Helming to Win E-Book

Nick Craig

• Herausgeber: Fernhurst Books Limited
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: Sail to Win
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 146

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Nick Craig's ground-breaking Helming to Win was published 10 years ago to great reviews: "Many sailing books can be recycles of familiar themes and ideas. Not this one! This is a highly personal and radical, fresh view of the subject area." In the following decade since it was published, Nick has won 10 World, 3 European and 20 National Championships! That's winning more championships than most of us have attended over this period. As an amateur sailor, with a senior full-time job, Nick knows how to make the most of his time on the water. Every race is recorded in his notes, every race builds on his knowledge. This new edition of Helming to Win utilises what he has learnt from those 33 championship wins (and many other less successful events), with new learning, new anecdotes, new photos and additional captions on the photo sequences to ensure the key learnings are easy to take on. This updated breakthrough book will help you make the transition from weekend racer to national champion, just as Nick has done. Covering everything from where to look and getting 'in the groove' to mental approaches and championship sailing, you will be working your way up the leaderboard in no time. Packed full of intelligent insight, brilliant top tips and engaging photo sequences, if your goal is to win then this is the book for you!

Leseprobe

NICK CRAIG

CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS

Nick Craig has won championships again and again in a variety of classes. So far he has achieved:

Single-Hander (no spinnaker)

OK (6 x World Champion, European Champion, 10 x National Champion)

Finn (National Champion)

Phantom (National Champion)

Hadron H2 (2 x National Champion)

D-Zero (National Champion)

Single-Hander (asymmetric)

D-One (8 x World Champion, 4 x European Champion, 8 x National Champion)

Double-Hander (no spinnaker)

Enterprise (3 x World Champion, 6 x National Champion)

Double-Hander (symmetric spinnaker)

Merlin Rocket (2 x National Champion)

Double-Hander (asymmetric)

RS400 (10 x National Champion)

B14 (2 x World Champion, 1 x European Champion, 7 x National Champion)

Team Racing

BUSA Championship (2 x Champion)

In total that is a remarkable 48 National championships, 6 European championships and 19 World championships ... and counting! 33 of these (including 10 World championships) have been won in the 10 years since the first edition of this book was published in 2015!

Few people can claim that number of championship wins and even fewer, if anyone, in so many different classes and types of boat. And to top this, Nick has won the UK’s ‘Champion of Champions’ event (The Endeavour Trophy) 7 times – more than any other helm. And this has all been done while holding down a full-time job!

It is no wonder that Nick was awarded the YJA Yachtsman of the Year in 2011 and the Yachts & Yachting Amateur Sailor of the Year in 2013.

Helming to Win is, in many ways, Nick’s personal journey from club racer to championship winner. With this book, and enough dedication, you too can become a champion!

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

PART 1LEARNING TO WIN

Ingredients For Winning

Accelerating Your Learning Curve

Where To Look When Racing

PART 2SAILING FAST IN A STRAIGHT LINE

How To Get Fast!

Upwind Speed

Downwind Speed

Fixing An Attack Of ‘The Slows’

PART 3BOAT HANDLING

Turning Corners

Mark Rounding

PART 4CHAMPIONSHIP SAILING

Sailing At Championships

Starts At Championships

Mental Approach At Championships

PART 5BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

10 Point Plan For Helming To Win

FOREWORD

Nick Craig is the outstanding amateur sailor of his generation. To achieve what he has done in such a variety of classes, while holding down a full-time job, is remarkable.

Having raced against Nick a number of times, I can say that he is one of the best. He has been so successful by really understanding what makes a boat sail fast and applying this on the race course. This book allows anyone to gain from his experiences.

In my own journey from club racing my Optimist to winning major championships I have deployed a lot of the techniques that Nick describes. Anyone reading this book will greatly accelerate their learning curve and be taking an important step to achieving their own championship objectives.

Sir Ben Ainslie

4 x Olympic gold medallist, 1 x America’s Cup winner

PART 1

LEARNING TO WIN

Ingredients For Winning

Sailing is arguably the world’s greatest sport because its complexity and variety mean that it can be pursued for life without boredom or repetitiveness. However, while sailing is complex, it can be broken down into a series of processes that can be perfected with focused training. With sufficient time, commitment and a learning mindset, everyone can take their sailing up a few gears.

There are eight key skill areas that need to be strong to win sailing championships:

This book will focus on the first three of these. My other book, Tactics to Win, covers strategy and tactics and Bryan Willis’ Rules in Practice is the best book available for rules knowledge.

