Team Strategy Becomes Critical For Lake Forest High School Sailors

Sailing is not a sport often evoking images of team playbooks and selfless defensive maneuvers. 

When the sailing team competes in the Saturday and Sunday (May 21-22) in Norfolk, Va., that is exactly the Scouts' strategy. 

“It’s a combination of using plays according to the rules to control your opponent and build up your own team,” . “We select plays from our playbook and execute according to the rules.” 

The Scouts are one of 12 teams from around the country competing for the national team championship. They qualified by winning the Midwest title three weeks ago in Minnesota. 

A Scout squad of three boats with one sailor as skipper and another as crew will compete in a series of races against teams from other schools. The team with the lowest score wins the race as points are awarded by order of finish in ascending order. 

“The magic number is 10,” Ratliff said. “Any score of 10 or less wins.” 

On Saturday, each team races against each other once with the top four advancing to Sunday’s Gold Regatta for the championship. The middle four teams race for the silver prize and the bottom four seek bronze. The finals are also round-robin competition. 

Developing a strategy as each race unfolds to finish with one of a variety of winning combinations is paramount. As the race begins, the Scouts lead boat takes an initial leadership role. 

“The lead team on the water has to be verbal,” Ratliff said. “They call out a play like a quarterback and the team responds.” That play involves holding a lead or slowing an opponent to put the three boats in a leading position. 

If a Lake Forest craft is ahead with a foe holding the next two places, the lead boat will attempt to outmaneuver the second and third place boats to allow a teammate to pass into a higher spot. 

“We control them (the opponent). We take them out of their comfort zone,” Scout junior skipper . “We make them sail in our shadow and take away their wind.”

“We want them to pass a teammate up while they (the teammate) are in their (the opponent’s) wind,” Ratliff added. 

A sailor learns these plays with plenty of practice but, like other sports, there is a great deal of time spent studying strategy. Following each race, they will review what went well and what needs improvement.

“We spend a lot of time in the classroom going over hundreds of situations,” said , the Scouts senior captain and a skipper. “We have a lot of different plays to slow down their (the opponent’s) boat.” 

Ratliff knows understanding the numerous plays and combinations is important, but he wants the sailors to maintain their intellectual focus first and foremost. 

“It’s a mental game,” Ratliff said. “If you execute properly, you win the race. It all comes down to execution.” 

One mental adjustment the Scouts must make is sailing an FJ rather than the 420’s they piloted to the Midwest crown. Most of the Lake Forest sailors have been using 420’s since they began team sailing in the local program, many of them before entering high school.

“They’re a little different. They’re not what we normally sail,” Rice said, referring to the FJ’s. “The crew is backward, we sit backward. Some of the California teams use them.” 

 The Scouts borrowed enough FJ’s from Northwestern University this week to train for the nationals. “It will help us to execute,” Rice said.

None of this is new for Rice. He began sailing at age 10 and has been a competitive sailor for five years. That will continue when he enrolls at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island in the fall as a member of the sailing team.

“It’s a varsity sport there,” Rice said. “We sail every day. We’re treated like all the other athletes. We’re housed with them and we eat with them."

This summer, Rice will coach younger sailors at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron in Halifax. He will mentor at regattas throughout the United States and Canada. He sees sailing and coaching in his future. 

“If I can get the opportunity to go pro, to have a chance at the Olympics I want to do that,” Rice said. “Either way, I can see myself as a coach."

Ratliff agrees Rice would make a good coach. “He helps with the younger sailors here. He shows them little things to do,” Ratliff said. 

Curtiss began the sport at a much younger age than Rice. “I came out of the womb sailing,” Curtiss said. Though he plans to sail in college, he sees a career in business or finance.

“I’ll always be sailing,” he added.