Ideal crew vs. ramshackle crew (i.e., when you think you can win and instead take them)

“Come on guys, next week is the Raviolo Cup. Are we all in? Come on let’s have a good regatta and win easy!” How many times have you heard this phrase. How many times have you come aboard with the dream of starting ahead of everyone, turning the buoy in the first few, racing with the wind off, playing with the best. And how many times have your dreams been shattered after the first few meters of racing, on the first tack, with the lines caught, genoa stuck, mean straights, and the other boats parading over and downwind of you, with their coxswains seeming to wave “bye-bye” to you.

Often the big difference between expectation and reality at sea is made by the crew. We can have the polished boat, the game of new sails, but the key to a winning team is? the team itself. So we had fun drawing up the differences between the ideal crew in a nonprofessional shipowner’s head and the one they will actually be accommodating on board. We are willing to bet that you have experienced these situations far more than once.

IDEAL CREW VS. ROYAL CREW

ROLES
Ideal crew. Everyone on board has a specific role: the helmsman plays the helmsman, the tactician the tactician, the tailer the tailer.
Royal crew. The helmsman helms but yells at the mainsman who yells at the bowman who rails with his eyes to the sky.

COMMENT
Ideal crew. After consulting with the helmsman, the tactician announces the turn. Everyone gets into position and the maneuver proceeds.
Royal crew. The tactician announces the tack but, given his lack of authority, a rally is triggered, “we tack now…no wait, no but I saw that those in front give scarce.” The helmsman in the discussion gets distracted and plants himself against the wind. Meanwhile, the tailer, the only one ready to tack, gives up the genoa sheet early.

leggi anche

Transat Café l’Or: another twist for Class 40s, could still change everything

THE POSITIONS ON BOARD
Ideal crew. One person (the tactician or bowman in the more “broken-in” teams) manages the team’s positions on board, varying them according to conditions and gaits in the fore-aft and leeward-aft directions. The crew executes.
Royal crew. At any gait, there are seven people “riveted” in the cockpit. Inevitable then is the one lying on the deckhouse or standing leaning against the shrouds, seasick.

PRE-REGAT
Ideal crew. At the dock before the race, the crew meets for a briefing where roles are reviewed and race instructions are read.
Royal crew. When there is one minute to go, the tactician sends the tailer below deck to fetch the crumpled, wine-stained race instructions under tupperware filled with meatloaf and stuffed vegetables. “What is the path? Do we leave first or those in the other category?”

SUPERFLUI WEIGHTS
Ideal crew. Before going out to sea, the crew unloads all superfluous weights, including water and fuel, at the dock.
Royal crew. Before going out to sea, the crew unloads their gear covers at the dock but forgets on board in that order: four games of 1987 dacron sails, the World War II chained respect anchor, the owner’s wife’s hard suitcases, two tenders. Of course, water and fuel tanks are filled to the brim.

EXPERIENCE
Ideal crew. Each crew member lets their skills speak for themselves.
Royal crew. Each crew member boasts experience in the America’s Cup, at Whitbread, at the World 470. Experiences that have never been verified, 99.99% of the time made up out of thin air: the most knowledgeable took the Optimist course in 1977 or just got their boat license.

THE OWNER
Ideal crew. The professional bowman uses four gestures to communicate with the crew: thumbs up (hemming), thumbs down (leaning), shear hand going up and down (you are engaged), numbers (to indicate lengths to the line or buoy).
Royal crew. The average bowman “shits it,” he was put there simply because he is the skinniest and is assumed to have greater agility than the rest of the crew. He makes a series of gestures incomprehensible to most and, realizing he is not understood, turns to the stern and begins to rant.

STRONG WIND
Ideal crew. When there is a strong wind, the ideal crew knows how to push the boat, and after the windward mark, there is not even an argument about what to do: on spinnaker, boat in control and double-digit speed.
Royal crew. When the wind is upwind the upwind is a long phase of dread waiting for the crucial decision: should we give the spinnaker or not? The debate “crawls” in sickle cell all along the windward edge, tension rises. In the end a “so much without spi we put on the butterfly bow and go fast the same, safety first” prevails. One is inexorably passed by everyone. Then it is decided to give spi: STRAP! It will be handed over to the sailmaker for repairs immediately after the regatta….

leggi anche

How well Zorzi and Gamenara did at the Mini Transat! And meanwhile, the Class 40s at the Transat Café l’Or…

THE ADJUSTMENTS
Ideal crew. Adjustments are given exclusively by one person who may be, for example, the tactician assisted by the clubman, i.e., those who “look after” the conducting.
Royal crew. There is a “tragic” crew member: the one who takes unsolicited initiatives. He suddenly drops a halyard deciding the mainsail is too thin and, not having given enough turns on the winch, brings down three feet of sail.

AUTOMATICS
Ideal crew. The crew has known each other by heart for years, each in his or her role for countless seasons and all in the same boat.
Royal crew. The crew takes turns at each regatta, they get involved in order: a drizzler from Turin who went around the world in ’77, the owner’s mother-in-law, the one who used to be strong in Laser but now weighs 145 pounds, the uncle who used to sail 470s, the electronics expert who suffers from the maldiman.

THE RANDIST
Ideal crew. The rower, aware that he/she is the one who holds the “engine” of the boat, “follows” it critically: he/she will scarf, cock, let go depending on the inclination and the “feelings” in gait.
Royal crew. The randist is monumental. That is, as still as a Michelangelo statue. When the gust comes and you are now lying down and overstretched, he shyly asks the helmsman, “Do you want me to let you have a little bit of trolley?”

AT THE ARRIVAL
Ideal crew. At the finish line they are all friends, and everyone calmly admits their, if any, mistakes.
Royal crew. Cut to the finish line and a process opens that not even from the late Biscardi. Accusations, insults, insults, and threats to sue.

Eugenio Ruocco & Mauro Giuffrè

DISCOVER ALL THE NEWS OF REGATTAS & SPORTS

NAVIGATE INFORMED!

To stay up-to-date on all the news from the world of sailing, selected by our editorial staff, sign up for the Sailing Newspaper newsletter! It is semplicissimo, just enter your email below, accept the Privacy Policy and click the “Sign me up” button. You will then receive on your email, twice a week, the best sailing news! It’s free and you can unsubscribe at any time, no obligation!