Advanced Racing Tactics

by Walker, Stuart H., M.D.

• ISBN13: 9780393303339
• ISBN10: 0393303330
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1986-06-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

Today far more sailors than ever before have reached a superior level of competitive ability, and the few individuals who remain at the head of the competitive classes year and after year must contantly improve their skills. This book will help the sailor analyze for himself the determinants of tactical success.One of the foremost theoreticians of the art of yacht racing, Stuart H. Walker is also an outstanding practicing racer. For eight years Dr. Walker kept a complete record of the factors that determined the outcome of every race in which he competed. The recommendations he offers in Advanced Racing Tactics are based upon the analysis of these races?he mistakes and the successes. He sets forth basic principles of starting, beating, reaching, and mark rounding that should be practiced every time, and he underlines what mattered, what consistently provided an advantage.The advanced racing skipper, Dr. Walker writes, must look around, examine his own mistakes and successes, record them, review them, remember them. When he recognizes from this own experience the validity of the principles presented here, they will become useful to him. When he has incorporated them into his regular racing patterns, he will have made a five- or ten-year leap forward.

Table of Contents

Foreword	9	(6)
I. General
Series Strategy	15	(8)
Major Mistakes	23	(5)
Race Management	28	(7)
How the Specialists Win	35	(4)
Flexibility	39	(5)
The Obviously Wrong Tack	44	(3)
Greed	47	(4)
The Skipper's Job	51	(5)
The Crew's Job	56	(3)
A Classic Example	59	(8)
II. Tactical Principles
Clear Air	67	(6)
Shifting Gears	73	(7)
The Utilization of Wind Shifts	80	(9)
Light Air	89	(8)
Heavy Air	97	(10)
Current: Fact and Fiction	107	(9)
Big Fleets: Basic Requirements	116	(7)
III. Starting
The Starting Plan	123	(6)
Starting Technique	129	(7)
The Timed Start	136	(5)
Starting at the Windward End	141	(9)
Starting at the Leeward End	150	(7)
Middle-of-the-Line Starts	157	(4)
Off on Port	161	(5)
Starting in Light Air	166	(5)
Starting in Oscillating Winds	171	(6)
Match-Race Starts, I: Meeting and Circling	177	(9)
Match-Race Starts, II: Control Techniques	186	(11)
IV. Beating
Recognizing the Persistent Shift	197	(10)
Sail Away from the New Wind?	207	(7)
The First (or Second) Tack	214	(5)
Watch the Competition	219	(5)
Tacking	224	(8)
The Tack Away	232	(5)
The Management of Oscillating Shifts	237	(4)
Oscillating Wind Angles	241	(9)
The One-Leg Beat	250	(5)
The Starboard-Tack Parade	255	(5)
Approaching the Weather Mark	260	(9)
The Second and Third Beats	269	(10)
V. Reaching
Leaving the Weather Mark	279	(6)
Up the Reach (Strategic Considerations)	285	(6)
High or Low (Wind-Strength Considerations)	291	(4)
When Not to Set the Spinnaker (Sailing-Angle Considerations)	295	(7)
The Jibe Mark	302	(7)
The Second Reach	309	(12)
VI. Running
Starting the Run	321	(7)
Tacking Downwind	328	(7)
Downwind Strategy	335	(7)
Tactics on the Run	342	(6)
Approaching the Leeward Mark	348	(11)
VII. Finishing
Tactical Control	359	(10)
The Finish Point	369	(16)
International Yacht Racing Union Rules-Definitions	375	(2)
International Yacht Racing Union Rules-Part IV	377	(8)
Glossary	385	(8)
Index	393