Andrew Campbell

Monday Morning Tactician: 3 March ‘08 - Breaking the Cover

March 4th, 2008 in Monday Morning Tactician.

After a couple of weeks of R, R & R (Rest, Recovery and Reorganization) at home in San Diego, I’m back on the road again stopping briefly in Washington, DC to spend a few days teamracing with the Georgetown Hoyas and catching up with former teammates in the city. I leave for Europe on March 10th and the plan of action upon arrival is still being worked out. If the all goes according to that plan I’ll be waking up off the redeye, taking a cab to the shipping yard, meeting Chris Rast (the US 49er crew who is driving in with a new trailer from Switzerland to replace the one that was stolen from Melbourne) unloading a container loaded with a coach boat, two 470s, four 49ers and my Laser. We’ll take our gear out and likely have to put some of the stuff for the guys who can’t be there back in, and then head over to the ferry landing downtown before getting aboard an evening ferry for an overnight ride to Mallorca.      

While sailing with the Hoyas yesterday we had two two-and-a-half-hour sessions in sunny 65 degree temps in front of the Washington skyline, or lack thereof. The water still hasn’t had its fair time to warm up, so I don’t think it was 40 degrees, but the 15-25 knots of puffy breeze made that Potomac chop kick up and the sailing very fun. We had twelve boats, six 420s and six FJs all set up for the spring teamracing season. One thing that became quickly apparent was that tacking duels in 18 knots for two people not entirely used to the 420 training should be avoided at all costs… We got a few laughs out of botched tacks and missed opportunities to cover in places we knew we should have been but intentionally avoided. What the lack of boathandling demands is the use of your brain to stay ahead. Instead of speed or skills  helping to keep ahead of the guy you need to beat, you have to use proper positioning on the racecourse.  

For instance, when you are the boat behind and you are being intentionally covered by a boat ahead (this happens most often in Match and Teamracing, but believe me, it happens its fair share in Fleetracing as well) you have to make every tack count. That means that when you have a third party coming across from the other side, you tack in a way that would make your opponent have to make a decision he might not normally like to make. Matchracing (and in many ways Teamracing is just three matchraces going on at the same time) is a game won by making your opponent make choices that he doesn’t want to make. He thinks: “If I tack on my opponent, as I would prefer, then that means I’ll be tacking into somebody else’s bad air… But if I keep going another couple of lengths to get into a clean lane for myself, then my opponent is sailing alone in clear air.” By putting this guy in a no-win situation you’ve always bettered your own position.  As the covering boat you need to think about ways in which you can better your position by making fewer maneuvers.  For instance, yesterday we were in a tacking duel covering the opponent up the right side of the racecourse. We needed to slow our pair down so that we could balance for another teammate out left. In the 420 my role is to watch our opponent and react accordingly, while my crew’s role is to look upwind and make macro-scale tactical decisions about laylines and windshifts. Our opponent made another tack onto port heading back out right and we had the opportunity to tack on his face and hurt his breeze. “How do we look?” I asked. “We’re about 5 lengths from the starboard tack layline and we’ve got breeze in the middle.” In my mind that was music to my ears… and immediately meant that we would let our opponent nose out into clear air on the right. This may sound odd. Why would I let my guy get into clear air? By letting him think that he is getting away he will commit himself to a life of marginalization and pain on the starboard tack layline… AND we would minimize our own maneuvers by sailing a little longer and tacking a few moments later. After sailing the rest of the way out right bow-even with our opponent instead of in a cover position, we leveraged ourselves properly to tack right on his nose for the final approach to the finish on the starboard tack layline. At that point we have total control over his speed and breeze and can properly balance for our teammates.    

Monday Morning Tactician Says: Anticipation is key from both perspectives in a tight cover situation. If you are ahead and need to maintain control, then you have to be able to anticipate the future decision’s awaiting you up the racecourse as far as laylines, breeze and third parties in order to position yourself into a dominant role. If you are the boat behind you have to have the foresight to put your opponent into situations he didn’t anticipate. You have to make him uncomfortable, you have to make him second guess the correct move and force him into a costly mistake. Anticipation is something gained through racing practice and racing practice alone. In no other context do you make decisions at such a high rate of speed and with such a high demand for accuracy. Through communication within your boat and a proper delegation of responsibilities you can make things a lot easier for yourself.�

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