Feedback and honesty<\/h2>\r\nIt\u2019s good to have your team values written down and commonly shared and understood, particularly when you\u2019re about to go into a tricky debrief or conversation where somebody might need to be critical of somebody else. One of our values is that feedback is for the greater goal, which is to make the boat go faster. That gets everyone into a place where constructive feedback and honesty is much easier to share.\r\n\r\nWe were also encouraged to speak up and to \u2018swim against the tide\u2019. When you\u2019re in a meeting with a lot of strong individuals, it\u2019s easy for someone to lead the conversation, after which it can get harder and harder for someone to take the opposite point of view. So we actively encouraged people to throw in an alternative viewpoint, and we called that \u2018swimming against the tide\u2019. It\u2019s really useful for avoiding a team lapsing into \u2018group think\u2019.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_161778\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]![\"\"](\"https:\/\/keyassets.timeincuk.net\/inspirewp\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2026\/01\/YAW317.prc_5tips.gettyimages_2178532622-630x354.jpg\")
All in it together: Carr gives the thumbs up before an AC37 Match race against Emirates Team New Zealand. Photo: Lluis Gene\/AFP\/Getty[\/caption]\r\nLearn faster<\/h2>\r\nIn Barcelona our main goal was to learn faster than the opposition and we felt we did that all summer. Which is why we went from being maybe fourth or fifth out of the challengers in the Preliminary Regatta to ultimately winning the Louis Vuitton Cup and fighting through to the Match itself.\r\n\r\nWe achieved that because we did such a good job of learning faster, and the reason for that is because of our openness to feedback. Everybody, from Ben [Ainslie] down to the cyclors who were learning to sail, could sit in a room and debrief with complete honesty. Nobody took offence or tried to defend a position.\r\n\r\nAchieving that level of honesty is never easy, and it\u2019s probably harder at non-professional levels in the sport. But if you can instil a culture of learning faster than everyone else, and being committed to always asking \u2018What can we do to make the boat go faster?\u2019 the results are bound to follow.\r\nDebriefing without rank<\/h2>\r\nWe were very fortunate to have a special relationship with a group from the British military during my time with the British America\u2019s Cup challenge. One of the best lessons I took away from them is the way they debrief their missions.\r\n\r\nThey\u2019re dealing with real life-and-death situations, and one of their mantras is that they always debrief a mission without rank. So we did the same, which meant that everyone \u2013 from Ben down to the rookie doing their first Cup \u2013 was heard in equal measure. All opinions were considered equally. In fact, we even went further in that we wouldn\u2019t let the big characters speak first but would encourage other people on the team to kick off the conversation.\r\n\r\nRob Wilson and the coaching team did a great job of creating an environment where they\u2019d throw open the floor to the whole group. It really makes you think about what you\u2019re going to say, because you\u2019re asking yourself \u2018What if they come to me first?\u2019. So it gets everyone to engage with the process.\r\nSwitch on 'record'<\/h2>\r\nI\u2019ve been used to operating in an environment where pretty much everything we do is being recorded on video from multiple angles, and our voices are being recorded too.\r\n\r\nBut what I\u2019ve noticed since coming back into the wider sport over the past year is how much the use of video and audio recording has filtered down to other levels like the TP52s.\r\n\r\nNow the helmsmen, the tacticians, the navigators are all mic\u2019ed up, and everything is recorded because you live and die by your communication.\r\n\r\nArticle continues below...<\/em>\r\n\r\n[collection]\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s such a good step forward within the sport because there\u2019s no hearsay, no \u2018I said left turn and you went right\u2019 kind of disagreements. It\u2019s all factual and it means you can have an honest debrief.\r\n\r\nOn training days with the TP52 Gladiator our coach, Antonio, has a live mic playing into earphones, and he can listen to the live conversation of the team as we go around the course. It enables him to home in on the bits of the session where maybe the afterguard had a bit of a barney about something, and he can focus on that area of disagreement. But equally when we\u2019re really locked in to a good period of speed upwind, he can highlight that too.\r\n\r\nRecording your training and racing sessions is a really useful addition to the toolbox and I\u2019d recommend trying it.\r\n\u2018Check the ropes\u2019<\/h2>\r\nWe had a phrase in the last Cup which was \u2018checking the ropes\u2019. And it was our way of checking in on each other, to keep an eye and ear out for mental health and supporting your teammates.