{"id":159453,"date":"2025-08-06T06:07:53","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/?p=159453"},"modified":"2025-08-06T08:43:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T07:43:57","slug":"5-expert-tips-how-to-recover-from-a-bad-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/5-tips\/5-expert-tips-how-to-recover-from-a-bad-race-159453","title":{"rendered":"5 Expert Tips: How to recover from a bad race"},"content":"Every crew has its own DNA, its own ecosystem. Making that the best and healthiest crew dynamic possible is a big part of what interests Richard Parslow. \u201cPsychology is a huge part of the sport,\u201d he says.\r\n\r\n\u201cThey say the longest four inches in golf is between the ears, and how we interact with each other in the boat also has a huge outcome on the race course. I\u2019ve been fortunate to be on a lot of successful teams where we\u2019ve had a shared outlook on the campaign, usually pretty laid back, laughing a lot, but in the background really organised and committed to doing the work.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to building a crew, he says: \u201cYou need to think carefully about the team you are assembling, choosing those who are the best fit for the long term, not necessarily because they are the best in the world at a particular job.\u201d Here are Richard\u2019s five best tips for getting everyone on the crew pulling in the same direction.\r\n

Have shared goals<\/h2>\r\nI remember driving back from a youth event once and my helmsman said what a good regatta we\u2019d had, and I was thinking how badly it had gone. He was enjoying himself and I was all about trying to win the event. It\u2019s really important at the start of the campaign to make sure everyone\u2019s goals are aligned, that you share the same aims.\r\n\r\nAssuming it\u2019s about winning, everyone needs to be highly motivated. Back in the day when we raced on the Ultra 30s you had nine people on a big dinghy which capsized easily, and you could just about swap out one person in a weekend without it affecting your team coordination and performance, but no more than that.\r\n\r\nThat was a big part of why we used to win in the Ultra 30, that consistency of crew on board.\r\n\r\nArticle continues below...<\/em>\r\n\r\n[collection]\r\n

Bring skills<\/h2>\r\nAs well as skills to race the boat, make sure the crew brings complementary skills for the onshore stuff and the logistics \u2013 the ability to work with glassfibre or carbon, metal work, fix engines, maintain the coach RIB, cooking and good technique in the protest room. Have as many bases as possible covered within the team.\r\n

Hone the process<\/h2>\r\nI\u2019m a big believer in the regatta process, that you\u2019ve got a consistent thing that you do every day. It starts before the event with logistics of travel and accommodation and then goes into a daily process for each race day, from \u2018wake up to write up\u2019.\r\n\r\nEverything on a checklist is one less thing to think about on what\u2019s already a hugely complicated day. Man is a habit forming animal and we\u2019re very happy when we\u2019re able to go through a repetitive process. It means you\u2019re unlikely to forget anything. Without a systematic approach, because of potential \u2018diffusion of responsibility\u2019 in larger teams, some things might slip through the cracks.\r\n

Cool off<\/h2>\r\nI\u2019ve been pretty lucky with most of the teams I\u2019ve been on \u2013 there hasn\u2019t been any sort of toxic breakdown. But certainly when everybody\u2019s under a lot of pressure, emotions can get high and people get upset and angry and things are said.\r\n\r\nA really good way to get back down from that high level of emotion \u2013 anger, even \u2013 is to go back to your process...\u201cOkay, what went wrong there? Did someone just mess up, or is there something wrong with the process? And to make sure it doesn\u2019t go wrong again, do we just need to practise more, or do we have to re-think the process?\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_153430\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Finely honed relationships are vital in crew from everyday cruisers up to the very top of competitive sailing. Photo: Ricardo Pinto \/ America's Cup[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThat approach gets you back to a place where you\u2019re not so upset any more. It depersonalises the problem and works towards a collective solution rather than pointing the finger.\r\n

Have a laugh<\/h2>\r\nCampaigning across a whole season can be a long, hard slog. You\u2019re going to spend a lot of time together, training, travelling and competing. Whatever level you\u2019re operating at, you need to have a sense of humour that works for everyone on the crew. You\u2019re going to have things go well and a lot of things go really badly. And it\u2019s when things go badly you really test your team bond and the power of the relationship on the boat. Sense of humour is a massive part of getting you out of those moments and back on the right track.\r\n\r\nSome people swear a lot, but try to avoid effing and blinding all over the shop \u2013 it increases pressure and tension on board, If you\u2019re upset about something and you swear, it doesn\u2019t make you any less upset, but it makes the other people around you more upset. Then they\u2019re likely to react. And the more upset you get, the less good decisions you make.\r\n\r\nClear, calm communication will produce a quieter, more efficient racing machine, and whether you\u2019ve had a good or bad day, you should always be able to find something you can share a laugh about!\r\n\r\n
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You learn more from your mistakes than from your successes. But when you\u2019ve had a bad result, how do you get past the negative emotion and start turning that into a positive to take forward into your next race? Terry Hutchinson has been grappling with this challenge for more than four decades. He says he\u2019s still learning. Even for someone of Terry\u2019s deep experience at the top of the sport, every day brings up new scenarios and new lessons, sometimes painful but always useful if processed in the right way. But how to learn those lessons and improve teamwork without resorting to finger pointing and ending up in the blame game? It\u2019s a tough job but it\u2019s vital to the overall mission, not to mention making sure everybody is enjoying the process. \u201cGood communication creates clarity,\u201d says Terry. \u201cHow do we communicate so that we keep our focus on the details and the process of racing well? The goal must be clear decision making without emotion. When you can make a decision without any emotion, you tend to make a higher percentage decision.\u201d Easier said than done in the heat of battle, which is why you need to read and absorb Terry\u2019s best five tips for rallying the team after a bad outing on the race course. Own your mistakes When training recently on the TP52 we had a boat handling mistake which ended up with the spinnaker going underneath the bow \u2013 the worst possible thing that can happen. It wasn\u2019t an error on the bow, it was a steering error, and I pointed this out to the helmsman, and he got it. It\u2019s not about attacking anybody, it\u2019s simply that the only way we learn from these situations is by acknowledging them and working out what we\u2019d do differently next time. Article continues below… Whenever any of us makes a mistake, we\u2019d better be the first to acknowledge it, because without that how can you build the credibility to call anybody else out? If you\u2019re finding it difficult to get someone to own their mistake then I\u2019ll bring the ownership back on myself, because nine times out of 10 it\u2019s down to a communication error. So you get them to talk through what they were thinking. You don\u2019t need them to say, \u201cHey, I screwed that up.\u201d You just need to ask how they can be supported in those situations to eliminate that happening again. Do your own job When the majority of the crew are amateur sailors just doing it on the weekends, one of the things we\u2019d instil is, \u2018Know your job. Do your job 100% perfectly first\u2019. And when you develop the consistency to do that, then learn the job of the person in front of you and behind you. Not to do their job, but to help support them when they need a hand. It\u2019s a great focus for every team member to work on their own skills before they\u2019re too critical of others. …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5203,"featured_media":159455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[846,934,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159453"}],"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=159453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159456,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159453\/revisions\/159456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159453"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=159453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}