The Need to Manage Variables

 To sail well you need to manage a challenging number of variables. When you have enough experience in the particular circumstances that you’re sailing in, and you’ve practiced your boat handling enough, the variables just seem to come at a pace you can manage. But let anything new pop up or let the wind begin to test your skill level and the variables will seem to bombard you. Without a structured approach to monitoring and managing the variables you are likely to miss something important.

When you first learned to sail you may have managed things with a number of written or memorized lists of procedures. You most likely rigged the boat the same way each time so you didn’t forget the drain bung or the wind vane, and you may have thought through the steps of a tack before you ever put the helm over. The other way you managed the variables was to ignore many of them; chances are you didn’t adjust the hull trim as often as you should or tweak the secondary controls like the vang or cunningham while you were sailing to windward through patches of variable strength air.

Eventually, managing variables effectively means you need to do more than just run down a basic to-do list. You need to adapt the boat, your thinking and your emotional trim to a flow of constantly changing conditions. You must learn to adapt to the changes in each variable and keep them all going at the same time. In my early days I ran aground while trying to get the jib to break at the same instant the main luff loosened. I had just gotten the jib car and sheet set when the centerboard kicked up and my beautifully prepped bottom dug a furrow in some sandy mud. It wasn’t many sails later that I was carefully judging my distance off the wooded shoreline and the boom caught me in the side of the head for my first uncontrolled jibe.

There are a number of attributes that help determine the success of a racing sailor, but perhaps the most crucial is adaptability or flexibility in the face of changing conditions and situations. We play our game on a "field" with moving boundaries, the source that we use to power our boats and the fluids and turbulence that inhibit our motion are in constant flux and the venues we sail in each present numerous little challenges. Our sail engine can be shaped to deliver different styles of power and our hulls can be positioned in the water to reduce drag or pull themselves free from the viscous suction.

If we’re not adaptable the boat won’t be adapted to the conditions. Each individual’s biology also resists change. Research has shown that as mammals grow older they tend to repeat known activities – to be less adaptable. This can represent a hardship for any racer, but particularly for Master Laser sailors. Humans apparently understand our own limitations when "hunting" in unfamiliar waters and therefore choose to repeat behaviors and experiences where the risks are known. There is even solid research evidence that we prefer to settle for smaller rewards rather than risk too much for a larger reward. This can keep you from betting on the corners to pay off, but can also keep you satisfied with a particular finishing order in your fleet.

Practicing adaptability, acting and thinking in new ways, can increase your abilities and tolerance for change and flexibility. The good news for Master Laser sailors is that our sport encourages us to keep practicing adaptability, and the adaptability we develop will then pay dividends in other aspects of our lives.

Laser racers need to remain mentally and emotionally flexible and the activity and variables of racing help to promote flexibility; but like physical flexibility and strength, it doesn’t make sense to just build your ability when you’re in the boat. I’d like to suggest some simple ways to maintain and build your capacity for adaptability, which will pay dividends in managing variables.

One aspect of adaptability is awareness of the present moment. When you’re lost in thought or reacting to critical, negative voices in your head, you’re not as aware of what is happening around you and you lose your flexibility to respond with your best options. Being a part of what is happening now, opens up the potential for seeing the small, almost hidden opportunities that appear without fanfare.

I have improved my place in many races where I got a bad start or flubbed a mark rounding, because I have practiced enough that I have an ability to pull my attention back to what is happening in the moment and not get stuck on a recent mistake. In one major regional race a number of years ago I was over early and had to return to restart. My five crewmembers literally started leaving their positions and all but abandoning the race. I said, "Let’s test ourselves and see if we are good enough at sailing this boat to catch a boat or two."

People began to put a little energy into their sail trim to placate me and I started hearing more reports on what was happening on the course. I began noting aloud each good bit of boat handling and appropriate trim. I asked lots of questions about what was happening with the wind and other boats. I also reported every gain on the boats ahead until my crew started jumping in ahead of me when we pulled up a bit. We didn’t get any nice wind shifts, we just sailed the hell out of the boat. We were eighth out of 12 at the windward mark, fifth coming into the leeward mark, third coming out of it and eventually finished six boat lengths ahead of the second place boat.

To be able to stay in the moment in tough circumstances you will need to practice adjusting your focus. You might begin a formal meditation practice and/or you can just increase the moments when you turn your attention to what is actually happening around you. (Read my article, Meditation Can Improve Your Sailing.) Off the water practice adds value to on-the-water practice time.

On the water I ask myself how many indicators of wind direction or speed can I find at that moment? Can I pick-up a different hull-against-water sound in the puffs? Or I challenge myself to push for a piece of better performance that I can control, i.e., how flat can I keep the boat? Can I recognize the next small shift before anyone else? Is my sail right on the luff without ever actually breaking?

Because sailing is based on so many variables, adaptability also requires continual switching your attention to observe the full variety of events. Think of this as expanding your attention in the present moment to a wider field of view.

Switching your attention requires practice. You need to develop a pattern and a flow to pull you through a series of observations without missing or getting caught and stalling on a particular one for too long. You must control both the pattern and the intensity or rhythm of your attention– you check the wind and waves, confirm you are happy with the sail trim and shape, bring the sounds and feelings of the motion of the boat into your awareness, and survey the field of play for competitors’ moves.

To be successful develop a carefully choreographed routine so that you capture all the data you need and adjust the rhythm to match the speed and intensity of the situation; you can’t keep up an intense rhythm without missing the more subtle clues on a quiet day, but you must keep things rolling on a windy day. Some of my coaching clients use music to develop rhythms they can use to take them to different intensity levels. Try humming a driving rock song on those hard days and a gentle ballad on lighter days.

Think of it as a dance, where you need to choreograph your moves step by step until you’re catching all the important information without getting stuck on any single piece and you’re in time with the beat of the moment. This is similar to a routinized pre-start procedure, always dynamic with a flow to it that matches the motion or rhythm of the boat. The flow pulls you to the next possibility of change and supports an adaptive attitude. As you become more comfortable the routine will become unconscious.

To make progress in your racing abilities you need to adapt to the conditions of the day, to your body and to your ability to focus, in order to get the most out of the current race or practice situation.

Awareness and switching of attention take patience. And so, it is perhaps patience that adaptability rests on. For once patience is gone, pressure mounts to just do something, and just doing anything is not adaptable but unruly. Patience is the state of being ok with the way things are in the moment even while you strive to adapt to the new reality that is developing.

Patience is an aspect of emotional trim or balance. Just as you need to be able to easily adjust your controls, you need to be able to adjust your emotional temperature. Light air requires a slow patient approach, but with keen awareness; heavy competition or heavy air demands courage and boldness. As you set up your routine to monitor the variables of your race, be sure to leave a slot for checking in on your emotional trim.