Wind and Racing Strategy for Youth with Roble / Shea Sailing

ILYA Fast Forward Webinar Series
This week’s topic is Wind and Racing Strategy. Olympic Sailing Team members Steph Roble and Maggie Shea covered fundamentals that every racing sailor should know, and set the stage for future discussions. The youth sailors had lots of good questions.
A more thorough debrief of the content is available at SailZing.com or watch the full video here. Use the timings in the video description to go directly to the topics that interest you or read a summary of the key insights below.
The Fast Forward series is a partnership between the ILYA and SailZing.com featuring Roble/Shea Sailing and other top sailors. The videos are edited recordings of live webinars conducted in spring 2020.
Outline and Video Timings
1) Introductions
Good clip showing 49er FX sailing
2) Points of sail - brief review (03:50)
3) How to win races (05:10)
Three fundamentals
Strategy vs. tactics - what’s the difference?
4) Understand the venue and the wind to develop a game plan (07:15)
Types of venues
Types of wind
Reading the wind on the water
Examples with pictures
5) Wind shifts and sailing in phase (19:15)
Lifted and headed tack
Tack on the shifts to sail the shortest distance
Gains in lifts and headers - with GPS tracking examples
Ladder rungs - brief intro
6) Q&A break (30:14)
7) What is the long tack/long gybe and why does it matter? (38:10)
8) Tacking angles and laylines (41:04)
What is a tacking angle?
What is a layline?
How to tell when you’re on the layline
Avoiding the laylines when it’s shifty
9) More Q&A (46:50)
What to do if you’re stuck in a header
Should you tack right away in a knock
What kind of workouts do you do?
After a bad start, how do you keep your mind clear?
Wind and Racing Strategy - More Information
Want more information about these topics? Here are some links to SailZing.com articles:
Windward Mark Laylines: Get them Right - sailzing.me/jzk
Seeing Wind on the Water - Improve Your Skills - sailzing.me/1vg
Sail the Long Tack: Part of Your Strategy Mix - sailzing.me/3q3
Ladder Rungs: Understand the Race Course with a Visual Approach - sailzing.me/lwy
Roble-Shea Sailing
Keep up with Steph and Maggie’s campaign and consider donating.
Roble-Shea Sailing - www.roblesheas...
ILYA foundation - donate here or directly at Roble-Shea website - ilya.org/
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