But firstly some brief pointers on the five skill areas that aren’t covered in depth in this book:

Strategy

Picking the right strategy (i.e. the paying way up a beat or downwind) is all about information gathering. No one knows which side will pay on a leg but a tactician’s objective is to get this decision right as often as possible by gathering every bit of information to make a well-informed choice. No one gets this right all of the time so it is vital to analyse and learn from your mistakes. Bias of the first beat to one tack or another, the windshift pattern, wind bends, potential sea breeze influence, wave pattern, tide and history should all play a role in the judgement you make on which side of the beat may pay.

How far you head to one side of the course depends on how strongly your analysis points to that side of the course and your attitude to risk for that race. Early in a series, a low risk strategy generally makes sense as you look for some early counters in your scoreline. Later in the series your attitude to risk will depend on how you are doing versus your objectives. If you are ahead of your personal objectives, then a low risk strategy should continue to make sense. If you are behind your objectives, it may be time to take more risk.

Boat-On-Boat Tactics

Planning a move, or several moves, ahead is key for winning boat-on-boat situations. In order to hone your tactics, race in high quality fleets in tight situations, or try some match or team racing. As you do more of this type of sailing, boat-onboat moves become more automatic so you can respond instinctively to tight situations rather than having to take time to think, by which time the opportunity may have passed.

Getting on the right hand side of your opposition often works, giving you the favourable starboard tack when things are close.

Those on the right hand side have the favoured starboard tack

Downwind it often pays to work the side that will give an inside overlap at the next mark.

3685 has gone left and gained an inside overlap

Mental Strength

Mental strength is a very individual thing. Everyone has an unconscious mind which provides continuous chatter that is not always helpful. If you find yourself disagreeing that you have an unconscious mind, your unconscious mind is clearly talking to you! That ‘chatter’ is often the source of negative thoughts, e.g. “Don’t capsize at this gybe mark, you’re doing really well!” A key skill is replacing any negative thoughts as soon as they enter your head with positive ones.

Another approach is to distract that wandering mind. There is a lot going on in sailing, so focusing on the wind, waves and opposition is usually enough to distract even the most active wandering mind!

Rules Knowledge

Reading the Racing Rules of Sailing isn’t a great way to learn the rules as they are dry, long and sometimes seemingly contradictory, and it is hard to interpret them without knowing which rules override others.

Bryan Willis’ Rules in Practice is excellent at making those interpretations while also providing the relevant rule for every situation. After an incident on the water, always refer to the RacingRules of Sailing or Rules In Practice to ensure that you have fully understood the situation. You are much more likely to remember the relevant rule after a live incident.

The sailing rules aren’t as fair as a court of law. There are situations where you are guilty until proven innocent: e.g. as windward boat, port tack boat, and when breaking or establishing an overlap when denying or claiming water at a mark. So, in these situations, you may need to exercise more caution depending on your attitude to risk at that point in the event.

In general, it pays to steer clear of trouble. There are few protests between leading sailors and a healthy give and take attitude – top sailors will tend to let a misjudgement on a close situation go – in the knowledge that at some point it will payback.

“At the 2003 Enterprise Worlds we were stuck behind a slower boat on a reach. We went high to overtake and were about to break clear after around 45 seconds (a quick overtake in an Enterprise!) when the leeward boat luffed as hard as they could and made a dent in the gunwale of my lovely wooden boat. I shouted protest and had two witnesses supporting my claim that the leeward boat hadn’t given us time and opportunity to avoid a collision. We lost the protest. The key learning from this is that as windward boat (and in several other scenarios), you are guilty until proven innocent. The protest committee noted that we had been overlapped for 45 seconds, so, in their view, had ample time and opportunity to avoid a collision.”

Physical Fitness

Fitness is really important if you have perfected the other seven skill areas. Being super-fit but a weak starter, or not knowing how to make a boat go fast, won’t help that much. But once you have mastered all of these other areas, fitness plays a key part in gaining an edge versus other strong all-round sailors.

Variety, and making fitness part of your daily routine, can ensure fitness becomes your friend for life. Provided the exercise is intense, 30 minutes a day is sufficient to get pretty fit, though more is good to build stamina and strength. The best fitness for sailing is windy weather sailing, but often that is a rare treat. Good substitutes are cycling, rowing machine, circuits, weight training and swimming, probably in that order, though that varies by boat and what your job is in the boat. I aim for no two weeks of fitness training to be the same over a long period. This variety is good for retaining interest and helps your body stay balanced and injury free.

As I have turned into an ageing sailor, the benefits of stretching have become more apparent! I didn’t used to stretch much but after picking some painful injuries in my early 40s, I discovered the benefits of stretching after some physio advice. On a good day, I will do four stretching sessions for 10-15 minutes each. I think as a result I have been injury free for several years, touch wood!

The best fitness for sailing is windy weather sailing

And Not Forgetting... The Crew

Looking beyond the eight key skill areas, your crew is your most important winning ingredient (unless you sail a single-hander!). You should ideally sail with the best crew possible who is a match with your expectations, time requirements and competitiveness.