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s about remembering that these people \u2013 your teammates \u2013 are going through exactly the same thing that you are. It\u2019s about remembering that some of us might have wives or partners that are getting a bit grumpy at home because you\u2019ve worked seven days straight and you haven\u2019t seen the kids, or they might have a grandparent that\u2019s ill at home. Everybody\u2019s got these real-life stressors but it\u2019s too easy to walk into a team environment and put the shield up and try to be a superhero. It\u2019s good to check in with your teammates and make sure that their daughter\u2019s first day at nursery went well.\r\n\r\nYou don\u2019t have to be friends with everyone, but just be kind to them and take an interest in their lives and what they\u2019re going through. That really keeps team politics bullshit at bay.\r\n\r\nAnd it also means that further down the line, when you have to have tough conversations with your teammates about something from the racing, it makes it a whole lot easier if you\u2019ve already built a good relationship.\r\n\r\nFor heat-of-the-moment situations where it\u2019s all turning to custard, maybe you\u2019ve had a badly executed kite drop and lost a couple of boats at the leeward mark, using a trigger word can be really helpful. It might be as simple as \u2018reset\u2019 \u2013 as in \u2018Okay, lads, let\u2019s reset,\u2019 \u2013 to get everyone back into the present and focusing on the next thing. It\u2019s also about keeping an eye out for how each of us is responding to stress.\r\n\r\nIn the last Cup we had a buddy system where we were paired off with a teammate, and my buddy was Ben Cornish. If I was getting a little bit nervous I had a habit of marching around the foredeck and, hard though it might be to believe, I would actually talk more than usual. My buddy might say to me, \u2018\u201cYou alright today? You\u2019re wearing a hole out in the foredeck with all that marching up and down. Is everything good?\u201d So Cornish acknowledged that I was nervous or uptight that day and we\u2019d then have a little chat about it.\r\n\r\nOnce you get that anxiety or anger out of your head and into the open, it starts to disappear pretty quickly. Having an outlet for your feelings is really healthy and it\u2019s the sign of a great team when you can look out for each other like that.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/keyassets.timeincuk.net\/inspirewp\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/05\/YW_JUNE19_-COVER-1-152x200.jpg\")
<\/a>If you enjoyed this\u2026.<\/h2>\r\n\r\nYachting World is the world's leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.<\/em><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nBuild your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers<\/a> and save at least 30% off the cover price.<\/em><\/div><\/blockquote>\r\nNote: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em>\r\n\r\n
","excerpt":{"rendered":"Before he specialised in foiling catamarans, John Gimson was long-time tuning partner to Iain Percy and the late Andrew \u2018Bart\u2019 Simpson in the Star keelboat, playing a key role in helping them win gold and silver medals at the Beijing and London Olympics. Two-boat tuning is a critical part of any serious Olympic campaign, a proven tool that is surprisingly underused outside of the very top echelons of the sport. \u201cTwo-boat tuning massively speeds up your learning curve,\u201d says Gimson. \u201cYou get much quicker feedback on your performance compared with just sailing by yourself.\u201d In an Olympic campaign in a highly technical boat like the Nacra 17, Gimson estimates they spend almost half their time engaged in tuning. The benefit comes not just in improving the technical speed of the boat. \u201cA big part of the benefit is getting used to living in a \u2018thin lane\u2019 and keeping the boat moving at optimum pace even when you\u2019re struggling to live in an uncomfortable place next to another boat.\u201d The following are five of Gimson\u2019s best tips for getting the most out of two-boat tuning. Article continues below… Get a baseline It\u2019s good to keep one boat as the \u2018baseline\u2019 boat where you put everything on known, standard settings. That boat is effectively the \u2018control\u2019 in the test process. Then you start to change settings on the other boat to see how it affects relative performance. Once you get into a tuning run, you\u2019re aiming to sail as hard as you can, trying to beat the other boat. It\u2019s also good to use the same points of reference and calibration points, so you have a common language you can use on and off the water for understanding what adjustments are being made. Be honest, be disciplined You need to be honest with each other during the process. If you think you had an easier time because you benefited from a slight wind shift, for example, admit it. You\u2019re not trying to kill each other. You\u2019re looking to learn the lessons from the day and share those learnings with each other. If you discover something that works but don\u2019t share it with your training partner, the process will break down. You need to have mutual trust to make the two-boat tuning programme work for everybody. Start fair When it\u2019s flat water we\u2019ll probably start