Another Side to Crewing
Lets assume that you have perfected your crewing technique and are now able to balance
the boat, trim the sails and tack and gybe with the best of them. What else can a crew
do to while the time away..?
Picture painting
The crew can have a major role in increasing the amount of information available in the
boat. If you have ever had a go at helming you will realise that one of the big problems is
trying to make the boat go fast that you can position the boat on the racecourse.
Your boat may be the quickest in a straight line but unless it is positioned correctly on the
course you will never get the best results.
The crew has a lot more time than the helm on certain parts of the racecourse to look
around and see the bigger picture….
track, near to a layline, Are we lifting or backing, are there any gust coming, Will it back
or lift, Waves, Who has more pressure, Where is the majority of the fleet, Are the boats
approaching crossing or ducking
and look around to see what the other boats are doing soWhere is the windward mark, Where are we on the…..
It could be argued that this picture painting is more important than actual sailing
technique. The boat length lost by a "slow" kite hoist would be more than compensated
for by a sharp crew spotting that the run is incredibly one sided and an immediate gybe is
called for.
The rest of this article deals with each part of the racecourse and the input the crew
might provide.
Starting
·
How many laps?
·
Position of the first mark?
·
Which end of the start line is upwind? Who did well in the previous fleet's start?
·
Which mark is upwind (leeward gate only)?
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Keeping an eye out for what the race officer is doing. Is he moving the line or the marks.
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Time keeping, counting down the start.
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Keep an eye on the line for any obvious position problems, are we too early or late.
·
Keep the helm aware of other boats, sharp luffs to leeward, late arrivals barging,
Beating
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Shifts
Are we lifting or backing?
sources, and it is best to use as many as possible to gain a full understanding of
what is going on.
I prefer to use the relative positions of other boats. As you are going up the beat
there may be boats to leeward and visible in the window or level with a shroud or
the main sheet. If they start to move forward against your marker, e.g. the middle
of the window, then you are backing. If they move backwards, you are lifting. This
can be done with the boats on either the same or opposing tack to you. This
involves a basic assumption that you are roughly as fast everyone sailing around
you. You will need to track more than one boat to make sure that it is not just
boat speed causing the movement against your marker.
There may not be boats to leeward so look over your windward quarter. I
following boat pointing down at you?
pointing higher then you are is lifting. Warning: track the changes over time
because as it may be that you are in your own private backer and everyone else is
lifting. If so, this needs flagging up as the helm either needs to sort the pointing
ability of the boat out, or make sure he is on the wind. Another reason for
differences in track could be that you are in a different gust. This also needs
flagging because you will probably want to get into the lifting gust quickly to avoid
loosing a place.
Tracking the wind through opponents relative track and position can be tricky on
the sea as there are fewer shifts. The shifts tend to hit the fleet as a whole and
are more progressive in the way they change the direction of the fleet. Therefore
positions changes of opposing boats are slower and subtler and it may be that you
need to combine the methods above with the compass.
To use the compass you need to do some practise beats before the start and note
down the mean compass heading on each tack. You then know your course
relative to the mean on all subsequent beats.
You shouldn't use the compass on its own because there is a high probability that
you will miss shifts on the other side of the course. Concentrating on the compass
all the time also reduces your awareness of what is going on outside the boat,
which is not good.
The method for determining this comes from quite a fews theIf so you are probably backing.
·
Pressure
Gust and pressure spotting is another job the crew can help out with. This is very
easy to spot inland as there are usually big differences in the patterns of the wind
on the water. Judgement is required to know how far up the racecourse to look for
the next gust so that you can be in a position to use it. The distance to look
upwind varies depending on venue and conditions and comes with practice. On the
sea this is much more difficult because of the underlying wave pattern. I can’t
offer much assistance here other than I find it hard too. The following method may
help.
Are both helm and crew hiking or sitting in? What are you doing both hiking or
sitting in?
course. Again the basic assumption is that you weigh the same as the opponent
and that they have similar power in the boat setup. You will get better at judging
this the better you know your competitors.
This is a good pointer to the wind strength on various parts of the
Where does the opposing helm have the main sheeted compared to ours, what is
the boom angle, lots of kicker or Cunningham?
This information also provides a longer term picture on how your boat is set up
compared to others….
others?
position, spreader length and angle etc.
Are we generally over or under powered compared to…Which leads to questions of have we got the boat setup right… shroud
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Tactics
Common questions might be
racecourse, awareness of the laylines, spotting laylines,
Can we tack across the boat to windward safely?
after the start when boats are close. The helm can concentrate on speed and
pointing while the crew looks around and makes the judgement.
…where is the windward mark, where are we on theThis is especially useful just
Are there any boats around just before the tack?
find somebody was just about to duck you, this could result in breaking some rules.
