Sail Envy

Last week on race night, I noticed how many other boats had crispy, new white sails. They looked beautiful and I could almost hear how crunchy they sounded. Our sails, on the other hand, are old, blown out, mildewy, pitiful and pathetically limp. Man, was I envious!

I remember a time when we got new sails every season. To stay competitive in a competitive fleet, it's necessary! At the time, it sometimes felt a bit excessive, but now I fondly remember the days when other boats had sail envy of us. I remember comments from our competition of how crisp and crunchy they sounded when we tacked. Our tacks were fast too, so they really whipped about!

Now, I have a sad suit of sails and results to match. Even worse, a sailing colleague reminded me that we have a lot more to work on in our crewwork. New sails will only help our performance so much! I have to humbly acknowledge how much this rings true.

Still, I can't wait for the new #2 sail to come in! It will feel great to fly it. It won't be embarrasing to flake it when we come back to dock -- it won't be mildewy and stinky and feel all grungy -- for this season, at least. And we will be a bit more competitive, even if only in appearance. Looks count, y'know! It psychs out the competition.

In the meantime, there certainly is a lot our team has to work towards. We need to work on basic boathandling. We need to have everyone know their roles cold, and know where to put themselves physically. We need to work on getting our tacks much faster -- down to 10 seconds. We need to get our spinnaker work working like clockwork. I could go on & on & on...but that's a good start for now. At least our starts are still happenin'!

Tough Calls

I recently coached a senior manager who needed to address an issue directly with a team member, since it was affecting the performance of the entire team. I’m happy to report that after taking action, his team has shifted 180 degrees! He received positive feedback that the team is really “gelling” now.

This coaching engagement reminded me of a similar instance where I personally experienced this issue in the sailing team I formed last summer. I learned how it’s so much better to take action ashore to ensure the team performs well on the water.

After being away from racing for 2 years, I needed to form a team again, this time for a new, larger sailboat. My original Ladies Racing team had taken the same 2 year sabbatical from racing, and were all eager to get together again and have fun racing. With a larger boat, we needed at least one more crew. A woman was recommended to me, who was known on the racing circuit, with many years of experience. After a brief conversation, I invited her to join the team.

On the race course, my new team had a learning curve to climb with a larger boat and integrating a new crew member. Mid way through the season, I clued into the fact that we weren’t performing as well as we could and nobody seems to be having fun! Checking in with each of my crew individually, they confirmed my suspicions. Nobody was having fun; they weren’t even looking forward to race nights anymore. The new team member wasn’t fitting in and it was affecting the whole team.

My gut instinct told me early on that the new crew wasn’t a fit. However I was focused on my business and turned a blind eye to the issues in my racing team. I wasn’t doing anybody justice by delaying dealing with the issue through the summer.

I knew I needed to kick her off the boat for the betterment of the team. I had the direct conversation, recruited another team member, and set up a trial period. After the first race with the new crew, my gut instinct was telling me that we were having more fun, and starting to gel again as a team. This time, I checked in with the rest of the crew after a few races, and made sure it really was working out for the whole team.


I see many parallels in this experience with building business teams. Recruiting effectively is an important first step. I worked for a company where recruitment decisions were made almost exclusively based on fit. Rather than wait it out to the point where retention of good team members becomes an issue, it is important to nip issues in the bud, and exercise a probation period when necessary. Being the skipper is an enjoyable job, except when the really tough calls have to be made!

Complementary Strengths vs. Interchangeable Roles

I really believe in focusing on strengths, rather than trying to shore up one's weaknesses. Often in teams, it may seem prudent to have someone trained to serve as a backup for another in case of absence; to have team members able to interchange roles. However, when it comes to sailing, and high performance teams, I question this practice.

If I were to change roles with the foredeck crew from being the skipper, it would be a freaking disaster! In fact, we tried this once on a light-wind, up-river, long distance race, just for fun. I gained a new appreciation for the work involved on the foredeck! This awareness, along with the fact that I realized that we contributed best in our chosen roles where we had practiced and honed our skills, was the real benefit of interchanging our roles.

I've heard many stories about how one crew member absent from the regular team causes havoc on the race course. When the skipper decides to mix it up and interchange roles, performance really takes a hit. In fact, I recently heard a story in the One Design racing where a C&C27 team learned this lesson the hard way. They won the first race of the season this year, with the crew in their usual roles; then last week the helmsman was absent, they mixed up the roles, and mixed up their performance as a result. It must have been bad, because they wouldn't even admit how they placed in the results!

I really feel that high performance teams gel when they have team members with complementary strengths, and they focus on their strengths, instead of putting effort towards backup or fallback plans in case of absence. It would be better to put effort on getting committed crew! Do you think America's Cup teams have crew members who interchange roles?! crew who aren't completely, utterly, totally, unquestionably committed to the team?! I don't think so!

WDYT? Do you agree? Or disagree? Share your opinion!