Percentage Sailing

Using the numbers to help decide your race tactics is not only sensible, it’s fast, says Paralympian HELENA LUCAS

- Helena Lucas

Percentage sailing is about fleet awareness and management; knowing how many boats are to the right and left of you on the course and making moves to capitalise on that. It’s a great tactical approach on days when it’s not obvious what’s going on with the breeze.

I use this approach, for example, on a day when I have sailed upwind and there have not been any real shifts to note, so this is not an oscillating breeze and neither does one side of the course seem obviously favoured. It’s a boat speed day and about making the least mistakes. You are racing the fleet not the conditions.

It’s a conservative approach reducing risk, not taking chances and preventing the competition from consolidating their gains. For this reason you need to have competitive boat speed otherwise you will be swallowed up by the fleet. If you don’t have good boat speed you need to be more daring with your tactics and this conservative approach will not work.

A good start is also important in ensuring you have clear air and a lane in which you can tack and consolidate. It’s much harder to adopt this form of sailing from a poor start, but still possible if you can escape and get into clear air quickly.

So let’s look at a few examples. Firstly – you come of the start line in good shape on starboard tack; a few boats start to tack offand after a while 50% of the fleet has tacked to port. I would now start planning my tack to port, looking for a clear lane and an opportunity to go, as there is no obvious reason to carry on. When 60% of the fleet have tacked to port, it is time to go! If the split is uneven, go with the majority.