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Mark contrived to be in Weymouth just in time to see Nick Dempsey put his new tactical toolbox (see below) into work to win the medal race of the RSX world championship. The last British Olympic windsurfing world champion was Barrie Edgington (who just happens to be Nick’s regular coach), back in 1991.  

Nick controlled the medal race in classic style. Israel’s Nimrod Mashiah needed to beat Nick by three places, and attacked from to windward on the start line. Nick held his ground: Mashiah had nowhere to go and conceded a penalty turn. Dempsey than sailed a perfect strategist’s beat: controlling the rest of the fleet to the favoured left hand side, then leading the pack back in before the port layline. A small lift caused the boards to the left  to overstand, Dempsey lead to the mark, and sailed away to take the title. Since his disappointing 4^th place in the Olympics, he has got married, had a baby, and won a worlds… the medal race made it all look very easy but that belies just how much work has gone in to this success.

E mail from Chips Howarth, 10 June 2009: "Are you busy Sunday? Vyv and I are training at HISC and would love your thoughts on our crapness".

As it happened, Mark had some free time, and spent a fascinating day with Chips and Vyv Townend, on one of their last outings before the Fireball World Champs. After some time tweaking their powerful rig set up, and fine tuning Chip's upwind technique, we all felt that they were leaving for La Rochelle in pretty good shape considering the relatively small amount of time they have had to practice this year. And we were right; Chips and Vyvo won the championship in style with a race to spare, regaining the title they last won in 2007.

" We didn’t do as much sailing as in previous years, mainly due to family and work commitments, but every day we sailed we made sure counted. We have also being sailing together for seven years now and that makes our communication in the boat strong. The big turning point was definitely a coaching day with coaching God Mark Rushall in June, where he identified some issues in how we were setting up the rig and some shoddy techniques I had developed over the years. Those improvements not only made us faster, they also gave us a lot of belief in ourselves."

For the full interview, follow the link to offshorerules.com

Windsurfing equipment and techniques have certainly moved on since Mark's "Racing Sailboats" days, when he managed the Midland branch of this leading dinghy equipment store, complete with windsurf shop upstairs, and school down the road. But he jumped at the chance to coach Nick Dempsey at the Holland Regatta at the end of April.

Nick had been impressed with the simple tactical rules of thumb which his Olympic Gold Medallist wife Sarah Ayton had developed to help deal with tricky situations when the race just seemed to be getting too complicated. His mission was to come up with an equivalent game plan for RSX racing: he felt that this was the area which gave him the maximum potetial for gaining a jump over his rivals leading up to this Summer's world championships in Weymouth.

Though it's the same game, windsurfing presents several new variables for traditional dinghy sailors.

In marginal conditions, the leap from displacement to planing upwind means you sail twice as far but three times as fast; its a big call to make but the potential gains are enormous. And as its physically impossible to pump all the way around the course, whatever the conditions, choosing the right time to use the extra power is another tactical decision not unlike the optimum deployment of the kinetic energy systems available to Grand Prix drivers.

It was a fascinating opportunity, even if some of the overseas teams were heard to ask Nick why he had his dad coaching him at this event!

Mark stepped straight off BA's Gold nosed 747 (it was painted specially for the British Olympic and Paralympic teams!) and onto a flight for Dublin, for the first ever SB3 world championships. Though sitting in the top 10 after 4 days of racing, we have to say that watching sailing from a rib makes you very analytical about sailing, but doesn't necessarily develop the intuitive decision making needed when 70 boats seem to be headed for the same place at the same time!

But we enjoyed the experience enough to want to be back next year. And age will be no excuse: South African runner up Dave Hudson is 62 years young: the last time we raced against him was at the Fireball Worlds in San Fransisco in 1984! It is quite heartening to round the windward mark in the 20’s, have a sneaky look around, and see plenty of “names” in exactly the same predicament.

 Here's what winner Geoff Carveth had to say about the regatta:

“I’m truly stunned, actually. It has been a tough week. Comparing it to the Europeans of two years ago, I think it has probably been doubly as hard to win this one. The competition seemed much more equal, the racing much tougher, the light winds made it much harder to have an edge speed wise. The whole fleet has moved on as well: generally it has been a bloodyy tough week’s racing.

“No matter how consistent your starts were or your first beat was there was always a group of boats angling in from somewhere. I think Dublin Bay is a tricky venue anyway: though the tides didn’t play a huge issue this week.

But there was always someone banging a corner; all week we have been playing the middle, taking the “safe” option, but with a fleet of quality sailors there is always going to be someone on a more favoured side, whether its Buddy [Mike Budd] or whoever, coming back with an advantage from somewhere looking great.

To try and keep climbing back into those lefties or righties, consistently working your way back up in that kind of breeze when there are no boat speed differences, or at best a tenth of a knot advantage is really hard.

Whats the key to coming back in a fleet like this?

“Being focussed, not being phased by the position you are in. Looking for clear lanes if there are any. Don’t be extreme, avoid the corners and play the shifts, and play the fleet.

