Benign envy means that you desire to match someone else's success; malicious envy means that you hope the other person's success ends. It is benign envy that motivates you to run faster. It's much the same thing as Damian was writing about.

In benign envy, enviers may try to level themselves up to become as successful as the other person… This notion is supported by findings showing that envy can increase personal effort, propel behavior aimed at obtaining a desired object, and shift attention toward means to attain it. In running terms, this translates into more specific goal-setting (e.g., "I want to run as fast as Jill did in her last marathon") and doing the training necessary to meet the goal.

So this year will be different.

I'm going to...

Envy more.

Do more than those guys do.

Fail again.

Fail better.

What about you? What are you going to do differently in 2015?

27 Things To Do on your Laser or Sunfish While Waiting Between Races

A reader asked what you should do when waiting between Laser races at a regatta.

Good question.

Personally I hate waiting for anything.  But it's an inevitability at many large regattas. We wait for wind. We wait for the RC to adjust the course. We wait for other fleets using the same course to get their starts off. We wait while other fleets using the same course have a gazillion general recalls.

etc. etc. etc.

Ugh!

So what to do.

1. Hydrate. Very important on a long day of racing, especially if the weather is warm. Sometimes the RC will hand out water and sometimes you have to bring your own drink. Whatever. Drink something between every race. Dehydration will degrade your racing performance and make you feel weird too.

2. Pee. You did read #1 I hope. After drinking gallons of water, eventually the time will come when you have to get rid of it. We all do it. But if you are a man and are going to stand on the transom of your Laser and unzip and wave it around, then sail a distance away from your fellow sailors. We all have one. Well most of us do. But we don't want to see yours.

3. Eat something. Whole screeds have been written on what to eat during exercise that lasts several hours. Sometimes we race more hours in a day than it would take us to run a marathon. Nutrition experts will lecture you on what to eat and what not to eat. My own personal advice would be to find something that works for you and stick with it. Personally I like Clif Bars and those energy gels that long distance runners use - especially the ones with caffeine. What do you like to eat on the water?

4. Stretch. Some people are quite skilled at doing all those fancy yoga stretches on a Laser but I never seem to manage them without falling off the boat. I should practice this more.

5. Watch the other fleets starting. As Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a lot by watching."  What's the bias on the start line? Which side of the beat seems to be paying? Stuff like that.

6. Plan your strategy for the next race. What are you going to differently?

7. Chat to your friends. Talk about baseball or where you're going for dinner. Tell some jokes. Sail over to that weird looking dude and ask him if he's Tillerman. Talk some trash about other sailors. You could even ask some of the good sailors what they did in the last race. You might learn something.

8. Relax. This is my favorite. Get your bum in the cockpit and stretch out. Sometimes other sailors even think I am asleep. Maybe I am sometimes.

9. Watch out you don't get run over by a mommy boat. Especially if you are asleep. Enough said.

10. Pull up your hiking pants. They always slip down when racing. At least mine do.

11. Check out your boat. Is anything working loose? Coming untied? Falling off? Ready to break? Maybe you can do some emergency maintenance before the next race. You do carry an emergency kit don't you? Seriously, I was in a race this season where another Laser sailor had his mainsheet break! You think there might have been a few warning signs first?

12. If there's no wind and it's a hot sunny day and it looks like there is going to be a long wait, then strip off, hang your sailing clothes on the boom to dry, and work on your suntan.

13. Put some more sunscreen on.  Preferably before #12.

14. Play. You did bring a frisbee and a water gun didn't you?

15. Have a beer. I have raced at places where the RC hands out beer to Laser sailors between races. Personally I have never indulged until all the races were over. My sailing performance is bad enough without being under the influence too. But whatever rocks your boat.

16. Pose for the photographer boat.

17. Work out exactly what you are going to write on the protest form about that fooking idiot who fouled you in the last race.

18. Get yourself fired up for the next race. Talk to yourself. Mutter your mantra.


What else?

---

Update Sep 19: This post was first published on Sep 17 as Waiting - 18 Things. An anonymous commenter suggested another 9 things to do (some with photos to illustrate them) that are so good that I have added her contributions to the list and changed the title of the post. 

19. Check all the GoPro cameras and other gizmos on your boat and body.

20. Use one camera to make better photos then the photoboat (and charge nothing.)

21. In case you misinterpreted the wind for the race you just finished, change the 'boat mode' eg the mast rake or goose-neck (Sunfish!)

