Preparation for a Major Sailing Regatta With Carol Cronin
On his Sailfaster podcast, Pete Boland spoke to former Olympic sailor and author Carol Newman Cronin about how she prepares for major regattas. Here’s an extract:
How do you prepare for a major regatta?
There’s not one simple answer; regatta preparation is a culmination of many things including ensuring you have the best equipment, the best living and eating situation, and of course, time in the boat is a huge factor. The more tiller time you have, the better.
If you’re talking about a world championship or an Olympic trial, you kind of put your financial blinders on and do whatever you can to be ready to go! My goal (seldom achieved) is to show up for the first day feeling like there’s nothing else we could have done to prepare. You can’t always make a championship—even a major championship such as an Olympic trial—your absolute first priority given careers, family, et cetera, but when you do, it’s amazing what you can accomplish!
There must be so many things that go into preparing for something like that. How do you prioritize?
Up to a year out from a major championship we’re looking for comfortable housing, easy transportation, access to our personal food preferences, and looking at the likely weather. And that’s just the starting point. I’m already thinking do we put the boat in a container or are we chartering? The earlier you start, the better. A huge key to success is setting yourself up with good equipment. It may be a mental thing, but I know I’m going to perform better if I’m sailing my own equipment versus chartering.
Any traditions or habits once you are at the venue?
I love being at the boat park early each day, when very few people are around and your adrenaline’s hyped up as you see what kind of day it is shaping up to be. I can’t really justify it from a performance angle—it’s just pure joy and puts me in a good frame of mind!
You are known as someone who goes into enormous detail with boat prep, right?
Yes, I had a brief career as a rigger, so I bring that experience to the boat park, experience that many people just don’t have. I can rig, re-rig, fix stuff, and jury-rig it if I can’t fix it; this has been a big part of my success. It gives me the comfort of reaching down to ease or pull on a particular line without really thinking about it.
Find the full episode here. Find more racing tips here.
