Giles scott is one of Britain’s most accomplished sailors. He has
won four Finn singlehander world titles and a gold medal at the Rio
Olympics in 2016. He is a key member of Land Rover BAR’s America’s
Cup team, where he usually sails as tactician for Ben Ainslie.DO YOU NEED A PLAN B?
My tendency is to focus only on Plan
A, but if there is an obvious next
move, make sure that this is known to
the rest of the crew. The key is having
a group of sailors where everyone
is able to change very, very quickly
because you won’t always execute
your plan perfectly. That’s the key to
a good sailing team: everybody on the
boat is ready for a snap change.FIRST STEPS
Initially work out the shift range, so I’d normally do that by sailing an upwind leg and just
dialling into the compass numbers. Get your sail choices and your rig properly set up for the
conditions. Then I would keep it all relaxed, have a drink, have some food.
As soon as the start line is in, I’d work out which end is biased and speak to my coach
about any strategy. Is there any tidal flow influence, or forecast knowledge that you need
to know? That would provide the foundation for your start strategy, which leads to your
race strategy.
Then, closer to the start, double check the line bias and decide how risky you want to be
in nailing the biased end. If there’s a transit to get on the shore, make sure you’ve got that,
because it will give you the confidence to be that much closer to the line. Also on bigger
boats, where you tend to have electronic aids on board, the navigator will generally ping both
ends of the line, which gives you even more accuracy.1
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DOWNWIND STARTS
The basics are very similar, it’s just
that with a downwind start the timing
of when to hoist the chute is normally
when it’s won and lost. Also, having
the ability to get yourself clear if
you don’t quite have the perfect
start is tricky.
Even if you do get a good start
downwind, quite often if you extend
you will then be drawn back into
the main pack, because you are
going into a position of having your
wind covered. This applies more
in yachts than in fast cats, where
the fundamentals of apparent wind
change so much. But in slower
yachts, you need an option to be
able to get out and clear your air. In
fact, for a downwind start, I would
put more of a priority on being able
to clear your air than getting the line
bias right.TALK THROUGH THE PLAN
Sailing singlehanded compared with
sailing with a crew has some obvious
fundamental differences. Working
in a large group you need to be able
to communicate effectively. In fast
boats, noise is a problem and clear
comms is critical. Communication is
nearly always the biggest discussion
point of any debrief, so it’s really
important to make sure everybody on
the boat understands what’s about to
happen before any key moment.
As a tactician I’d use the time
before the start to brief the crew on
a rough plan for what we want to be
able to execute, whether it’s go left
or right, or start midline and take the
shifts up the middle.Tide on the line
I will have a look at the layline for the
favoured end and how the current is
affecting it, whether it’s taking you
to or away from the line, and I’ll keep
an eye on the transit and see how it’s
moving. You need to gauge how quickly
you’re drifting on the current, because
it affects your time-on-distance
massively. The stronger the current,
the more vital it is to do your dummy
runs and timed approaches to the line.Carlo BorlenghiAlamyTom Gruitt