For a more serious team that travels to events around the country, the template will be a bit different. Sail selection and rig tune will play a large part, so this information will take up a bigger portion of the debrief. You'll want to note what sails worked best in what conditions. You'll also want to track your rig adjustments and whether particular settings seemed fast or slow. Notes on each regatta venue are important as well because many events are in the same places year after year.

Frostbiting in a dinghy demands a slightly different focus. Sail selection and rig tuning aren't all that important. A template for this sailor would focus on sailing technique and tactical lessons, including geographic effects on the wind and short-course fleet management. Such notes could include, "Wind tends to bend and blow from the closest land to the course, making that side favored." Or, "In shifty winds, starting in the middle of the line, but toward the boat, was the best strategy for consistency."

The ability to take notes in a consistent manner is important. I use bullet points to offset each individual thought. This keeps things short and simple. For some people, complete sentences may be beneficial. However, what is most important is your ability to quickly scan and understand your notes weeks, months, or years later.

Specific measurements are a great tool. Rather than recording that you sailed with a tight outhaul, note the distance between the clew and the end of the boom or the foot and the middle of the boom. Wind conditions can be difficult to describe in just a few words. Where numbers don't apply, the use of consistent adjectives is important. To describe the volatility of any breeze, I choose between steady, somewhat shifty, shifty, land-effect shifts, and Charles-River-or ultra-shifty.

I also try to include the timing and magnitude of the shifts and, if the wind was steadily trending to one direction, how much it changed per hour. Similar descriptions of current are also appropriate.

Once you have a collection of debriefs, get them organized. This too, will depend on the type of racing you do. Weeknight racers and frostbiters, anyone who races mostly in the same venue on the same boat, should organize their notes by wind direction. Thus, before any race, they can quickly review all the previous days with the same wind. For national campaigners, notes should be sorted by regatta or training session. This provides a more linear look at a team's development.

Great notes aren't worth the paper they are written on unless you know how to use them. National campaigners, when reviewing the data from a recent regatta, should look for trends, both strengths and weaknesses, to help shape the next training session. For more casual racers, compiling a list of trimming notes from a team's best races can form the backbone of a trim guide. When prepping for a big regatta, or starting another season of twilight racing, get the crew together and review the past season's notes to remember what worked, and what didn't.

Note taking seems boring and initially you may question whether the extra effort will help your sailing. Don't give up. The payback will come. Use the template provided for a few months and tweak them to fit your racing situation. You will be amazed how easy it is and how quickly you stop repeating the same mistakes.    

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To download John Loe's template for note-taking, click here.
Sample notes coming soon...                                        

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