three boat lengths apart, with the leeward boat half to one boat length ahead, so we\u2019re effectively starting on equal terms. The more wavy it gets, the more separation we\u2019ll start with, so the windward boat doesn\u2019t get washed into the leeward boat. Then we\u2019ll keep swapping sides, from windward to leeward position and vice versa, testing on port and starboard tacks, making these changes for possibly an hour or more until we get a feeling of who\u2019s going better and understanding the reasons why. But if the wind is really shifty there\u2019s not much point in carrying on with a two-boat session. Use shifty days to work …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5203,"featured_media":162696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3117,975],"tags":[3116,934,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162693"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162697,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162693\/revisions\/162697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162693"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=162693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Debriefing without rank<\/h2>\r\nWe were very fortunate to have a special relationship with a group from the British military during my time with the British America\u2019s Cup challenge. One of the best lessons I took away from them is the way they debrief their missions.\r\n\r\nThey\u2019re dealing with real life-and-death situations, and one of their mantras is that they always debrief a mission without rank. So we did the same, which meant that everyone \u2013 from Ben down to the rookie doing their first Cup \u2013 was heard in equal measure. All opinions were considered equally. In fact, we even went further in that we wouldn\u2019t let the big characters speak first but would encourage other people on the team to kick off the conversation.\r\n\r\nRob Wilson and the coaching team did a great job of creating an environment where they\u2019d throw open the floor to the whole group. It really makes you think about what you\u2019re going to say, because you\u2019re asking yourself \u2018What if they come to me first?\u2019. So it gets everyone to engage with the process.\r\nSwitch on 'record'<\/h2>\r\nI\u2019ve been used to operating in an environment where pretty much everything we do is being recorded on video from multiple angles, and our voices are being recorded too.\r\n\r\nBut what I\u2019ve noticed since coming back into the wider sport over the past year is how much the use of video and audio recording has filtered down to other levels like the TP52s.\r\n\r\nNow the helmsmen, the tacticians, the navigators are all mic\u2019ed up, and everything is recorded because you live and die by your communication.\r\n\r\nArticle continues below...<\/em>\r\n\r\n[collection]\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s such a good step forward within the sport because there\u2019s no hearsay, no \u2018I said left turn and you went right\u2019 kind of disagreements. It\u2019s all factual and it means you can have an honest debrief.\r\n\r\nOn training days with the TP52 Gladiator our coach, Antonio, has a live mic playing into earphones, and he can listen to the live conversation of the team as we go around the course. It enables him to home in on the bits of the session where maybe the afterguard had a bit of a barney about something, and he can focus on that area of disagreement. But equally when we\u2019re really locked in to a good period of speed upwind, he can highlight that too.\r\n\r\nRecording your training and racing sessions is a really useful addition to the toolbox and I\u2019d recommend trying it.\r\n\u2018Check the ropes\u2019<\/h2>\r\nWe had a phrase in the last Cup which was \u2018checking the ropes\u2019. And it was our way of checking in on each other, to keep an eye and ear out for mental health and supporting your teammates.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s about remembering that these people \u2013 your teammates \u2013 are going through exactly the same thing that you are. It\u2019s about remembering that some of us might have wives or partners that are getting a bit grumpy at home because you\u2019ve worked seven days straight and you haven\u2019t seen the kids, or they might have a grandparent that\u2019s ill at home. Everybody\u2019s got these real-life stressors but it\u2019s too easy to walk into a team environment and put the shield up and try to be a superhero. It\u2019s good to check in with your teammates and make sure that their daughter\u2019s first day at nursery went well.\r\n\r\nYou don\u2019t have to be friends with everyone, but just be kind to them and take an interest in their lives and what they\u2019re going through. That really keeps team politics bullshit at bay.\r\n\r\nAnd it also means that further down the line, when you have to have tough conversations with your teammates about something from the racing, it makes it a whole lot easier if you\u2019ve already built a good relationship.