11 . Paul Elvstrom on Singlehanded Sailing |
by Carl van Duyne and Dick Rose |
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Sailors in the San Francisco Bay area had a chance to listen to the best sailor of them all when Paul Elvstrom visited St. Francis YC for a weekend seminar on singlehanded sailing. I'd like to pass on some of the comments Paul made in his lectures that weekend.
Elvstrom began by saying that because he had not sailed a dinghy for six years before arriving in San Francisco, "1 will not be a teacher, but will give you a report of what I have done, and that way you can make up your mind if you will do the same thing, or go the other way. But should I teach you something, I would teach you to enjoy sailing, because if you forget all about the results in the regatta, then you will enjoy yourself more."
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On training: "In 1948, I was selected to take part in the Olympics. In the Olympics, I realised how bad we all were in sailing small boats. Physiques were very bad, and I realised that if I went back and went into physical training I could win easily. So I ran five kilometres daily and made special exercises for training my legs and stomach.
My thinking was that if I could hang out without thinking about it or getting tired, my head would work better ... I went through the rules once a week, and each time I got new ideas about tactics. I did not have to think of the rales during the race - I was always sure what was right... You can calculate tactics lying in bed, and in this way teach yourself what is best... In those days, I was very bad in school because I was concentrating on sailing. I was dreaming sailing, thinking rules, tactics and so on."
"Each day before I went sailing, I made a program of what I should do. If it was light wind, I would, for instance, concentrate on going fast, feeling the boat. If it was strong wind, then perhaps I would gybe. Before I went out, I would think of the way to gybe, then I would practice. If it did not work properly, I would try a new technique. This way I would become better and better."
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Two of the techniques Elvstrom used for on-the-water training I found particularly interesting. He used a mark rounding drill every day to sharpen his boat handling: first he would round a mark ten times to starboard, then ten times to port while trying to stay as close to the mark as possible.
When he was sailing alone, he would often dream that he was racing in a big fleet and he wouldn't always win. Buddy Melges used a similar technique when training for the 1972 Olympics in the Soling. He and his crew would race short, hard races against imaginary opponents because there were no other Solings on his lake. Whenever his crew became lax, he would start a vicious tacking duel with his imaginary but ruthless opponent. A fertile imagination just might be a prerequisite for racing success if you have no one else to practice with. Despite his emphasis on training, Elvstrom thinks sailors are born, not made: "You must have the talent to feel that you must continually make difficult decisions as to how much it will pay to deviate from a straight line course to achieve this."
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On windshifts: "When it is cloudy and then starts to clear in one place, then, in my experience, the wind will come from there. When it is cloudy everywhere, but darker in one place, usually the wind will come from there. When you see the darkness come closer, then you are sure."
Elvstrom suggests that smaller wind shifts can be detected by watching the water. "When the sun is shining from behind or from one side, you can see a lot on the water. You have to concentrate on seeing the patterns. When sailing has become routine, then you can practice seeing the wind on the water, the way the puffs hit the water and spread out." Of course, when you can see the shifts coming, you can make excellent decisions about when to tack, to foot off or to pinch up.
On lightweight boats and Olympic classes:
When asked whether Quarter Ton boats are safe on the ocean, Elvstrom replied, "Very safe, because I think a lighter boat is safer in a sea than a heavy boat. When you put weight in a boat, you must put on a bigger mast, rig, and everything must be heavier. You make the whole thing worse in a sea."
Earlier, when speaking of the Olympic classes, he had stated, "the Olympics should be only for difficult dinghies sailed by young people. We should have more faster dinghy classes. Other sports do not change equipment so often as we do in yachting. We should have some classic dinghy classes, but we have not been clever enough to do it."
On nationalism in international competition: "In my boat I have never carried a flag because I think we are all one group, yachtsmen, and it should always be like that."
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On steering and sail trim in different types of sea: When the sea is smooth and you are sailing to weather, Elvstrom advocates an average tiller position 4° to windward of the centre line. "If you move the tiller more than four degrees, then you slow the boat. But if your tiller is 4° to windward, the rudder gives you lift, and that way you use both the keel and the rudder to lift you. When it is flat water, you can adjust the sails to the rudder, but when it is rough you must compromise and adjust the course to suit the seas. Big changes will not help you, but if you can bear off or luff up just a little to avoid a collision with a big wave, then my experience is that this will help you."
With respect to sail trim, "the main principle is that the sail must be at right angles to the wind to get maximum power."
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Because you must be adjusting course to sail in a rough sea, you must settle for an average trim for these conditions. "When you sail in a heavy sea, if the mast is straight you will get maximum drive out of the main and jib. But when your bow goes down in a sea, the top of the sail will luff, and when you go up the back of a sea, the mast will bend back and flatten the sail. Therefore I give a great deal of attention to the seas when sailing upwind."
In a short chop, "the main thing is to keep the mast and sail quiet. The sail is the engine, and it is so important that the boat does not move too much in the seas. You must look for and find the flat water ahead. Sometimes you must point up or bear away to find less sea."
If you can't miss a big wave, then "go straight so that the sails keep maximum power. To windward in strong winds, you must have the right sail trim, Many people sheet too far outboard. It is better to sheet more lightly to windward to get the proper twist in the sails, both the jib and the main. The sails must have a certain amount of twist at the top. If there is no twist, there is no power at all. If you put telltales at the top you will find out how much it has to twist." |
On gybing and rolling: In heavy winds in a Finn or a Laser, "the moment to gybe is when you have maximum speed and the wind goes down, but we are never able to gybe then. When the pressure on the mainsail is least, then gybe. You pull on the sheet and pull the sail across very fast. When you bear off to gybe, you must go far enough so that you are sure to gybe. The centreboard must only be down part way in the water, because otherwise, after gybing, there is a chance that the boat will not be able to slide sideways and you will capsize over the centreboard." He suggests that you can tell if you made a good gybe by observing your speed right after the gybe. "If the boat stops, that gybe was poor."
On sailing to windward in waves: Rather than using a technique for sailing over waves Elvstrom tries to sail around the waves to reduce pitching whenever possible. "The main thing is to keep the mast and sail quiet. The sail is the engine, and it is very important that the boat does not move (pitch) too much in a sea. You must find the flat water ahead-sometimes you must point up or bear away to find less sea but not too much. This way you will get the maximum drive out of the sail."
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Elvstrom uses essentially the same technique for sailing in waves when racing both dinghies and keelboats. But to sail around the waves, the skipper must sit to windward where he can see the waves. Even in keelboats, Elvstrom said, "I always sit where I can see the sea and the genny. Your head is in the right position, you can hear, you can feel the wind, and these are all important to give you the right feeling of a sailing boat." Sailing to leeward "is almost like sailing blind."
On sailing downwind: "First I find the lowest place in the water. If the water is higher to port, I go to starboard. If it is higher to starboard. I go to port. I use the tiller to follow the water. There is always a hole, and it is best if you always sail down. I don't use the mainsheet so much as the tiller because the tiller works so much faster while planing. I would use the mainsheet if I could. but I'm an old man Some people pump while planing. I have never done this and I think I gain more by concentrating on putting the boat in the right place in the water so that I can continue planing."
On seamanship: "Seamanship. I like that word very much, for to me it is to do everything correctly on the sea. Racing is pure seamanship." One little bit of seamanship Elvstrom handed out will be useful to every sailor at least once: "When you are sailing in a storm so strong that you cannot stay up even with the sails luffing, pull up your centreboard and just drift."
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