22. Clean your sunglasses.

23. Cool your feet.

24. Read a newspaper (or SI or ..)

25. Do Yoga exercise.

26. Discuss your sailing with your coach.

27. Do some swimming

Thanks to Hertogenbosch for her contributions to this post. (Note the  new policy on this blog: anonymous commenters will be assigned genders and names at random by the blog owner.)

Risk

A major part of sailboat racing is learning how to manage risk.

How to play the odds.

When to take a risk to make a large gain.

And when to play it safe to avoid making a huge loss.

I'm not usually very good at this aspect of the game. I think I'm usually too conservative on the race course and don't take risks when I should. One aspect of my game that I think I usually play too safe is the windward mark rounding. My usual modus operandi is to approach the starboard tack layline six to ten lengths from the mark, find a gap in the parade of boats on the lay line, sail through it and tack. I hardly ever come on in port on the layine or within three boat lengths of the mark, and hardly ever try to tack below starboard tackers and risk not laying the mark.

But on Sunday it was different.

I was racing with the Duxbury Laser fleet again and the winds were forecast to be 15 gusting 25 but I don't think it ever actually was that strong.

I was still suffering from some lower back pain from the previous Sunday so I determined that I would race for an hour or so and then call it a day. Didn't want to overdo it.

As a result I didn't care too much about the results, so I had a mindset that I was prepared to take some risks. Roll the dice and see what happened.

The boat end of the start line was favored and I knew some of the sailors in this fleet would be fighting each other for the position next to the boat. I chose to play it safe at the starts and get a position a little further down the line with room to accelerate that was away from the mayhem at the RC boat.

As a result I was usually on the left of the leaders going up the beat. Sometimes sailing a bit faster than them (mantra: bow down) but not fast enough that I could tack and safely cross them all until they tacked. On the shortish course that often meant I was close to the port tack lay line before I could tack.

Normally this would be where I would start to panic and start looking for gaps in the starboard tack parade and bearing off to find such a gap and giving up way too many boats in the process of trying to make a safe windward mark rounding.

But on Sunday it was different. Some times I came in the port tack layline and managed to tack cleanly in front of the approaching starboard tackers. Some times I was further away from the port tack lay line and I chanced it tacking under a starboard tacker. Risks I would never normally take. It worked out every time and I rounded the mark in the lead, or in the leading pack every time.

Hey. Maybe I should try this more often?

I had good speed upwind and downwind. My leeward mark roundings weren't too shabby either. After four races my scores were 1,2,1,1.

Hmmm!

In line with my plan of only sailing for an hour or so, I decided to call it a day. Some wag later asked me if I had got tired of winning.

Not at all. But I chose not to risk hurting my back again by sailing for too long.

It's all about managing risk.

Mantras

Athletes in all sorts of sports believe in using mantras. But are mantras any help in sailing?

What is a mantra? An inspirational phrase that helps with your performance. Something to help keep the mind focused on what is important while you are competing.

Many runners use mantras. There is an excellent Runners' World article about it - The Magic of Mantras. It reminds us that a good mantra should be "short, positive, instructive, and full of action words."

But mantras are very personal. Different strokes for different folks. And even in a sport as apparently simple as running, a runner may use different mantras in different stages of the race and for different purposes.

Some examples of mantras from that article I linked…

To remind you to start out easy in a long race - "Pass no one."

To help you stay focused and forget how long a marathon really is - "One mile at a time." I could never have completed my marathons or half marathons without using this one.

To help you focus on good running form  - "Lighter, softer, faster, relaxer." Hey, they don't even have to be real words as long as they work for you.



Some sailors use mantras too. Christine Neville wrote about it in one of her posts about racing at CORK a couple of weeks ago. She felt she had been thinking too much about getting away from other boats to find clear air, so on this day she used mantras like "keep it simple" and "go as fast and direct as you can."

I really need a mantra to help me when I'm sailing a long windy beat to take my mind off my aching quad muscles and keep me focused on hiking hard and keeping good hiking form and sailing fast. I wonder what would work?

"It's meant to hurt." Maybe not. Too negative. A mantra should take your mind off the pain and adversity and keep you in a positive frame of mind.

"Tougher than the rest." Not true - but it would probably work.

"Grind them down. One at a time." Ha! I like this one. Just focus on sailing faster than the boat next to me until I have him in my bad air and he is forced to tack away. Children can be so cruel at my age.

But sailing is such a complex sport. We need different mantras for different wind conditions and different points of sail and different strategic and tactical situations and to avoid different mental traps.

"Keep your head out of the boat." is a very useful mantra of course.

