History Can Be Misleading

Andrew Campbell is writing up some great lessons on his blog (picture from masthead of Campbell's blog). Below is an excerpt. At the bottom is a link to the article in its entirety.

",,,Sailboat racing is a game of too many dynamics to fall into the rut that we should always go right in Long Beach. Sure, over the averages of time since before any of us were born (no matter how old you are), if two boats split to opposite sides of the racecourse in Long Beach, CA, the boat on the right might win 70% of the time. The averages are overwhelmingly in favor of one side over the other when the conditions are just right. But, for every two boats that have won on the right in Long Beach, there has been one that won on the left. Was it just an accident? Should we just blindly stumble off to the right and play the odds that we might win? When it comes to local knowledge and more so when it comes to race-to-race decisions, what just happened in the past should often be forgotten".

50 Rules To Sail By - Week 4