Update on SHTP racer competitiveness study

[Foolish]

I've got a half dozen racers signed up to take part in the study. This is good, but I'd really like to get a dozen of you on board to get the best possible result. I've been given support from a sports PhD from South Africa and a sailing coaching expert in the U.K. in developing the study and I'm working with their suggestions.

Here are a couple of other questions that will be included:

Compared to normal afternoon races or cruises near your home club, have you sailed:
a. Much more aggressively, aggressively, the same, conservatively, much more conservatively

Did you push beyond your comfort limit?
a. No, once, several times, many times


Here is my promise:
I guarantee that it won't take more than 2 minutes to answer the questions, just before you do your position check-in .
All the answers will be confidentially mixed in with the group so that no one can be identified, but I will give their own personal results to each participant.

Please drop me an e-mail at [email protected] to take part.

Andy Evans

 

[BobJ]

Hi Andy,

(I still remember how your face lit up in 2006 when I told you over pizza that I wasn't taking a #1.)

There's no doubt that lethargy set in for me during both races. Partly a lack of sleep probably, but I'd let the boat sail along and not make a sail change I should have made - the mind just got dull and I almost forgot I was racing. One thing that helped was standing with both hands holding the back edge of the dodger and running in place for awhile, there in the cockpit. Just getting the heart rate up for 10-15 minutes helped both mind and body.

I taped up a few signs to remind me of things (like "Clip In") - I should have made one that said "THIS IS A RACE!"

 

[Foolish]

Bob, what you are saying is exactly right. It is too easy to get into a state of lethargy and forget that "this is a race". I believe that this problem permeates long distance, singlehanded racing at all levels. This is the exact reason I'm doing the study; to try to figure out how to maintain a competitive attitude for such a long period.

Andy

 

[tiger beetle]

Hi Andy -

This is entirely my personal approach to the SSS TransPac - and I don't see the event as a race, but rather as a rite of passage. In each race I've participated in there's an initial sense of balls to the wall go for speed damn the torpedoes (this is when the horror stories come out over the radio in the offshore coastal wind flow, blown jibs, busted rigging, broken pilots, broken boats), and then the you hit the ridge, slow down, and realize there's still 1500 miles to go to the finish and you're in the middle of the Pacific Ocean - and Hanalei is a long long way away from where you are... and then you back off the throttle and go for finishing without destroying the boat. By the time the fleet hits the finish line it's no longer relevant who got there first and instead the mood becomes a cheering on of everyone and every finisher is a winner.

Upshot: I've never started the race with the intent to win. My goal has always been to sail as well as I and my boat possibly can, and if somebody else beats me then good on them. What I do not want to happen is for me to give away the race because I backed off.

What I have found fascinating is that folks back stateside were keenly following corrected scoring finish times and we on the beach could not care less about that, as we just wanted everyone to make it to the finish line looking good and having fun.

I do like to be the first one up in the morning hoisting the kite before roll call, assuming that I took the kite down in the first place the night before. Longest I've flown a kite continuosly is 4 days - that was particularly wearing, as you had to be up a lot (like, say, no more than 15 minutes), to see what was going on. So you learn to sleep in the cockpit face up (tethered in case the boat broaches and tries to dump you over the side) such that the incoming squall rains on your face such that you wake up and can do useful things to the spinnaker and boat direction before you get pounded by the big wind shifts.

But no, I've never approached SSS TransPac as a race that needs to be won by beating everyone else, instead it's a race that is won by doing better than the expectations you brought to the start line.

- rob/beetle

 

[Foolish]

Rob, your message is exactly the reason I'm doing the study. I'm trying to figure out what is happening in our minds. Your statements are perfectly legitimate and probably common among the vast majority of skippers in major singlehanded races all over the world. I've done enough studying on the subject to know that this is true, even for the biggest races like the Vendee Globe or the professional Trans-Atlantic races.

there's an initial sense of balls to the wall go for speed damn the torpedoes ... and then you back off the throttle and go for finishing without destroying the boat. ...

What I do not want to happen is for me to give away the race because I backed off.

instead it's a race that is won by doing better than the expectations you brought to the start line.

What I am looking for is the reason why racers back off. Is it intentional? Is it due to lack of sleep or poor nutrition or lack of blood flow to the brain or some other factor? And more importantly what can be done to correct the issue for those who want to do so. I've spent a lot of time coming up with various hypothesis on these things, and the study will go a long way to resolving them.

I've been working in-depth with a psychologist and active sailing racer from Chicago. We've come up with a short list of questions that hopefully will provide the answers we are looking for. I'm certain that the results will prove valuable not just to the SHTP, but to all long distance singlehanded racers. It is just something that has never been studied before so we have the chance to do some groundbreaking research.

I've got a good group of racers signed up now, but I'm still looking for more. Please e-mail me at [email protected] if you want to participate.