Matt Bounds opined about the nature of competition in the Hobie 16 fleet at their worlds in the H16 worlds thread.

The A cat world is in total flux following the rock star foiling at worlds completely rewriting the nature of competition in my fleet. It may well be an existential crisis

He referenced THE BEST BOOK on RACING FLEETS ever! Stuart Walker gave his very first talk based on the work in his book at the US Sailing One design symposium..I told Matt at the time... Priceless.. The following post are my notes... more relevant today then 10 years ago. Just a flavor of his book.

Stuart Walker’s presented a talk on competition, fleet development and racing at the
November, 2005 Annapolis MD US Sailing One Design symposium.

Here are my notes on his interesting talk.

Belonging to a group is genetic. Small packs equaled survival
Jeffery Weld, a Brit spit fire pilot…. Reminisced over the following memories. …. Fear…, fight’s, drinking, dinner, camaraderie. They formed a very tight bond for the ages.

So, belonging to a group matters.
The trick is to you must make sure that all of the group matters.

There is always a hierarchy within this group.

Competition will draw people out of the polite social behaviors.

Why do we compete? …
We compete to dare. … To test … Put your best out there and have it evaluated…. Fail and you Fail yourself.

This is tough!

So, competing is a fragile psychic thing.

So when you are competing within your GROUP you are dealing with your friends.

You are also dealing with your opponents!

So, as you advance in the ranks… your winning is resented.

Resentment is important.
It’s built into the nature of a competitor… You especially resent the guy who in public willingly shows his superiority. (Me SW for instance)

Now it’s human to deny this behavior and the feelings (both sides of this coin)
But Resentment is the engine of a competitor ...
Resentment drives competition.. (It’s certainly not love of the sport.)

Denial is important to maintain competition in the group.
You deny your feelings in both directions…
You deny winning and loosing are important!
You deny that you resent X for winning and yourself for loosing!

This is just a pretense. There is not a world free of resentment!

So, we as humans are ambivalent about competition and groups. … it’s a fragile environment that we live in here.

I suggest you respect this feeling!
One consequence of failure to recognize these thoughts and emotions are the numbers of Women dropping out of sailing … I think this is fueled by resentment.

So What do you do?
The solution is to emphasize Respect within the group and deal with resentment.
You must begin by recognizing its importance (fuels competition) and it’s downside (undermines respect for your friends).

It’s NOT important to bring everyone up to the top… eg “make everyone a winner:

It IS important to belong to a group .. be part of the group … and take your part in the group. Groups must recognize that this is their foremost goal

It’s not important to just have parties. The party is not causally related to sailing
However Parties are part of sailing experience.

A fleet leader is very important. You die or thrive based on their leadership

Leaders set an example
Leaders Imply but do not Demand Rather they say… “we need you on Sunday” to make people feel that they are an important part of the group.

If you as a leader are a “true believer:… People will naturally follow.

For example, Well… If Stuart is racing… then it must be worth while… I’m going.
EG…. Do you have crew??? We need you …. So, Leaders make those phone calls.

Fleet’s (Groups) free of resentment are not possible.
Public Anger though is a big turn off.
This must be recognized and crushed immediately.

Walker interviewed the Soling fleet after a recent world championship. Only three people were satisfied with their performance. MOST were unhappy with performance…. It fueled the drive to do better the next time.

Buddy Melges HATES to loose and his behavior reflects this attitude ….
So… you Must recognize that resentment exists
But you have to avoid expressing this resentment and the conditions that would bring this up and create an upset within the group.

It’s important to Emphasize the LAST boat. If you loose the last boat in your fleet … You have a NEW last boat… etc etc and your group will decline.

It’s important that you manage the game itself… and you make sure each event is planned to work for the critical elements that are needed for the competition.

Ritual is needed.
In New Zealand… after racing you were EXPECTED to be in the club house. They had a ritual of 3rd bought the beer, 2nd served the beer and 1st did something. (I think thanked the RC)

Annual events with historical records are important. EG the Soling race on the Severn on New Years Day. 30+ years in the doing!

Trophy’s and Trophy presentation. You must recognize the hierarchy and announce it.
Don’t half butt the trophy presentation.

B fleets are not good. It detracts from the larger event… You win the xx fleet… BS!

Fast guys helping the slow guys will ALWAYS bring resentment.
Nobody wants to hear what they should have done when they are competitors.

One solution that worked in the past was in the Annapolis fleet, Walker and Merrit who were equally good Soling racers would debate the race at the bar and the rest of the fleet would listen in. Everyone attended! NOW…. The fleet does not want to hear S Walker telling them what they should have done…. And why he was great today.

Personal handicaps are a big winner … Line honors for a one design fleet gets one trophy… Handicap winners get three deep in trophies.

End of Talk.



IMO, You don’t grow fleets and fan the competitive flames of a new or less accomplished sailor by lapping him on the race course. No one wants to be embarrassed or feel that they are holding up the works. Finding a way to allow them to measure their performance on a week to week basis is certainly better then… well… we were only a leg behind this week.

Mark,

That is a really interesting point of view. I particularly like the idea of clinics not talking about what you did wrong but what someone did right. If we have video at some of our events from the water, I would like to review that and have the leaders talk about what they were thinking approaching the line and the race course...why they did what they did. That would be pretty cool.

Jake, It turns out we shared a mutual friend and so I spoke with Stuart at length a year later. The way he accomplished this was to head to the bar at Severn Sailing Assn, the premier dinghy club in Annapolis and home of his Soling fleet and hold court.... his chief competitor would come in and argue with him..... He opined about what HE did wrong... and right and not what xxx did in the fleet. The fleet sat around the bar and soaked it all up... (those hard to read Sailing world articles would come from just this kind of post race debrief).

There is a HUGE amount of wisdom that we could benefit from.

OK I'll start : Mark, everything you think and do is WRONG.
or the Feel good optimistic right version.
Mark, Nothing you think or do is RIGHT.
Now which one made you feel better.