The Pyramid of Sailing

Persistent Shift

Get the basics right and the rest will come easy, says Tony Bull.

The reason we head out to the race course each week is to sail as well as we can. While we’re nearly always glad just to be out on the water, we have a much bigger smile on our faces when we win.

But sailing is a very complicated sport.  To do well we need a huge knowledge base – in fact we never stop learning. On a typical day, so many variables can be encountered which can lead to so many possible scenarios. How we deal with them determines success or failure.

I am often bemused by yachtsmen who spend a great deal of time on the more advanced racing tactics and subtleties of sailing when I see them struggling to master even the fundamentals. Before we can really develop as sailors we need to master the basics and learn how to handle our vessels before anything else comes into play.

The often referred to “Pyramid of Sailing” should be the structure of all our development. It consists of three levels.

On the first level we have boat handling. This is a mandatory requirement of sailing, and we need to know how our boat will behave in most conditions. Failure to do so is not only foolhardy but dangerous to ourselves, our crew and even the crews of other vessels.

The second level is boat speed. Obviously our awareness of the nuances of boat handling will make boat speed a lot easier to develop.

On the top level is tactics. Proactive tactical manoeuvres are virtually impossible without good boat handling and speed. So in order to develop we must work our way up through the three levels.

Boat handling

As befits the base of our pyramid, boat handling encompasses a wide and deep platform. It involves everything from being able to get our boat out of its pen to mastering a snappy lee bow at the top mark without infringing.  The best way to learn how your boat responds is to simply go sailing, find out how it responds in various manoeuvres and conditions; this will make it a lot easier to judge what you can and can’t do.

You need to be able to operate your boat in tight situations at starts and mark roundings. You need to know your limitations and work on broadening them as you develop your expertise. A piece of advice that has always stuck with me was an ex Olympian who spends some time helping out as a tactician on various boats. He said, “The first thing to ascertain as a tactician on a new boat is how many arrows you should leave in your quiver”.  

The ability to handle your boat competently will broaden your sailing options significantly. This will enable you to use more of those arrows where appropriate.

Obviously as a crew you need to practise all the drills - tacking, gybing, drops, peels and sail changes as much as you can. As part of this practise you should also develop and improve on why and how you do things. Timing your manoeuvres in practice will help you decide how much time you need to allow when racing.

As part of your boat handling education it is also imperative to know the sailing rules we race under. I am amazed at the lack of even the broadest understanding of the rules on some boats. I encourage everyone to get a rule book and study it. Some have appendices which give excellent tutorials. With your crew, learn a rule a week.

To sum up good boat handling, we simply need to be capable of putting the boat where we want it to be with confidence.

Boat Speed

The ability to handle your boat well will make your quest for competitive boat speed much easier. The quest for speed is subtle and requires a lot of finesse. We can use competence to improve speed round the track through better tacking, gybing, sail setting and dousing.

Your improved knowledge of your yacht’s behaviour will help your starts, with the ability to accelerate or slow down as a unit. You will be able to work on sail and rig trim, better steering techniques and positioning your boat better. Better quality boat handling will always result in superior speed.

Tactics

“Boat speed makes you a tactical genius”.  
An old adage which rings very true.  There is nothing worse than doing tactics on a boat lacking speed. It is virtually impossible to find a passing lane when your competition is sailing away from you.  

The art of tactics has a quite a different aspect from boat handling and speed in that it revolves around how we react to circumstances like wind variations, tidal currents and other boats as they change. The ability to do a close slam dunk or a quick gybe will enhance our tactical options dramatically. If the tactician has confidence in the boatspeed and the crew work then their job suddenly becomes a whole lot easier.

So to improve your performances on the water, remember the pyramid of sailing. Start off with developing your boat handling and the rest will flow on from there. There are no shortcuts; the only way to climb a pyramid is from the base up.