And something like "Keep calm. Forget it. Carry on." is a good one for dealing with the aftermath of all the things that can go bad on the race course including capsizes, collisions with buoys, collisions with other boats, collisions with bridges, falling out of the boat, being pulled out of the boat by another sailor's sheet around your neck, chopping your finger off etc. etc.

What about you?

Do you have some favorite sailing mantras?

Who am I?

On Sunday I had the choice between driving over three hours to a regatta in New Hampshire, or driving about an hour to join some friends sailing in a local fleet in Massachusetts. So being lazy I chose the easier option and went to sail with my friends in Massachusetts.

I arrived at the same time as another Laser sailor whom I vaguely knew - we had sailed in some of the same regattas last year - but we had never spoken. So I introduced myself and he replied, "Oh yes. You're the Facebook Guy"

What?

Facebook Guy?

Where does he get that from? We're not even friends on Facebook. Although I guess he has seen the odd Facebook post from me in sailing related groups or something. But I'm not that much of a Facebook fanatic, am I?

I'm not the Facebook Guy.

This is the Facebook Guy.

---

Anyway I unloaded my boat and rigged it, and my friends showed up and we launched. I was one of the first boats out on the course so I practiced a bit and the race officer blew a few practice starts for us. It was a glorious sunny day with about 8-10 knots of breeze and it actually felt like summer... at last.

It was way past the time that racing was supposed to start but some Lasers were still making their way out to the course so the race officer ran a "practice" race for us. The pin end of the line was favored and I nailed a pin-end start, led the fleet out to the left side of the course (which turned out to be the favored side all afternoon) and I was first at the windward mark and went on to win the race. That felt good.

Once the real races started I was usually around the middle of the fleet - as per normal - but I wasn't far away from the leaders and I was having fun.

The afternoon was passing quickly and somehow in the sixth race (or maybe the fifth or seventh - I had lost count) I played the left side again and won a "real" race.

Man, that felt really good.

So good in fact that I decided to call it a day. The wind was dying anyway and I didn't think they would get many more races in. (Only one as it turned out.) And by quitting while basking in the glow of victory I would enjoy that feeling all week.

---

I sailed back to the dock and derigged my boat. As I was packing up, a couple walked by and the man looked at my Rhode Island license plates and said with an incredulous tone, "Surely you didn't drive all the way from Rhode Island to sail here?" There may have even been a bit of a sneer on his face when he said "here."

Hmmm. I know Rhode Island is almost like heaven - sailing heaven anyway - but there's no need to put down other perfectly fine places by the ocean. So I explained, in my defense, that I had come "here" to sail with some friends, so the couple accepted by excuse and walked on.

What?

Guy Who Drives All The Way From Rhode Island To Sail Here?

That is not who I am.

This is Guy Who Drives All The Way From Rhode Island To Sail Here.

This is who I am…

Desire

That clever fellow Nick Hayes, author of Saving Sailing, has an article in the June 2014 issue of SpinSheet magazine titled Don't Sell Your Boat, Mister. In it he challenges a man who is trying to sell his Laser because he thinks has no time to get out on the water even though "the desire is there." Nick goes a bit deeper than the usual "live in the moment" memes with some insights from a Harvard social psychologist and some excellent advice on how to organize your life to be happy now, not at some vaguely imagined future idyllic time. He outlines a way to live such that "hours magically appear for things that bring happiness - like Laser sailing on a Tuesday night."

One of his arguments for creating time to follow your desire now, not postponing it for a couple of decades, is that perceptions of the source of happiness change as one ages. And he uses Laser sailing as an example of this saying that when you are in your fifth or sixth decades Laser sailing doesn't make the list as sufficiently restorative or rewarding or even fun. The implication being, presumably, is that you should go Laser sailing NOW while you still have the desire.

Of course Nick knows that not everyone feels like that about Laser sailing in later years because he adds as a sly afterthought, "Don't tell that to the Laser sailing grandfather of six, Tillerman."



Hmmm.

Does desire for Laser sailing decline as one ages?

I guess I look at it from a position that could give me a distorted view. I have been racing my Laser in the UK and the US and several other countries for over 30 years so I see plenty of people in their 40s and 50s and 60s (not to mention a few in their 70s and 80s) sailing Lasers. I see the ones who kept their desire.

Sure everyone gives up Laser sailing eventually. But I see the ones who stop Laser sailing because their knees or backs or hips give out - or they die. And, sure, I also see ones like the man in Nick's article who give up Laser sailing because they say they are too busy with family and career to sail.  I guess I just don't see the ones who once had the desire but lost it before they really got round to taking up Laser sailing. I'm not saying they don't exist; just that I don't mix in those circles.



