RACE DAY

We will have a Race Day, given the good wind forecast for today, and the poor forecast for tomorrow. In fact, make sure you have workout gear packed for tomorrow. If the wind is too light, we will have a chalk-talk meeting then workout.

Key Focus Today:

• Get out on the water as soon as you can, and with your partner, come up with your thoughts on the venue and conditions. Create as best you can a plan for the day. Remember we are all working toward something… and ideally following a process. There is no magic answer; there’s just hard work and determination, and frankly it’s not about being brilliant, it is about minimizing mistakes. The best you can do is to continually put yourself in a position to minimize your time on the race course by going fast toward the next objective at all times.
• I will be an on-the-water judge that can serve as a witness to any protests that better be filed if someone fouls you and doesn’t exonerate themselves.
• What is the benefit of Race Day? It is NOT primarily to rank teams 1-12. Here are benefits you should consider and work into your approach to race days
  • Finish Results, while always the easiest bottom line determinant, are not necessarily important. Try to evolve your goals a bit from simply getting all firsts; there are countless goals you can achieve, and have success, without winning every race, or winning race day.
  • Try, “We have been weak on _____________________ lately, so let’s try to do better with ______________________. Our manner of determining improvement of __________________________ is ______________________________________________________________. ” You fill in the blanks. For example, “We’ve had poor starts lately. Let’s work on starts. We will consider today a success if, in 2 or 3 starts, we are NOT flushed out by another boat, and can tack when we want to.
  • Other things that you can work on, other than where you cross the line
    • communication between crew/skipper
    • mental focus, & positive outlook. Teammate berating is a quick way to the back of the pack. Aim as a team to harness positivity.
    • not losing boats on last beat
    • not losing boats on the downwind
    • making better gate choices
    • reducing boat handling mistakes.
  • Write your team’s goal(s) down before you head out on the sheet I will have in the shed. Afterward, de-brief on your execution and successes at Race Day.