The more I practice, the luckier I get,” the golfer Gary Player used to joke. This old saw became famous because it rang so true. The more you do something, the better you get, and the easier it is.
It’s the same with ocean sailing. Whenever I have sailed in, or covered, round the world rallies, I’ve seen this in practice. Passage times tend to get quicker as crews progress through the Pacific and onwards. Yet when I talk to skippers and crews, they frequently say they became choosier about when they set spinnakers, and recounted easier crossings with fewer breakages. Why?
It was clear that repeated ocean passages had refined their decision-making. Over time, they were better able to determine the right point to make or reduce sail, and…