To be honest, I do find my own desire for some aspects of Laser sailing waxing and waning as I get older.

Some winters I am enthusiastic about frostbiting. Other winters I'm not.

Some years I get all excited about doing major regattas like a Laser Masters Worlds or North Americans. Other years I can't be bothered with all the faffing around that is involved in sailing major events.

Some years I like to travel a lot to sail. Other years I just want to enjoy sailing in my own (metaphorical) back yard.

But I have never yet totally lost the desire to sail my Laser.



Yesterday evening three of us went Laser sailing on the Sakonnet River launching from Third Beach. Two of us are in our seventh decades, the other is in his eighth decade. One of us drove ninety minutes to be there. It was a glorious sunny evening (if a little chilly for late May.) The wind was in the south and was stirring up some waves on which you could occasionally catch some rides downwind. We did some rabbit starts and chased each other round and round a short windward leeward course for about ninety minutes. Afterwards we all agreed we had had a marvelous time and that this spot was one of the best imaginable places in the world for some Thursday evening Laser sailing fun. And that we would damn well do it again next week.

We still have the desire.

Sshhh! Don't tell Nick Hayes. (But do go and read his SpinSheet article and buy his book.)

Three Things

Three of my favorite sailing blog posts from the last few days….


Why People Don’t Protest Each Other (and Why They Should) from Damian at The Final Beat.
One of my own personal beefs. The title explains perfectly the topic of this post. And Damian has some excellent suggestions for dealing with the issue.


The fear of sailing from John Vigor's Blog.
I've written a few posts myself over the years about the fear of sailing and how to deal with it, mainly in the context of heavy air sailing in Lasers. John addresses it from the perspective of ocean cruising and discusses why fear makes sailing attractive to some people and what its uses might be.


Top 10 signs it's time to leave the island by Behan on Sailing with Totem.
Absolutely hilarious. Behan and her family are sailing the world on S/V Totem and have been parked in Langkawi in Malaysia for a while. Actually I think they have only been there for a couple of months but you wouldn't guess if you only read this post!


Enjoy!

Jersey Pump

I thought I would write a post about the importance of the Jersey pump in my life.

No, no, no.

I haven't taken to wandering around the boardwalk in flowery pants and a tank top and making gestures at the passers-by.

I am referring to a certain product called Jersey Pump.

Jersey Pump is a protein supplement designed to "fuel the gladiator in you" whatever that means.

But I have never actually tried drinking Jersey Pump. So I can't really comment on whether it will "increase your stamina and build lean muscle mass."



No, no, no.

I am here to praise the creativity of the motivational messages crafted by the person who is posting to Twitter with the handle @JerseyPump.

It appears to be the corporate twitter feed for the folks who sell the stuff in the orange bottles but there is very little direct pushing of the product. To be honest there is some macho weightlifters' trash talk. At least I think that's what it is. I don't circulate in trashtalking macho weightlifter circles very much these days. Tweets like these….

To be honest the main reason I wear tank tops is to avoid a concealed weapons charge  

I've got 99 problems and idiots curling on the squat rack is one of them 

Gloves to lift weights? Don't you mean bitch mittens?   

I'm too big? Not possible! You're too small. 

I eat dumbbells for breakfast  

More Plates=More Dates 

I don't even know what most of those mean.



But along with those are some real inspirational messages that I actually find useful in pushing me to stop reading twitter feeds from protein supplement marketeers, walk away from the computer, and actually go for a run or work out on the hiking bench or even… yes even lift some weights.

If you keep saying tomorrow, you will run out of time.

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.

I will do what you won't today, so I can do what you can't tomorrow.

Of course it's hard. It's supposed to be hard. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it.

If you want something you've never had, then you've got to do something you've never done.

Your body is the baggage you carry through life. The more excess baggage the shorter the trip.

Thanks to @JerseyPump I am determined to be fitter at the start of this year's Laser sailing season than I have ever been before.

This year will be different.



As long as I don't put my back out again while weeding or sitting at my desk.

Looking Back at Laser Sailing in 2013

It's Throwback Thursday so let's take a look back into the dim distant past of… 2013.

It was another funny old year…

In January and February I did a spot of frostbiting with the Newport Laser Fleet. There was the day we sailed in the fog, there was the day I got ice on the deck and a big smile on my face, and the awesome day when I almost began to feel that I might not be too bad at Laser sailing after all.

Then there were three consecutive weekends in February when even I didn't think it was suitable for Laser sailing, but towards the end of the month I actually broke my own record for how early in the year I went out for a bit of solo practice. I must be nuts.


