Crewing to Win: How to be the best crew & a great team

CHAPTER 1

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my book!

How we best work as a team will never be the same as another partnership: we will come to the boat with different experiences, varying strengths and weakness, and practical stuff such as different weight combinations and heights will all alter the best way to do things.

This book is not designed to be read in one go and then go off and become a sailor. Get sailing, enjoy what you are doing and come back to this if you get stuck on processes and need a few ideas to break through.

If a section is on a green background that topic is aimed at beginners. There is also a glossary at the back to help describe sailing terms you might not know. Opposite there is a diagram of a boat, just so that you know what I am referring to in the book. There are other diagrams as appropriate in the book.

Saskia Clark

Get sailing and enjoy what you’re doing!

CHAPTER 2

Getting Started

Being A Crew

Crewing is often a simple way to get into sailing: you can put a notice on your local sailing club’s board or Facebook page advertising your keenness and from there could easily get some crewing time on yachts or a dinghy.

I think it’s for this reason that crewing is often considered to be not as important as the helming role: because you can just jump in and go.

In the early days of your crewing career this might be the case but if you want to form a world-beating team, contribute equally to the speed, decision making and outcome of your racing, or simply understand better what is going on, then hopefully this book will be useful to you.

Hannah and I became a world-beating team

© Thom Touw

Choosing A Boat

The choice of boats is huge.

If you are new to sailing, it’s likely that you will go along with whatever you get invited to sail on – and that is a great way to get experience in different types of boats and sailing with different people.

If you are thinking about buying a boat, get down to your local club and see what kind of racing is happening, whether it is one design or handicap and join in with a similar size or type of boat. Other important considerations are:

•How much you want to be pushed physically (will it be hard work for you to sail this class?)

•How much time you have to invest in upkeep (a wooden boat takes a lot of care and attention, while a glass fibre boat is less work, but some types of glass fibre boats still require quite a bit of maintenance)

Forming A Team

I realise that a blank canvas to build your team is unlikely, but a few things to consider when thinking about what and who you would want to sail with.

Weight, Height & Physicality

These will be deciding factors on the boat that you will be most suited too.

If you are tall, trapezing would be a great avenue for you because of your superior leverage; if you’re shorter, it will present a challenge in the windier conditions.

If you are heavier than optimum for your choice of boat, ideally you would team up with a small helm to stay competitive against others and likewise, if you are on the smaller side for a crew, a bigger helm would help.

Some boats, like the RS800 are weight-equalised so that everyone is equally competitive in all wind ranges, regardless of size and weight. The RS800 is both weight and righting-moment equalised with light-weight teams carrying extra lead and short teams on wider rack settings.

Racing and sailing can be as physical as you want to make it, but talk to other sailors about the challenges the boats they sail bring and think about whether that is something you could embrace and enjoy.

Crewing on an asymmetric boat can be a physical work-out

Your Goals As A Sailor

It’s important that your goals align well within your team. If one of you is all about the social and fun and the other is interested in winning titles it will be hard to create a fulfilling atmosphere. But importantly those categories are not mutually exclusive to each other and often having fun is one of the keys to success, but it is worth having those conversations early on to avoid arguments.

Make sure your goals are compatible: Hannah and I wanted to win, but also had fun! © Thom Touw

Your Skills

There might be the option to form a team with sailors from a variety of different backgrounds (e.g. 2 helms from single-handers, 2 crews with one moving to a helming role). Whatever your previous experience, it won’t prevent or make you less likely to become a great team in the future but, when you are thinking about starting a new partnership, it’s a good time for a bit of self-reflection: question what your existing skills are and consider potential team-mates that would complement them. It’s definitely worth canvassing opinion on this as we all tend to have blindspots in how we view ourselves.

Your Crewing Role

If you are new to sailing, as soon as you have a basic understanding of what is going on in the boat, it is important to take ownership of the roles that are appropriate, if you want to be more than just a passenger.

In this book, each chapter deals with what the crew’s roles have been in my experience, but I think it’s important to realise that everyone will bring their own skills to the boat, so things might work out differently in your team.

CHAPTER 3

A Day On The Water

What To Wear

If you are just giving sailing a go then just wear something that you are happy to get wet in, ideally quick drying and take some kind of wind / waterproof jacket if you have it, as it will always be colder on the water than you are expecting. Any kind of trainers will be fine.

If you are committed to spending some money, then my vote would be for a good fitting wetsuit with quality neoprene, so it is nice and flexible. I prefer wearing a long john wetsuit and layering up on thermals as it gets cold, rather than a steamer, to keep mobility in my shoulders and elbows.

Boots with a good grip but flexible sole are a vital bit of crewing equipment. Some people pull off bare feet whilst crewing, but stubbing your toe is one of the most painful experiences known to humans, so it’s not something for me. Also, there is the uncomfortable bit of launching in bare feet.

