Stay in the Football

By Doug

Over Super Bowl weekend, we had the inaugural Rock the Ice Regatta that attracted a small but competitive fleet. It seems appropriate that we can use a football metaphor to describe the racing.

Steve Bourdow is a great sailor and coach, and would say that when sailing upwind you need to stay inside the football (translation – don’t bang the corners). The first day’s racing was a textbook example of why this works.

In each of the six races I found myself in the lead with my main competition sailing to either the right or left corners. If you want to beat that person, you have to go with them, but there’s always the risk of losing to the rest of the fleet – winning the battle but losing the war. Even when someone on the edge was in more pressure, I resisted the temptation and gave up the lead.

This strategy paid off – four of the six races were won by one one of my main competitors banging a corner while I settled for sailing in between what looked good and the rest of the fleet. As a result, I had four seconds in those races. This ‘percentage sailing’ paid off – at the end of the day I had 10 points while my two main competitors were less consistent and had 15 and 25 points (results here).

After the racing, I told the juniors that if you want to win the occasional race, bang the corner. But if you want to win the occasional regatta, stay in the football.