Also don't tack when there will be a boat to windward taking your wind on the new
tack.
information because of the same reasons as before. You may end up on the new
tack in the same position.
The worst thing is to tack andIs the boat to windward about to tack is also an important piece of
Is the boat ahead and to-leeward tacking—
going to tack
the other tack. Or
and if there is a lift expected on the other tack this may be the optimum position
to gain advantage.
a quick decision is required here are webefore he crosses to gain a tactical position for a future backer ondo we cross/duck and tack the other side slightly more freedom
Will the boats approaching on the other tack cross or duck
when they are on starboard. A crash tack or even a close tack on an opponents
lee-bow early on could ruin your race. Being so close to a competitor means you
have lost freedom to keep in sync with the wind. You end up focusing on the close
opponent not the fleet as a whole and you are also probably interfering with each
other's wind.
The way to determine if the opponent is ducking or crossing is by their relative
position to you. Pick a reference point, usually the mid point of the window, from
far out see if the boat on the opposite tack is gaining or losing, these indicate lift
or backer but also will they cross, or duck. This is important information as it
determines:
…especially important
·
is there any need to avoid the other boat, inline with the racing rules
·
if the boats are crossing and are on a lift, you may want to tack
·
Keep the helm informed of any ducking boats so that you don't tack
Are we on the edge of the racecourse?
talking about banging a corner.
certain of success there isn't any point in going beyond the extreme boat in the
fleet (this could be narrowed down later in the race to the extreme contender or
threat to your position) anything more is risk or greed. The risk is that you are on
the wrong side of a wind shift and with large separation in the fleet you could lose
a lot of places and distance. Best to be more conservative and pick off individual
contenders.
This is a subtler question, as I am not justWhere are we in relation to the fleet? Unless 100%
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Windward mark
A really accurate picture of the position of boats is required on the approach to
the windward mark. Because there is less distance to go until the end of the beat
small shifts and backers are taken to tack on and also track position is required to
ensure you have right of way at the windward mark.
Are the boats approaching the mark on starboard actually on the layline
we tack under them or do we need to duck/cross them. Places up for grabs here.
Lots of description is required about boats on the starboard layline. You are looking
for a safe gap, not being greedy.
i.e. can
Are we losing or gaining on the mark…
and knowledge of whether you can undercut the normal layline or can overstand it
because of the tide can gain you places. When on or near the layline from some
distance out it is good to sort out whether you are gaining or losing on the mark as
it helps with tactics later on. To do this you need to pick a transit behind the mark
(difficult when looking out to sea, a rescue boat or another buoy may help here).
Say you are on the starboard layline, if the transit moves to the left you are losing
on the mark and will have to put another tack in later on up the beat. If it moves
to the right you are gaining and may be able to afford to foot-off. This is easy for
the crew to do while the helm concentrates on speed and pointing.
Tide is very important at the windward mark
·
General Reminders
What is the tide doing, how will it affect the direction and speed of the boat
How many laps
Has the course been shortened, is this the last beat?
Tidal effects?
Downwind
The helm and crew roles are somewhat reversed going downwind as the crew needs to
spend 90% of the time trimming sails and balancing the boat. The roles to be kept by the
crew might be mark finding, general reminders, looking out for other boats coming upwind
and tidal effects.
When looking out for boats coming upwind also give a direction to move, i.e. head up or
bear away, rather than just a panic message of "BOAT".
Pressure and shifts are also spotted by the crew but in a different way to upwind, the
crew feels pressure through the kite sheet (it’s a big sail with 1-1 purchase therefore
there can be more "feel" than the main sail), and the helm may choose to change direction
or weight position with this information. This is more valuable in the lighter non-planing
conditions.
The crew notices a wind shift quickly as the kite needs sheeting in or letting out to keep
the curl in the front of the spinnaker. Again the helm will need to change direction to take
advantage of the shift.
Motivation
If there are any bad vibes between the team in the boat it will affect the self-confidence
of the sailors and the communication will drop. This obviously has and affect on the
results achieved. If, for example, a helm or crew slips during a tack or flogs a sail then
there isn't any point in shouting, the sailor knows they have done wrong and need to
sharpen up. If the problem is consistently happening, it needs to be dealt with in a
practice session. You have to make the best of it during the race, it is a minor mistake,
forget it and move on, try not to let it happen again.
Neither helm nor crew should be using any point scoring comments or general bitching. It
does nothing for the speed of the boat and just makes the sailing experience miserable.
Only a few people can win a race over a weekend of racing, and only one person can win
an event. The other competitors must cope with losing; therefore the racing (and social)
experience must be enjoyable otherwise it makes for a bad weekend.
In summary
All of this may be hard to implement in one go and the lines between helm's role and
crew's role can change depending on the people sailing the boat. A balance needs to be
struck between how much information can be handled and who provides it.
Good Sailing
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