In March I went down to Florida with some friends to train with coach Kurt Taulbee at SailFit.

This is me

I learned a lot, especially on the day when I helped one of my friends (and myself) overcome Heavy Ar Fear by being the idiot to be saying, "It looks great out there. I'm going sailing. Who's coming with me?"


On returning to chilly Rhode Island I did a bit more frostbite racing and another eight days of Spring Training in March and April. I was pretty pleased with myself at the end of April thinking that I had prepared as well as I reasonably could for the upcoming season. This Year Will Be Different. Right?


I did some more solo training in May. Well sort of. You could also describe it as going off on my own for some rowdy raunchy loud hysterical crazy fun.

This is me too

Then I sailed four regattas over the summer of 2013 and learned something at all of them.

At the 2-day Wickford Regatta in May I learned that all my on-the-water practice in March, April and May had paid off. I was fit enough to be able to complete every single race and I still felt strong right up to the end of the final race. This was major progress compared to 2012 where I was frequently missing the last race or two on every day at the regattas I attended. Even better than that, I was passing boats on reaches and runs, probably due to some of the work I did with Kurt at SailFit. So that was all good.


The 2-day John Bentley Regatta at New Bedford YC in June would have been special whatever happened on the water,  because it was in memory of a sailing friend we lost way too young the previous December. But I did learn a lot too, mainly about Managing Arousal and Anxiety. Or how not to be a slug or a crazed squirrel. On the first day I realized afterwards that I had been too much like the crazed squirrel. And on the second day I started like a slug, but found a couple of ways to energize myself, get myself in "the zone" and enjoyed a rewarding day of racing in perfect Buzzards Bay weather. I don't remember a day I had more fun racing. And I finished in the top ten! So that was all good.

This is a slug

The 2-day New England Masters at Sail Newport in September was a big learning experience too.  On the first day, the learnings included….

1. Mid line sag is real
2. The other sailors have no idea where the start line is either.
3. The other sailors are really good at accelerating off the start line.
4. I suck at accelerating off the start line.
5. In a large, close fleet it's not a good idea to approach the mark on the port tack layline.
6. I hate bridges.
7. Don't capsize
8. I need to learn how to do capsize recoveries faster.
9. Don't screw up
10. When I don't race for a couple of months, I screw up.

But apart from that it was all good.

On the second day, I learned that Doug's advice on Improper Course about Sailing in the Middle of the Fleet (a primer for the mid-fleet average sailor) really worked. I was 6th out of 48 in one race (woo hoo!) and won a trophy for third place in the "incredibly old geezers - they really ought to be in the nursing home instead of blundering around the race course getting in everyone else's way" category (woo hoo again!) So that was all good.


On the other hand, at the 3-day North American Masters in October it was not all good. For some reason I was not prepared - certainly not mentally and perhaps not physically either - for the regatta. I had been looking forward to it all year but my heart wasn't it. I sailed badly. I quit early. The experience did cause me to think a lot about what kind of sailing events I do and do not enjoy and how that will affect my choice of regattas this year; and also to work out what I will need to do to prepare for a major event like this in the future. So that was all good. I really should blog about it one day.


Wait. What happened in July and August?

In July I went Laser sailing locally ten times, including one afternoon sailing with my son on Mount Hope Bay when we made a landing on Spar Island and claimed it for the British Empire.

This is my son on Spar Island

And in August we spent a lot of time with the family and I only sailed my Laser four times.


Oh wait. I almost forgot the highlight of the year - the trip to Minorca Sailing in September. This year one of my local sailing friends and his wife joined us there and we all had a blast. Well, I had a blast. I think the others did. I learned a lot and won the first Thursday regatta, and won the pursuit race, and won the second Thursday regatta. And there were sardines. There were definitely sardines. It was all good.

These are sardines

And then in December, Tillerwoman and I had another wonderful vacation at the Bitter End Yacht Club in the BVI. We sailed catamarans a lot together. I sailed a Laser and won both the Laser regatta and the Hobie regatta on the Sunday we were there. There was kayaking and swimming and running and hiking. There was rum. There was definitely rum. It was all good. I really should blog about it one day.

This is me relaxing at BEYC

Wait. What happened in November? I have no idea. Apparently nothing.

According to my notes, I went Laser sailing on 72 days in 2013. It's not 100. But it is more than 43 so most of my male readers are happy.


Oh. I almost forgot the best day of the year. October 12.

Andrew James

5th grandchild

3rd grandson

Born 12 Oct 2013

It was all good.