Managing energy during postponements

The start is at noon, with your team planning dockout at 10am. But the forecast is not promising, and the race committee has called for an on-land postponement. How do you deal with the “hurray-up and wait” syndrome?

Here’s a guide to waiting by 2-time ILCA 6 World Champion Emma Plasschaert of Belgium:

1. Try not to think about sailing too much.
2. Try to not have that constant alertness looking for the wind.
3. Stay in the shade.
4. Don’t talk to people who are sucking out the energy, so, surround yourself with nice people and that makes time go a little bit quicker.
5. Have a coffee!
6. Try not to hang around the boat park

“I’m still trying to improve on this as well,” Plasschaert confessed. “But it’s about having an on-switch and an off-switch, which you can flick for when the postponement goes down and then, you have a second moment maybe when you put your boat in the water or when you actually are on the water and see the orange flag go up. I really try to differentiate between the two switches. One is don’t waste energy, the other one is focus.”