\r\n\r\nFor heat-of-the-moment situations where it\u2019s all turning to custard, maybe you\u2019ve had a badly executed kite drop and lost a couple of boats at the leeward mark, using a trigger word can be really helpful. It might be as simple as \u2018reset\u2019 \u2013 as in \u2018Okay, lads, let\u2019s reset,\u2019 \u2013 to get everyone back into the present and focusing on the next thing. It\u2019s also about keeping an eye out for how each of us is responding to stress.\r\n\r\nIn the last Cup we had a buddy system where we were paired off with a teammate, and my buddy was Ben Cornish. If I was getting a little bit nervous I had a habit of marching around the foredeck and, hard though it might be to believe, I would actually talk more than usual. My buddy might say to me, \u2018\u201cYou alright today? You\u2019re wearing a hole out in the foredeck with all that marching up and down. Is everything good?\u201d So Cornish acknowledged that I was nervous or uptight that day and we\u2019d then have a little chat about it.\r\n\r\nOnce you get that anxiety or anger out of your head and into the open, it starts to disappear pretty quickly. Having an outlet for your feelings is really healthy and it\u2019s the sign of a great team when you can look out for each other like that.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n<\/a>If you enjoyed this\u2026.<\/h2>\r\n\r\nYachting World is the world's leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.<\/em><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nBuild your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers<\/a> and save at least 30% off the cover price.<\/em><\/div><\/blockquote>\r\nNote: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em>\r\n\r\n
","excerpt":{"rendered":"Before he specialised in foiling catamarans, John Gimson was long-time tuning partner to Iain Percy and the late Andrew \u2018Bart\u2019 Simpson in the Star keelboat, playing a key role in helping them win gold and silver medals at the Beijing and London Olympics. Two-boat tuning is a critical part of any serious Olympic campaign, a proven tool that is surprisingly underused outside of the very top echelons of the sport. \u201cTwo-boat tuning massively speeds up your learning curve,\u201d says Gimson. \u201cYou get much quicker feedback on your performance compared with just sailing by yourself.\u201d In an Olympic campaign in a highly technical boat like the Nacra 17, Gimson estimates they spend almost half their time engaged in tuning. The benefit comes not just in improving the technical speed of the boat. \u201cA big part of the benefit is getting used to living in a \u2018thin lane\u2019 and keeping the boat moving at optimum pace even when you\u2019re struggling to live in an uncomfortable place next to another boat.\u201d The following are five of Gimson\u2019s best tips for getting the most out of two-boat tuning. Article continues below… Get a baseline It\u2019s good to keep one boat as the \u2018baseline\u2019 boat where you put everything on known, standard settings. That boat is effectively the \u2018control\u2019 in the test process. Then you start to change settings on the other boat to see how it affects relative performance. Once you get into a tuning run, you\u2019re aiming to sail as hard as you can, trying to beat the other boat. It\u2019s also good to use the same points of reference and calibration points, so you have a common language you can use on and off the water for understanding what adjustments are being made. Be honest, be disciplined You need to be honest with each other during the process. If you think you had an easier time because you benefited from a slight wind shift, for example, admit it. You\u2019re not trying to kill each other. You\u2019re looking to learn the lessons from the day and share those learnings with each other. If you discover something that works but don\u2019t share it with your training partner, the process will break down. You need to have mutual trust to make the two-boat tuning programme work for everybody. Start fair When it\u2019s flat water we\u2019ll probably start three boat lengths apart, with the leeward boat half to one boat length ahead, so we\u2019re effectively starting on equal terms. The more wavy it gets, the more separation we\u2019ll start with, so the windward boat doesn\u2019t get washed into the leeward boat. Then we\u2019ll keep swapping sides, from windward to leeward position and vice versa, testing on port and starboard tacks, making these changes for possibly an hour or more until we get a feeling of who\u2019s going better and understanding the reasons why. But if the wind is really shifty there\u2019s not much point in carrying on with a two-boat session. Use shifty days to work …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5203,"featured_media":162696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3117,975],"tags":[3116,934,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162693"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162697,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162693\/revisions\/162697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162693"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=162693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2018Check the ropes\u2019<\/h2>\r\nWe had a phrase in the last Cup which was \u2018checking the ropes\u2019. And it was our way of checking in on each other, to keep an eye and ear out for mental health and supporting your teammates.