If you are highly competitive, it is important to have a crew with a similar mindset. The crews I have sailed with for several years are very different people but have a common trait of being highly competitive on the water. Toby Lewis has the remarkable quality of being ridiculously competitive whilst racing but totally relaxed five seconds after the finish! This is a skill I am still working on, though improving with age!

If you are very relaxed about your results, you should sail with someone who is equally chilled out.

Accelerating Your Learning Curve

There are 5 key approaches that will help make the most of your time on the water:

1. Sail Against ‘The Best’

Always aim to sail against the best sailors, ideally in fleets where the standard is high and above your own. Sailing against better sailors than yourself will sharpen you up as you will need to nail the start and hold difficult lanes effectively (more on that later) to avoid being swallowed up by the pack in the first few hundred metres of the race. But more importantly, observing and talking to top sailors is a great way to learn – and it is fun!

2. Variety Of Classes

Sailing against different people at different venues is a great way to learn. Techniques from different classes can be re-applied across classes, meaning that you come back to your original class a better sailor. It is easy to get stale sailing one boat so, where possible, gaining a variety of experiences is hugely valuable. If possible that experience should include dinghies, catamarans and yachts, plus fleet, match and team racing, as each require different skills and provide new insights into the sport.

In the short term, sailing a variety of classes can be frustrating as you will be slower than you are used to in your new class. Mixing your boats will also initially slow you down in your main class as you lose some feel for it. But, in the long term, you will become a much better sailor, and can always re-gain the feel for your main class by putting the hours back into your chosen class again.

The lessons you will learn through sailing a variety of classes can be re-applied to your original class

The more you switch classes, the easier it becomes. By sailing more boats, you have more feel of the forces on different boats and greater analogues to draw from. When I first step into a new class, I decide what it feels closest to and sail it like that boat, before trying to refine my style to maximise performance in that class.

For example, I have sailed an Aero 9 a bit over the last couple of years: it is sort of working to sail it like a Finn downwind and B14 upwind. These aren’t the boats I expected to be drawing experience from in an Aero! Whilst a lot lighter than a Finn, the downwind angles, steering, kinetics and mainsheet adjustments are similar. With a bit more time, I am trying to add a little less range and more refinement to my Aero kinetics to adjust for a lighter hull. Upwind, the Aero can semi-plane so sailing a little free upwind in gusts to promote planing works as it does in the B14. This is opposite to most slow boats where you’d pinch a little in gusts to take the sting and power out the gust and gain some height.

Changing classes is hard so don’t be afraid to ask for outside help and be very open to input.

When adjusting to the Finn again after nearly 20 years, I needed help from others

“I sailed the Finn for three years from 2005-7 and moved back into it in 2023. I had all my notes and knew in my head the change of mode needed from my 2022/3 OK campaign. The Finn is heavy with a narrow centreboard so upwind flow over the board is critical so mostly sailing a little freer than the OK works. I knew this yet was still struggling for that last yard of upwind pace. It took the experienced, expert eye of legendary Finn sailor John Greenwood to spot my subtle errors whilst beating me at the 2024 UK Finn Masters. As gusts were hitting me upwind, I was instinctively trying to take a tiny bit of height and only slightly dropping the traveller. A small change to taking no height and being more radical with traveller easing and aggressive with cunningham use gave me the improvement I needed together with a few more months of time in the boat.”

3. ‘Training’ v. ‘Win’ Events

‘Training’ events are those where your aim is to learn as much as possible, rather than to win or necessarily do well. The more training events you build into your season, the faster you will learn. You should still be trying your hardest at training events, even though you don’t have an outcome goal.

Training events can be quite tough as you need to swallow your ego and accept that you may not do well if some of the things you are trying don’t work. But, in the long term, you will learn more and become a better sailor. You can generally still do pretty well, or even better than usual, at training events with this approach, as some of your experiments will work.

Another benefit of incorporating training events into your season is that they make the ‘win’ events, where you stop experimenting, in many ways easier than the training events. You drop the distraction of trying new things so you have less to think about and can keep things simple. This can also give the impression that you sail better under pressure as your performance moves up a gear at the main events, giving you an important psychological edge.

To accelerate your learning curve even further, be prepared to turn a win event into a training event if results aren’t going to plan. A few beers always help with this transition!

This is a key approach to developing your sailing. Countless sailors race week-in week-out but never improve because they hit a plateau and routine which they don’t seek to break or improve upon. They are putting the hours in, but they aren’t quality hours.

4. Learning Objectives

Set three to five learning objectives at training events. For example:

1.Boatspeed: Adjust one variable at a time to understand its effect and give the experiment time so you learn to make the new setting as effective as possible – i.e. don’t write it off too quickly if it is initially slow

2.Starts