AGGRESSIVE RACERS
Pierre Mortefon: There are dirty racers! You get to know who are the more dangerous sailors and the ones that are very aggressive. At the same time there are also some respectful guys. You have to adapt your sailing with this and sometimes especially when you are in fourth and you have an aggressive racer behind, you have to take care. You might have to go super tight to the mark to close down any space. You have to deal with it!
Ross Williams: If there is a pack on my ass then I just try and concentrate on what I am doing in front. I just try and make sure there is no space for them to sneak in on the inside of me, even if that means me executing a slower gybe. If I am chasing then I will push the other guys as far as I can into making mistakes at the gybes. I will try and slow down and take them on the inside.
Finian Maynard: Even the early heats are far more competitive these days on tour. Even a top guy can go out, especially in light winds. In windier conditions the level in the fleet separates out again. In 7-15 knots there are many guys that are fast and the racing is tight and aggressive.
GYBE MARK
Matteo Iachino: If you want to take somebody at the gybe most of the time you need to get on the inside of them. The inside is usually better because you have clear wind. If you are fighting with two or three guys you have to be careful even in strong winds because you have the potential of two or three wind shadows. If you are the guy on the inside you are going to have more wind! You also have to make sure you don’t stop planing otherwise you get stuck there and a guy can execute a smooth gybe on the outside and pass you. It is all a matter of balance.
John Skye: For me racing is all about the gybe. I don’t really have the pure speed to sail past people on the reaches, so I just make sure I am in a position to punish them at the gybe, or more specifically on the exit of the gybe. If you can keep speed out of the gybe you can gain literally 20 metres. To make that up with pure board speed is almost impossible. I normally back off people a bit if it is possible and position myself high coming into the gybe. If they gybe low it is the easiest as I can sweep in close to the buoy and if I can get a board length ahead I will then bear downwind on top of them and put them in my wake. That is my most successful manoeuvre. However if they are wise to that, they will often gybe really tight to not leave any room, but this means they will probably lose more speed so then you can go a bit wider and maybe come out below them but with more speed and get ahead that way. There are obviously lots more situations and it is inspiring when you see how a master racer like Ross varies his approach with each gybe depending on the situation and who is around.
Ross Williams: We normally race on tight courses so the gybe is one of the only places we can overtake. It is hard to go down low underneath anyone on the reaches.
Steve Allen: I look for any opening possible and charge for that as hard as I can. You have to be aggressive but cautious not to have a major crash. If you reckon that you are going into a situation where you may not make it out without collision it is better to avoid it or you will both be stopping. Then you are both screwed! You have to analyse the situation very quickly in your head.