A post from UK Sailmakers reminds us that, especially in light air, limiting your mistakes is the key.
Fewer mistakes are the key to victory in sailboat racing.
By Adam Loory, General Manager of UK Sailmakers International
Last Thursday I re-learned the adage that to win sailboat races, you need to make fewer mistakes than your competition.
Even though my boat SOULMATES was on the line at the gun, we did not have the best start. After sailing a few boat lengths we got squeezed out the back when the J/130 DRAGONFLY below us came up and the boat above us, the Farr 400 SUNDARI, rolled us. Tacking to clear our air was not an option since there was no wind on the right side of the course; we had to work our way to the left side. In the light air – six knots — two clearing tacks would have been death so we put the bow down and sailed through the lee of three boats. They were higher, but we were faster. It did not take too long to get clear since that group of boats was pinching and going slow as they all tried to sail over each other.