 By that I mean work the fleet: if you are trying to get the advantage: you have a picture in your mind about what you want, but always stay aware of where the other boats in your part of the fleet are, so that you can keep your lane as clear as possible while you are getting there.

What would you say are the strengths of your team?

“Roger is very talented as a tactician, gets the boat going fast, knows what the sails need to look like, very focused, very cool and determined. He needs to win to be happy, and his track record proves that.

So near: but so far... September 2008

Having won the Hyeres regatta, and the Paralympic test event in China, we travelled to China with some pretty positive vibes. However, things just weren't to be. My teams devastating speed in 6k plus was only tested in 2 races out of 10: the rest were close, tense affairs, with the medals going to those who kept their cool through the whole regatta. Team GBR mainsheet man Steve Thomas takes up the story:

“The game has certainly moved on since Athens 4 years ago. There were 8 boats here good enough to win a medal: Rick Doerr, the American world champion, won the first race but still only managed 8^th overall. Just six pints separated the first 7 boats overall, and unfortunately we had six points too many.

The atmosphere on the race track was tense, but fair: we were racing against a bunch of professionals who were there to do a job. At this level no-one is worried about protesting someone who they feel has committed a foul: people paid for breaking rules just look what happened to Dror and the Americans.

The French team were the strongest on the day, and would have won if they hadn’t split their jib in the last race. But that’s part of racing: to keep your kit in one place. Jens Kroker is a consistent sailor relied on his routines, and let the others make their mistakes. I think the results might have been quite different if we’d had wind for a couple of days as expected.

Overall, the facilities at the venue are amazing: the regatta was well run, and its an interesting place to race. The conditions were pretty much as expected and we enjoyed the extra breeze on the final day. But I still don’t understand why we have to have a layday: as usual, that would have been the best sailing day!

Our preparation running into the event was excellent, and there was good spirit within the camp. Having won the test event, and knowing that we had all the processes in place, we are very disappointed that we did not perform as well as we know we can.

The Games is very different to a world championships, we need to recognise this more and plan harder for the differences. You train for 4 years to win gold: that adds internal pressure, and being able to deal with that is the key.  We were good at dealing with the externals, but not so good at these internals.

Talking Tactics - April 2008

"The Big Picture" was the theme of Mark Rushall's spring lecture tour. The next lecture is booked for 14 June, in Jersey: if you can't get there but have a weekday slot in your sailing club program and would like a new perspective on tactical decision making, please e mail Mark.

"Thank you for your e-mail and for the wonderful evening you gave to Club Members. Everyone seems to have got something different from your talk, which shows how we operate so differently.

From the Porchester Sailing Club website:

Mark Rushall at PSC, Written by Carolyn Kenworth, 7th March 2008

Mark Rushall addressed a ‘full house’ of Members eager to hear his advice on Tactics. Without doubt, the key words of the evening were ‘THE BIG PICTURE’ and although many of us knew the basics, it was great to have clear directions on what was important, with so many things to think about during a race. We were treated to some eye-opening facts and figures to help us consider the impact of line bias, tacking on shifts, wind bends and convergence.

Through modern technology, we were ‘on-board’ an SB3 with Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks, hearing all their tactical thoughts (and Mark Rushall’s comments) on how to sail the race and seeing them come from a poor start to finishing first. Most inspiring. Mark has kindly given the Club a copy of the DVD and no doubt we will be hosting an evening or two to watch it again and learn more.

Last month Mark visited the Olympic and Paralympic sailing venue, Qingdao, where the British Paralympic team were undertaking a recce of venue and facilities. Just for once it seems that the Olympians may have drawn the short straw on conditions. At the time of next year’s Paralympics, some 3 weeks later than the Olympic regatta, we saw none of the unbearable humidity, 3 knot tides, and windless days in thick smog and rain which our prospective Olympians experienced at their test regatta. Instead we have had champagne sailing in medium breeze, some sunshine (if a little hazy on the offshore days!) and temperatures closer to a British Summer. It seems that autumn comes pretty quickly here

The entry list at this year's SB3 nationals at Hayling Island looked like a who's who of British one design sailing: Lawrie Smith, Glen Bourke, Geoff Carveth, Russell Peters, Rob Greenhalgh, Paul Brotherton, Tony Wetherall, Tim Fells.... all past or current national or world champions, with a few Olympic medallists thrown in. "Risk Premium", sponsored by James Baxter Capital Management and helmed by Mark Rushall, began the regatta with a bullet and led a couple of other races. We couldn't quite keep this form up through the regatta, but  were pretty satisfied with 5th overall in the most competitive SB3 regatta yet.

Team GBR win Junior Europeans - August 2007

The British team, coached by Mark Rushall,  returned from Medemblik, Holland, in August with three medals, one of each colour.

The fleet experienced a real mix of wind conditions, combined with the characteristic Isselmeer chop and finished with an exciting sail home in 28 knots! Tom Gillard and Sam Brearey showed true grit to discard a disappointing 22nd place from the qualifying series and beat Jonny Moss and Ben Musket, ahead of the rest of the Europeans, by 8 points, while Imogen Stanley and Kate MacGregor took bronze in the girls fleet.