Mark Thompson - Top Squib crew, 1999 Inland Champion 1999, Match Racing Champion 1997 and ace helmsman in his own right (3rd in the 1997 Irish Championships for example) - talks about championship level crewing.
Mark’s advice is of two forms, the psychological and the practical. He says that a good crew/helm partnership is ultimately intuitive but based upon sound foundations. It helps that he and Dave Best alternate helming in club races so both know each other’s job. It further helps that he and Dave designed the boat’s systems together and fitted it out as a team so both know what is happening at any time and what that ominous noise was down below.
While this may not be possible for every team, his three rules of psychology can apply to all and Mark says sailing is ultimately a psychological game. First, he says that it is vital to keep your communications very clear. Be factual and keep the emotion out of it. Second, the crew must provide maximum information, especially on the beat when the helm’s gaze is riveted to the jib luff. Thirdly, helm and crew must retain a positive frame of mind. If it is not positive, don’t say it!
It is clear that he and Dave Best think totally alike on tactics and he reinforces Dave’s comment published elsewhere in Squibble that clear air on the first beat is the most single important element. He recommends being willing to bang the corners on the first beat. Even if you have a bad start, you can cross behind the fleet, get to clear air, sail fast and like as not, come out in a good position.
He makes the striking point that you should treat the Squib like a big dinghy. How you move your weight around (subtly and gently), where you sit and how you tack do count. In a heavier keel boat like a Dragon perhaps this may not matter quite so much but thinking of the Squib as a big dinghy changes one’s approach. For example, he tells us to roll tack the boat in light and medium airs. As crew, he will not come up on the new windward side until the boat has fully tacked. Thus, the boat rolls to the new leeward side and is then brought up, fanning into the wind, as Mark’s 13 stone hikes over the side.
He describes himself and Dave as heavy. Their total weight is about 26 stone. (Perhaps this is dinghy thinking again.) They concentrate upon keeping their weight over the fore and aft point of balance, which he describes as being usually over the bulb of the keel. He recommends looking at your Squib as it is lifted out of the water and estimating its point of balance. Some Squibs are bow heavy and some the reverse. Typically, he and Dave sit close together, with Dave’s legs astride the main sheet track. They do not move forward in light airs, in an attempt to get the stern out of the water as some people recommend. They stay right on that point of balance.
However, they do move around in waves. On the beat, using weight actively to counteract the roll of the wave makes a great deal of difference. It is as if they are pulling the boat up the wave. On a beat, Mark says, you must be almost religious about keeping the mast vertical, no matter what the waves want to do with you. Hiking out as the advancing wave tries to roll the boat to leeward and sitting in as the wave moves under the boat and tries to roll it to windward. No wonder that Mark also recommends a fitness training regime!
Continuing the ‘big dinghy’ theme, Mark emphasises the importance of riding the waves and initiating surfing on the reach by (legal) pumping of the spinnaker. The rules allow you one pump per wave (or gust) when surfing conditions exist. (Rule 42.3.b) Combined with weight movement, forward going down the wave to pick up speed and back as the boat starts to surf, this spinnaker action can have a dramatic effect. Mark never cleats the spinnaker sheet and is playing it constantly, using ratchet blocks, just as in a dinghy. Naturally the guy is cleated in heavier winds. In lighter airs, Mark plays both sheet and guy, holding them in his hands, uncleated.
Mark’s standard is to have the spinnaker up and filling within 3 seconds after rounding the windward mark. Different boats will have different systems but Mark’s method, using a fly-away pole system, is as follows:
(a) Spinnaker sheet is cleated to a pre-set point well before the windward mark
(b) Pole out just before the windward mark (DON’T forget the guy!) when sure of making it
(c) The helm hoists the spinnaker - and as s/he does this ...
(d) The crew instantly pulls the guy to its mark, filling the spinnaker as it goes up
(e) Cleat the guy
(f) Adjust and start playing the sheet.
Mark advocates ensuring clear responsibilities in every manoeuvre so that no one has to shout instructions or make decisions for the other member of the team. Dropping the spinnaker, in Mark’s approach, is entirely the responsibility of the crew. Interestingly, in his system the crew controls the spinnaker halyard for the drop while the helm simply concentrates upon rounding the leeward mark. Mark’s standard here is to be packing the last of the chute into its bag as the boat rounds. The pole comes off last and if they intend to carry on the same tack, Mark may leave the pole up until a suitable moment. Mark’s system allows him to uncleat the pole and let it swing back in without shifting his weight inboard.
His approach to gybing is to have the helm take control of both sheet and guy for the gybe, while steering with the tiller between his or her legs. Mark recommends a shorter tiller and a longer extension to facilitate this. The crew sets the twinning lines, changes the pole over, cleats the new guy and then takes the sheet back from the helm. The spinnaker is working throughout the gybe. Reach-to reach, the same method applies. However, a bit of judicious steering helps. Mark advises pinching up to windward before the mark, bearing away for it and then gybing at the mark, from a broad reach to the new reach.
There is a lot to think about here and getting these manoeuvres right is not just a matter of good fortune. As Gary Player once said, when an onlooker remarked how lucky he was out of bunkers, “Yes sir! And you know, the more I practice, the luckier I get!”