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NO
EXCUSES.
Bill Symes’ interview with Jonathan McKee after
the 1996 Tasar Worlds - Part 4
You mentioned you had good
speed on the run. What do you think you're doing differently?
A lot of it is just staying
focused on both the wind and the waves. There was a kind of a wave pattern
where sometimes you could just get in a little groove with the wave and stay
in it for a long time or at least avoid bad waves. It was kind of like sailing
a keel boat, where you'd get the boat up to speed and then just try to keep it
up to speed and keep from slowing down and just be consistently sort of
staying in the same wave train. It was also important in a lot of the races,
especially in the westerly races where the puffs were coming down, to reach up
to get into a puff, and then when you were in it, you could kind of ride it
down.
I think the fore and aft weight
is very important on all the downwind legs, and reaching also. We pay a lot of
attention to fore and aft and in and out. We tend to get quite far forward on
the downwind. I think maybe our boat's light in the bow or whatever, but it
seems very important to try to make sure that you're not dragging the stern.
And then on the reaches, when you're really planing, you need to be pretty far
aft, which most people seem to be clueing in to. But when you drop off a plane
or it gets a little lighter, then you have to make sure you're getting forward
again. So I think continuing to focus on the weight is important.
Were you steering around a lot
to stay in the wave patterns?
Yeah, a fair amount I guess
you'd say. More so when it's windier. When it's lighter I tend to try to just
go towards the mark more, unless there's big puffs and lulls, and then I steer
a lot more then also. When you get a big puff, you can sail quite a bit low of
the mark, which allows you to come up again in a lull.
Any
thoughts on optimum angles downwind? Were you able to sail dead down in most
conditions?
We
could when we had too, if the waves would allow it. So it was kind of
wave-driven again. And when you're going dead down you have to make sure
you're unrotated, so that the main leech is freed up enough. Again I'm using
those upper telltales on the run as well and trying to keep them just flowing.
If you're running and your telltales aren't flowing, then I'd try unrotating.
That usually will twist the leech and, in effect, let the sail out more.
Any
more advice for the rest of us who would like to know what it takes to win a
world championship?
That's
tough. A lot of it is staying focused on the big picture and being mentally
focused all the time. We prepared well before the regatta, we had a very clear
picture of what we wanted to do tactically, and we had kind of an overall
plan. So we weren't just winging it in every race; we were very disciplined
in the way that we approached it. We were usually one of the first boats out
to the starting line, and we used that time to figure out what was going on.
We didn't worry that much about speed. There were times when we were pretty
fast; there were times when our speed wasn't that great. But we didn't worry
about it that much. We just kind of kept to our speed settings and the things
we knew generally worked--or at least weren't too far wrong--rather than
trying to reinvent the wheel every time we were going a little bit slow.
We
just focused on trying to do the percentage moves every time, both upwind and
downwind, and tried not to hit any other boats. We were never over early,
didn't hit any marks, didn't really take any what I would call flyers. We just
tried to get ourselves in positions where we weren't dictated by the actions
of other boats. That is harder when you're back in the pack, I understand, but
even when there are other boats around I think it's important to keep thinking
about what do you really want to do and not just what the other boats are
going to allow you to do. We weren't afraid to sail in bad air sometimes. If
they're going the right way and we could see the light at the end of the
tunnel, we would just hang in there, and often times it's better than the
alternative.
Basically,
we tried to just find ourselves a place where we could sail and concentrate on
speed, both upwind and downwind. We didn't try to get locked in any duels with
other boats or anything like that. Really just try to go fast toward the next
mark.
You
usually had a clear idea of what the best route was?
Yes
we did. Most races we felt we knew what the right tack to be on most of the
time was. That's a big help. Having that kind of confidence allows you to
settle in and just go and go fast and not worry about some other things. If
you're always second guessing yourself, that's tough.
What
are your plans now in Tasars? Will you keep sailing?
Yes,
most definitely! We really enjoy the class and we're for sure going to keep
sailing and we're especially looking forward to the traveling regattas next
year and on into the future. It's a class that we're going to continue to sail
for a long time.
Libby
adds:
I
put a premium on being able to hike hard for the whole race. I trained by
doing lunges and borrowing Molly's "Buns and Thighs of Steel" video
tape. It made a big difference for me--being able to focus on sailing and not
on how tired my legs were!
This interview was first printed in the NATA newsletter in Winter, 1997; posted 00-05-15