Dating 101--Where to eat?

One of my most favorite memories of the times my kids were growing up sailing happened at the Sea Otter High School regatta in Monterey, CA. The regatta is sailed off what was then a commercial fishing pier that juts out into Monterey Bay. The pier is about 15 feet off the water and the racecourse is just off it making for great viewing by the sailors and fans not out racing at the time.

One thing that for sure about watching sailing races, especially from an elevated platform is that if you know even just a little about racing you can usually see what is going to happen on the course before the sailors do. Being down at water level making seeing all the nuances in the wind a lot harder. 

The coach for my son Patrick’s team was a guy named Brian Bissell. Brian is a great sailor and coach. He was a standout on the Georgetown sailing team, Snipe National Champion and a great guy. He has a really nice way about him and appeared to me to relate to the kids well. He is also very competitive. You don’t get to be an All American in college sailing if you are not. He wanted to win.

For this event Patrick was sailing “B” division. The wind was blowing from left to right as we looked out from the pier with more wind closer to the pier. It looked to me like the wind was compressing and speeding up as it got closer to the structure. “A” division went out to start the regatta and rattled off two races. It was a little hard to tell but the left side of the course seemed to pay. Race 1 of “B” started and Patrick was spotted up near the boat. Shortly after the start he tacked to get clear air and headed right. He kept going, and going. Halfway up the beat he tacked back and the left had gained. He was deep at the windward mark. He was fast downwind and caught some boats. Rounded the left gate facing downwind and to keep clear air was headed right again. 

By this time I could hear Coach Bissell muttering. “Come on now, let’s tack and get with the fleet”. “Let’s go now, no more to the right”. Eventually Patrick tacked but the damage was done. A deep finish in Race 1. 

The second race was unfortunately a repeat of the first. Much of the race one boat was off on the right by itself. Brian became more frustrated because he had spent weeks drilling his team on the risks of getting too much separation from the fleet. 

What happened next was pure brilliance. Patrick and his crew sailed in and even from a distance you could see the frustration. No one wanted to start the event off with two bad races. Our team while maybe not the favorite was a clear contender for a top finish. Brian took Patrick aside and in the course of 5 minutes turned the whole situation upside down. He turned it around be having a conversation that only a high school junior and recently graduated from college coach could have. It went something like this:

Brian started by asking Patrick how he would decide a girl to dinner after he had mustered the courage to ask her out. Given his dejected state Patrick shrugged his shoulder with a non-answer. Brian proceeded to describe how he would do it. He would hop in his car with his date and start cruising the different places he knew to eat at. Once he had gone by a few he would pick the one that had the most cars in the parking lot. It had to be the best place. Customer were not going to spend their hard earned money on a restaurant that was not good. Brian urged Patrick to think that way about his sailing. Go where the crowd is—it can’t be that bad. 

As the regatta went on you could see the way Patrick changed his habits. He avoided separating from the fleet as much as he could and his average scores improved significantly. By staying with the fleet he mitigated risk and used his good boathandling and speed to his advantage. He also learned how to take a date to dinner!

Key takeaways:

·     Don’t think you know more than the rest of the fleet. You probably don’t.

·     Separating from the fleet creates “leverage” and increased risk. 

·     Be on the lookout at all times for ways to stay in touch with the fleet. 

·     Avoid all large separations-they rarely work out in your favor. 

Author’s postsrcript: After high school Patrick was recruited to sail at the US Naval Academy where he was an all-conference and all American sailor.