This conversation begins and ends with the importance of putting in the hours on the water. At the top of the fleet, tactics and creative thinking on the race course are really important - your pram experience or time onboard other boats will pay off. But the price of admission jut to play the game in the 29er fleet, is hours and hours of boat handling and boat speed work.
Many teams have a tendency to try to get too fancy, too quickly - working on racing instead of boat handling, or full maneuvers instead of skill details. When it comes to learning the 29er, slow is fast: take your time to develop the foundations, focus on the details, and you’ll progress far more quickly than if you try to get too complicated, too soon.
But it can get boring focusing on the fundamentals - you just want to go rip around! One of the most important things you can do as you work towards putting in your first 500 hours in the boat, is to keep things fresh and exciting.
Let’s dig into the mind set of a championship team, and then talk a bit about how to mix things up to keep them exciting.
Check out Willie’s latest thoughts while working with the 29er skiff sailing fleet at Skiff Squad.