A new year always starts with new plans and goals for us in our work, life and our sailing! As the sailing season starts, take some time to write down what your goals are for the coming year. Share these with your crew and ask what they have for goals, you might be surprised they are very similar or goals that you never thought of! I like to do goal setting and use the KISS technique. The Keep It Simple &Stupid “KISS” approach gives me a realistic and obtainable list of goals. But I do list one or two goals that are ranked high and a reach for me and the crew to not settle for the easy, but have some push and motivation.

Some standard goals for a sailing team are:

1. Attend more (or all) races on the schedule

2. Practice the day before or an hour before the first race on Saturday

3. Recruit new crew who can help accomplish goals 1&2! Hahaha

4. Hire a coach or bring a professional sailor onboard to fine tune crew work

5. Identify and work on boat/ team weakness -for example: bad spinnaker work, bad mark roundings, slow speed when wind strengthens.

6. Get sails and rigging dialed in for maximum performance – recuts and repairs, replace a sail?

7. Get boat optimized- remove extra weight, mast tuned, bottomed smoothed and faired!

8. Crew debrief after racing, keep notes while racing and talk about good & bad events of the day. -this keeps the crew focused on moving forward mentally and physically so the crew does not keep making the “same” mistakes.

9. Keep maintenance up so there is more time racing and less time repairing or going back to the dock.

10. Bring FUN every race, this is recreation and a great sport to do with family and friends, make this happen every time you go sailing!

BONUS GOALS: These are the goals that are not easy, you need to reach a little further and dig down a little deeper to make this happen.

1. Pick a bigger regatta (ie MEXORC, Corum Cup, Long Distance Race) and commit to it. Aim for the top 3 spots in your class! Get the crew organize, dedicate time for practice and racing before. Get a sail or sails that will make you competitive in conditions where the boat has been lacking.

2. Do some cross training and skipper or crew on smaller boats. Sail or Race in Valle on J24, J70 and get some more “water” time. The fact is the more you do something, the better you will become at it. Smaller boats help you get back to CORE sailing principles that will only help you as a sailor on the bigger boats!

Now, get out your laptop or tablet ( or your pencil and paper like I do) and make your goals. Write them down and commit you and your crew to achieving them. At the end of the year, let’s review them and see how many goals we achieved.

YOU CAN DO IT! see you on the water soon, bring your fun and goals and have a great 2016 sailing season!