Greg Koski of Ullman Sails Cleveland

Pro Sailor and expert Eric Shampain

Setting a racing schedule is essential to a successful racing season AND to build the best sailing teams. Greg Koski from Ullman Sails Cleveland and Erik Shampain offer their experiences and advice to boat owners for putting together a successful schedule for any racing season.  Their tips provide insight into everything from how to set up a cohesive team and build chemistry, to what it takes to accomplish your goals on the racecourse.

A crew’s performance is subject to a variety of factors on the race course, from the conditions and weather, to whether or not they had coffee in the morning! One of the most important components of a crew’s performance is clarity of mind and focus.  A well organized and stable crew gives your boat the best chance to succeed on the water— setting a racing schedule is one of the key factors to setting up a solid team.

Whether you’re organizing a pro team or a crew of PHRF connoisseurs, developing consistency and loyalty, and climbing the results page is significantly aided by having set expectations for the season. Helping people manage their schedules and commitment to the program ultimately builds stronger team chemistry and sets your team up for a more successful and enjoyable season.

What Do You Want Your Season To Look Like?

The first step for any owner is to determine their own goals and level of investment for the season. Here are some key questions owners should consider when planning their season:

Goals:

• What goals do you have for the year ahead? Is it to finish in the top 25% of the fleet? Go to Nationals? The Worlds? Go to the regattas with the biggest parties?

Expectations:

• How many regattas do you want to attend this season?
• How much commitment do you want from your crew? Do you expect the same people to race every event on the calendar?
• How much do you expect to improve over the season?  How will this be measured?

Budget:

• What investments will you put into the boat this year? New sails? Re-doing the bottom?
• How much travel will you be doing? Do you need to cover the cost of transporting the boat and crew to each venue?
• What expenses will you cover for your crew?  Some owners pay for everything from a new set of matching clothes to covering the gas to get to the yacht club, while other programs can’t afford to do that.
• If you’re traveling where will the crew stay? Will they be staying in suites?  At a motel?

Regattas:

• Where do you want to sail?  Are there venues that replicate the conditions expected at the Nationals or Worlds that will allow you to practice? Venues with better weather?
• How competitive are the fleets? Will you be challenged to do your best at each event?
• Is there an event that you can work towards as a reward if the crew accomplishes its goals?

Components of a Proper Schedule

Once you’ve crunched the numbers, thought through what you want to achieve, and possibly spoken to a couple of key players on the boat, it is time to put something on paper. An email with a brief overview of the goals and updates for the season paired with an Excel calendar of the year’s schedule is a simple, yet effective way to share your thoughts.  Your crew doesn’t need to see an itemized budget or the hotels where they might stay in five months, but they do need to know the scope of your program – why you’re going to be competitive this year, which events you plan to attend, how much participation you expect, and who else will be sailing with the team.

This first email is also a starting point for a conversation about the year, particularly if a crew member has a busier schedule than usual, plans on taking the season off from sailing, or wants to push the program further; it gives everyone an opportunity to share their opinion with a clear understanding of what you expect the program to look like.

Here are some key topics to consider when formalizing a message to your crew:

Season Goals

• Top 10 at Nationals or wearing a different crew costume theme each regatta?!

Regatta Details

• Names, Dates, Locations

Investments by the Owner in the boat

• Cleaned Bottom, New Sails, Replaced Lines

Expenses covered by Owner at each regatta (if applicable)

• Lunch, Hotel, Drinks, Gear, Transportation

Practice and Maintenance Days

Spending more time with the boat helps you sail faster.  Practice is extremely important but not all programs can require a rigorous practice schedule. Owners need to gauge the time commitment appropriate for their team.  Most people today juggle several commitments, so practice and maintenance days can be a real strain on schedules.  Keep a happy crew by respecting their time.  Make sure to communicate at the beginning of the season your expectations for practicing.

Unexpected maintenance on the boat or working with a set of new sails can also require extra time from your crew outside of the standard regatta schedule.  Come up with a game plan and share it with your team so they know what to expect if extra days on the water are needed.  This can vary from boat-to-boat, but creative solutions are out there!  Consider making a maintenance session part of an evening social cruise with the goal of marking all the lines and finding parts to replace, or try bringing breakfast to the boat and having the crew show up early before a race to help tune the boat or try a new set up.

Sell the Schedule!

Getting everyone jazzed about the season and working towards a goal is a must.  A crew often takes vacation days off of work, foregoes responsibilities, and spends a significant amount of their free time to be on board.  Offering reasons that this season will be better than the last is a great way to start on a good note.

Your schedule should be passed on to anyone who might be sailing with the boat for the season. Getting everyone energized about the upgrades being made, what the boat hopes to accomplish, and outlining crew commitment and covered expenditures means that everyone will be on the same page.  It will also save time – best to tell everyone at once instead of repeating yourself to each crew member.

Santa Cruz 50 Sailing Downwind using a Red Line Spinnaker from Ullman Sails during Long Beach Race Week 2015 – Photo by www.Joysailing.com

Plan for the Unexpected

We all know that life throws curveballs at us, and no matter how much of a priority sailing is, sometimes a crew member can’t make an event.  While commitments should be honored as best they can, especially considering how much time, money and effort owners put in, everyone needs to be prepared for a sudden change.  Having crew alternates, or a ‘crew bank,’ is one of the best solutions you can have – a list of sailors that aren’t able to commit to your weekly rotation, but who are capable of filling an unexpected void.

For smaller boats you should try to have a list of people who match your standard crew in weight and talent.  And it’s a nice gesture to make sure the other crew members are comfortable sailing with the people from the crew bank, which can help avoid awkward situations down the road or in the heat of a race.

Make sure to communicate to your team members that the burden is on them to give the owner as much notice as possible if they have to cancel.  This can help avoid crew habitually blowing off events.  If you go through the work of setting a budget, goals, expectations and a calendar,  it is only fair that the crew live up to their commitments.

See the Results

With a consistent crew working towards a common goal, improvement is almost inevitable. Working with the same people means everyone will improve in their roles and get in sync with each other’s habits and responsibilities.  This means tighter maneuvers, better communication, and more focus – all of which results in better boat speed, consistency, the ability to take more calculated risks, and more fun on the water.  Crew stress and variation are elements in sailing that constantly draw focus and attention away from boat speed.  The more organized you are, the less there will be to distract you from winning your race.

#InvestInYourPerformance.

Have you been on a crew with an awesome schedule? What was great about the schedule?  How about an experience where not having a schedule hampered a season or event?

Greg Koski
Greg is currently racing on a number of boats around the U.S., including a J/70.  He has won multiple National Championships, North American Championships, as well as Great Lakes Championships.  When Greg isn’t on the water sailing, he is based in Cleveland, Ohio where he manages a network of three Ullman Sails lofts. He has been active in the sailmaking business for almost 25 years and has owned his own loft for almost 20 years.

Erik Shampain
Erik has won National and World Championships and is actively involved in pro sailing. He regularly races Melges 20s, Farr 40s, J-125s, J-70s, Sydney 41s, Hobie Magic 25s, TP52s, Melges 24s, and races offshore aboard the successful Santa Cruz 50+, Horizon.