Sailing Practice- First Beat
Don’t get bogged down with too much Team Racing tactics. In most cases, fleet racing is the best Team Racing strategy for the first beat. The reason for this being that it is better to have your team mates in the first positions so that they will be in better position to help out the team mate who does not fair so well up the first beat. Too much Team Racing on the first beat can often find you in a 4/5/6 combination at the weather mark. This reminder should be a critical component of your practice schedule further down the road. Not to abandon Team Racing strategy on the first beat, if you find your team in a 1/3/6 combination as you converge on the weather mark [figure 10], it would be prudent for first to stop at the mark and passback the opponent in second so that her team could achieve the more stable 1/2/X. Positioning of boats and boat handling at this weather mark passback are crucial. Seeing and setting up this weather mark passback is the sort of practice to which teams must dedicate their time.