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s about remembering that these people \u2013 your teammates \u2013 are going through exactly the same thing that you are. It\u2019s about remembering that some of us might have wives or partners that are getting a bit grumpy at home because you\u2019ve worked seven days straight and you haven\u2019t seen the kids, or they might have a grandparent that\u2019s ill at home. Everybody\u2019s got these real-life stressors but it\u2019s too easy to walk into a team environment and put the shield up and try to be a superhero. It\u2019s good to check in with your teammates and make sure that their daughter\u2019s first day at nursery went well.\r\n\r\nYou don\u2019t have to be friends with everyone, but just be kind to them and take an interest in their lives and what they\u2019re going through. That really keeps team politics bullshit at bay.\r\n\r\nAnd it also means that further down the line, when you have to have tough conversations with your teammates about something from the racing, it makes it a whole lot easier if you\u2019ve already built a good relationship.\r\n\r\nFor heat-of-the-moment situations where it\u2019s all turning to custard, maybe you\u2019ve had a badly executed kite drop and lost a couple of boats at the leeward mark, using a trigger word can be really helpful. It might be as simple as \u2018reset\u2019 \u2013 as in \u2018Okay, lads, let\u2019s reset,\u2019 \u2013 to get everyone back into the present and focusing on the next thing. It\u2019s also about keeping an eye out for how each of us is responding to stress.\r\n\r\nIn the last Cup we had a buddy system where we were paired off with a teammate, and my buddy was Ben Cornish. If I was getting a little bit nervous I had a habit of marching around the foredeck and, hard though it might be to believe, I would actually talk more than usual. My buddy might say to me, \u2018\u201cYou alright today? You\u2019re wearing a hole out in the foredeck with all that marching up and down. Is everything good?\u201d So Cornish acknowledged that I was nervous or uptight that day and we\u2019d then have a little chat about it.\r\n\r\nOnce you get that anxiety or anger out of your head and into the open, it starts to disappear pretty quickly. Having an outlet for your feelings is really healthy and it\u2019s the sign of a great team when you can look out for each other like that.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n<\/a>If you enjoyed this\u2026.<\/h2>\r\n\r\nYachting World is the world's leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.<\/em><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nBuild your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers<\/a> and save at least 30% off the cover price.<\/em><\/div><\/blockquote>\r\nNote: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em>\r\n\r\n
","excerpt":{"rendered":"Before he specialised in foiling catamarans, John Gimson was long-time tuning partner to Iain Percy and the late Andrew \u2018Bart\u2019 Simpson in the Star keelboat, playing a key role in helping them win gold and silver medals at the Beijing and London Olympics. Two-boat tuning is a critical part of any serious Olympic campaign, a proven tool that is surprisingly underused outside of the very top echelons of the sport. \u201cTwo-boat tuning massively speeds up your learning curve,\u201d says Gimson. \u201cYou get much quicker feedback on your performance compared with just sailing by yourself.\u201d In an Olympic campaign in a highly technical boat like the Nacra 17, Gimson estimates they spend almost half their time engaged in tuning. The benefit comes not just in improving the technical speed of the boat. \u201cA big part of the benefit is getting used to living in a \u2018thin lane\u2019 and keeping the boat moving at optimum pace even when you\u2019re struggling to live in an uncomfortable place next to another boat.\u201d The following are five of Gimson\u2019s best tips for getting the most out of two-boat tuning. Article continues below… Get a baseline It\u2019s good to keep one boat as the \u2018baseline\u2019 boat where you put everything on known, standard settings. That boat is effectively the \u2018control\u2019 in the test process. Then you start to change settings on the other boat to see how it affects relative performance. Once you get into a tuning run, you\u2019re aiming to sail as hard as you can, trying to beat the other boat. It\u2019s also good to use the same points of reference and calibration points, so you have a common language you can use on and off the water for understanding what adjustments are being made. Be honest, be disciplined You need to be honest with each other during the process. If you think you had an easier time because you benefited from a slight wind shift, for example, admit it. You\u2019re not trying to kill each other. You\u2019re looking to learn the lessons from the day and share those learnings with each other. If you discover something that works but don\u2019t share it with your training partner, the process will break down. You need to have mutual trust to