My boots are flexible, but with good grip

For me, gloves are a must when going out sailing, except if it is very light winds. I use full-finger gloves except for thumb and index finger, so that you can do fiddly knots and split rings. It’s important that the gloves are not so thick that you lose grip.

I use full-finger gloves except for the thumb and index finger

In the summer, many like to wear a baseball hat to keep the sun and spray out their eyes. In the winter, a woolly hat is an affordable way to stay comfortable in cold weather. Do ensure there is somewhere to put it during a race if things heat up. This can be a pouch on the boat somewhere or it can just be tucked under a buoyancy aid.

Hiking

Here and elsewhere in this book, I have asked Rob Henderson to give advice on hiking boats specifically.

Dressed in ‘hot and light’ mode (right)

The same kit with an additional layer underneath and a spray top in more breeze so I stay warm and dry

For my summer wetsuit, I prefer the use of ‘hiker’ or ‘long-john’ style wetsuits. My current wetsuit covers the legs and hooks over the shoulders, while leaving the arms entirely free. This basic setup gives me full protection throughout the wind range, articulation and the ability to accessorise based on temperature, precipitation and wind conditions.

In the winter I like to wear a drysuit. Although bulkier and rather more expensive, I think that comfort, warmth and being dry are the priorities.

The other main consideration is footwear. Footwear is often an afterthought, with some choosing to forgo it entirely and, contrary to their tough persona, to their detriment. Saskia’s advice about footwear also applies to hiking dinghies, however it is also important for boots to grip the toestraps, distribute the load across the foot comfortably and strike the right balance between rigid support and ergonomics. In an RS200, I opt for an all-round boot that is light and flexible enough for me to move around smoothly and be comfortable when fully squatted, but also ensures that I can lock into an effective hiking position for an extended period of time.

Having said this, I do have a heftier pair of boots either for use in the winter for extra warmth and / or at clubs where the launching area is rough or requires good grip underfoot. Under these circumstances, the pain is not worth it. If you can’t feel your feet because they are cold then you are in trouble, regardless of how much ‘feel’ the boot claims to give.

Trapezing

For trapeze crews, a comfortable harness will take some finding: different models will offer different levels of support across your back and shoulders, and finding the right shape can really help manage any back problems you may have. I am always looking to get locked in to the seat of my harness so prefer the lace up fronts; if you are using kinetics (pumping and bouncing), it means that more energy transfers up the wire to the mast rather than getting lost in a baggy harness. I use a lightweight, flexible nappy harness in light winds, for maximum manoeuvrability.

It’s a great idea to try them on and put them under load, so try to rig up some kind of ‘trapeze wire’ so you can actually feel how they fit, where they are supporting you and where you might want more support. Remember to crouch into a ball to replicate light wind, in-the-boat sailing.

I wear a long john wetsuit with thermals and a front lace up harness

Food, Drink & Sunscreen

I think that, maybe, being hungry is more miserable than being cold, so good snacks are vital to an enjoyable day on the water! There are whole books written about sports nutrition and food for performance, so I’ll leave that up to them. Personally, having something I really like, so I can eat it quickly and often enough to maintain a positive energy balance is more important than the detail of the nutritional value.

Again, drinking enough when racing is hard, so make sure it’s something you actually like. If you are trying to build or maintain a weight, it’s important to consider how many calories you are getting through your drink and whether here is a good opportunity to add or take away calories.

Always have something ready for the tow / sail in or on shore to eat. You’ll be surprised how much energy 3 races in cold conditions uses and it’s hard to eat enough in the gap between races. If you’ve got a championship week, this WILL make a difference as the week goes on.

And finally, it is so easy to forget sunscreen, but we know that the water reflects the sun and so a day on the water is a day exposed to the sun. Build applying sunscreen into your routine, so you don’t forget it.

CHAPTER 4

Hiking Technique

Since most of my recent experience is in a symmetric trapezing dinghy, I’ve asked top hiking crew, Rob Henderson, to contribute this chapter. You can read on p6 about Rob’s achievements and why what he says is worth reading!

Starting Out

Hiking is essentially very simple: you are maximising your leverage on the hull / rig by hooking your feet under the toestrap and extending the suitable amount of weight overboard.

If you are new to hiking, go sailing with your helm and have a play. The main aim being to instil your confidence and feel for it. Try sailing in breeze that is strong enough to make hiking necessary, but light enough for you and your partner to sail safely without doing so. As you sail, try to familiarise yourself with the sensation of hiking while trimming sheets, looking around and talking to the helm.

Once you are comfortable with straight-line sailing and hiking, you can look at tacking and becoming happy with hooking your feet into the toestraps after the tack instinctively rather than cognitively.

Advanced Techniques

You will quickly master the basics of hiking and realise that, as soon as conditions approach those in which the rig is ‘powered up’ and requires righting moment beyond the just sitting on the gunwale, the crew’s ability to hike effectively and for longer than their competitors is