“Offshore sailing is a mechanical sport, and it is an intellectual sport. More than using physical abilities and power, you can use your head to get the boat to work for you.”
That piece of advice could, it seems to me, be applied to several aspects of sailing today.
“If you’re relying on brute force to get a boat to do what you want, then you’re not doing it right…”
That piece of advice would be worth remembering by some Skippers I’ve known!
It was given to me by Greystones offshore sailor, Pamela Lee, when I interviewed her for the October edition of my Podcast, Maritime Ireland, when I compared the strength of women with men in offshore sailing. We were discussing tactics for the Transat Jacques Vabre, which she’ll be sailing from October 29 with French co-skipper Tiphaine Ragueneau, as Afloat reports here.
Irish offshore sailor Pamela Lee has secured €40k in sponsorship from Ireland-France ferry operator DFDS/Brittany Ferries for her Class40 project as she prepares to set sail for the Transat Jacques Vabre transatlantic sailing race in October
“If you’re thinking about what you’re doing, if you understand what you’re doing, if you understand how to use a boat properly, you can manoeuvre the boat to work for you. If you’re using brute force against the boat, you’re not going to win,” the 34-year-old Wicklow sailor, now resident in France to pursue her international sailing career, told me. “It’s really about thinking cleverly.”
That’s advice I’m going to apply to myself!
Listen to the interview with Pamela here, when I raised the comparison of male and female sailing power. Pamela is very focused on getting more women into sailing.