make the two-boat tuning programme work for everybody. Start fair When it\u2019s flat water we\u2019ll probably start three boat lengths apart, with the leeward boat half to one boat length ahead, so we\u2019re effectively starting on equal terms. The more wavy it gets, the more separation we\u2019ll start with, so the windward boat doesn\u2019t get washed into the leeward boat. Then we\u2019ll keep swapping sides, from windward to leeward position and vice versa, testing on port and starboard tacks, making these changes for possibly an hour or more until we get a feeling of who\u2019s going better and understanding the reasons why. But if the wind is really shifty there\u2019s not much point in carrying on with a two-boat session. Use shifty days to work …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5203,"featured_media":162696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3117,975],"tags":[3116,934,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162693"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162697,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162693\/revisions\/162697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162693"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=162693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>If you enjoyed this\u2026.<\/h2>\r\n\r\nYachting World is the world's leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.<\/em><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nBuild your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers<\/a> and save at least 30% off the cover price.<\/em><\/div><\/blockquote>\r\nNote: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em>\r\n\r\n
","excerpt":{"rendered":"Before he specialised in foiling catamarans, John Gimson was long-time tuning partner to Iain Percy and the late Andrew \u2018Bart\u2019 Simpson in the Star keelboat, playing a key role in helping them win gold and silver medals at the Beijing and London Olympics. Two-boat tuning is a critical part of any serious Olympic campaign, a proven tool that is surprisingly underused outside of the very top echelons of the sport. \u201cTwo-boat tuning massively speeds up your learning curve,\u201d says Gimson. \u201cYou get much quicker feedback on your performance compared with just sailing by yourself.\u201d In an Olympic campaign in a highly technical boat like the Nacra 17, Gimson estimates they spend almost half their time engaged in tuning. The benefit comes not just in improving the technical speed of the boat. \u201cA big part of the benefit is getting used to living in a \u2018thin lane\u2019 and keeping the boat moving at optimum pace even when you\u2019re struggling to live in an uncomfortable place next to another boat.\u201d The following are five of Gimson\u2019s best tips for getting the most out of two-boat tuning. Article continues below… Get a baseline It\u2019s good to keep one boat as the \u2018baseline\u2019 boat where you put everything on known, standard settings. That boat is effectively the \u2018control\u2019 in the test process. Then you start to change settings on the other boat to see how it affects relative performance. Once you get into a tuning run, you\u2019re aiming to sail as hard as you can, trying to beat the other boat. It\u2019s also good to use the same points of reference and calibration points, so you have a common language you can use on and off the water for understanding what adjustments are being made. Be honest, be disciplined You need to be honest with each other during the process. If you think you had an easier time because you benefited from a slight wind shift, for example, admit it. You\u2019re not trying to kill each other. You\u2019re looking to learn the lessons from the day and share those learnings with each other. If you discover something that works but don\u2019t share it with your training partner, the process will break down. You need to have mutual trust to make the two-boat tuning programme work for everybody. Start fair When it\u2019s flat water we\u2019ll probably start three boat lengths apart, with the leeward boat half to one boat length ahead, so we\u2019re effectively starting on equal terms. The more wavy it gets, the more separation we\u2019ll start with, so the windward boat doesn\u2019t get washed into the leeward boat. Then we\u2019ll keep swapping sides, from windward to leeward position and vice versa, testing on port and starboard tacks, making these changes for possibly an hour or more until we get a feeling of who\u2019s going better and understanding the reasons why. But if the wind is really shifty there\u2019s not much point in carrying on with a two-boat session. Use shifty days to work …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5203,"featured_media":162696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3117,975],"tags":[3116,934,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162693"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162697,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162693\/revisions\/162697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162693"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=162693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}