Once upon a time, my teammates and I would start pre-race conversations with something like, “Let’s talk about weather conditions, geography and current, and come up with a plan.” But that’s a mouthful.
Then, one day, someone simply asked, “What kind of day is it?”
The question stuck, and since then, whether coaching or in my own racing, a pre-race discussion always starts with this very question. The answer, I’ve found, is essential to forming a strategy because, by categorizing the “kind of day,” we can be better prepared for the conditions we’re mostly to encounter.
It’s a light-wind day: Think observation and patience. Here, the overriding strategy is to sail toward wind velocity. When it’s blowing 4 knots, your boat might move at 2 knots, which is well below…