Skilled Teaming

© 2001 Mariah’s Eyes Photography This is a story of how the Rail to Rail team decided that season standings were not the results by which we wanted to measure ourselves. The outcome was a satisfying season for our crew and our first season championship. Most importantly, our journey reinforced our mutual friendship, respect for one another, and trust – the primary building blocks of high performance teaming. In late 1992, Thom Henneberger, a graduate of the OCSC Sailing School in Berkeley, California, was bitten by the racing bug and purchased a virtually new J24 from Sail California in March 1993. Rail to Rail was placed in the OCSC fleet of boats used for performance sailing classes. Several months later, Rich “Stickman” Jepsen, CEO of OCSC, decided he wanted to return to racing and approached Thom to see if he could charter Rail to Rail for a seasonal effort. Thom enthusiastically agreed with one big condition: the charter payment was that Rich had to invite Thom - with his one year of beer can racing experience - on board as his tactician. Lou Anna Koehler, also an OCSC member with significant J24 foredeck experience, joined the newly formed team and the Rail to Rail racing program was launched. Over the next several seasons, Rich, Thom and Lou Anna focused on improving their skills while looking for someone to trim sails and another person to contribute at the mast position. By 2000 the team finally gelled with the addition of Larry Ledgerwood, an OCSC instructor, as trimmer and Trena Depel, another OCSC performance sailor, at mast. Larry brought several years of racing experience to the team and Trena was an enthusiastic “can do” competitor who quickly scaled the racing learning curve. In planning for the 2003 season, Team Rail to Rail faced several key decisions. We had paid our dues over the last ten years, working our way up to finishing third in 2001 and second in 2002. Still the season championship seemed just beyond our reach as we traded tacks and gybes with the fleet. Was 2003 ‘our’ year; did we have what it would take to make that last move; did we want it bad enough? The default answer was that it was our year to win. After all, moving up in the standings was a natural way to measure our success. In many ways, 2002 had been a watershed year for Rail to Rail. There were some wins, but Rail to Rail also managed to lose several races because of team meltdowns. We knew the boat was fast, we were good tactically, our skills were competitive, and our seamanship held up to the big winds of San Francisco Bay and its steep chop. Nevertheless, when we analyzed why we didn’t perform up to our expectations we realized that we were not effective in learning from those situations. While we knew to discuss our mistakes, silent retreat was more our more common path taken than productive, in-depth debriefing. Simply, we just didn’t know how to talk to one another effectively when the stakes were high. By the final regatta of 2002, we all knew something had to be done to move ourselves to the next level and it wasn’t going to be accomplished by acquiring more sailing knowledge or skills. Over the 2002 – 2003 winter, Rich took the lead and convened a series of one-on-one conversations with the Rail to Rail crew. During these intensely personal talks, each of us expressed his or her hopes, frustrations, and recommendations for how Rail to Rail could become a more effective team. As we talked, each of us recognized in our own ways that Rail to Rail had a great crew. We discovered that we truly shared the same goals: first and foremost to enjoy our mutual friendship and secondly to use our racing effort as a platform for personal and team growth. At long last we were clear on why we were all out on the racecourse. Our connection to one another was why we were together as a team. This insight changed our approach to the 2003 season. No longer would we ask ourselves “What do we have to do to win?” Instead we asked, “What do we have to do to become better as a team and maximize our satisfaction of the experience?” Here we were, a group whose competitive juices run as hot as any, saying that winning the season championship was not our goal. Our true purpose was to enjoy the experiences together and perform at the highest level that we could as a team. So we decided to measure our progress based on our team performance rather than measure our success by how well we finished a given race or regatta – or even the season. Our first test came in came in the Spring Keel. With Lou Anna, our foredeck, unable to join us, we were faced with bringing in a substitute or sailing shorthanded. Choosing to avoid the distraction of having a ‘new’ person on board, we decided to sail shorthanded, moving Trena to foredeck, and to focus our efforts on building our teaming communication skills. Rail to Rail finished middle of the fleet having too few pounds on the rail and too few hands available for the fast sets and last minute douses. Yet, we could see that our winter conversations were paying off and the season opener ended with everyone in an upbeat mood. The drenching J Fest was next. If ever there was a day to test the quality of communications between wet, miserable crewmembers racing in fluky winds, Saturday was the day. We consistently found ourselves well down in the fleet and quickly recognized that some old non-productive behaviors were surfacing. At dinner that night we had our first serious opportunity to test our intention to have more in-depth debriefs. With each of us carefully considering the words we choose to express what needed to be said, we left that conversation with a renewed connection as a team and specific plans for improving on Sunday. The next day was a success and we sailed back to Berkeley following the last race feeling we had made several big steps forward. Although our results indicated we might have taken ourselves out of the running for the season championship, our banter focused on how we had hung in there and come back on day two of the regatta. We had passed our first big test as a team. The next big challenge for the Rail to Rail team was in the first race of the Western Regional Championships. We were flying the OCSC logo silk screened on our new spinnaker and were putting the school’s reputation out there for everyone to see. Rail to Rail started the opening race on Saturday deep in the second or third row. Thom, who thought we could catch the last of the dying ebb, took the boat out to the middle of the bay, held us there, and we paid a steep price. When we popped the new OCSC spinnaker, Rail to Rail was 9 minutes and 27 seconds behind the second to last place boat. OUCH! In prior seasons, things would have fallen apart at this point, but the Rail to Rail team hung in there. We reminded ourselves that staying focused and keeping our heads in the race was our goal. Clawing our way back up in the standing by sailing well in the upcoming races would be our reward. Throughout the rest of Saturday, Rail to Rail’s performance continued to improve even when faced with vang failure that resulted in our most spectacular death roll ever. We finished the day having a great time. Sunday was even better. With some good starts, Rail to Rail consistently held its own with the best of the boats out on the water. While we couldn’t quite catch the sailmakers, who lead the fleet around the bouys, we found ourselves always near the top. Rail to Rail was performing well. Rail to Rail’s teambuilding efforts really manifested themselves in the Summer Keel, scoring four bullets out of five races. And we continued to feel that we were making progress on how and what we communicated to each other. This is not to say that we did not find satisfaction in the results, because we did, only that we realized again that the results were the reward for doing well, not the reason for being there. We continued to do enjoy oursleves in the NOOD and Fall One Design. Whether Rail to Rail started in the front row or not, our renewed focus allowed us to pick boats off leg by leg and consistently finish at the top of the fleet. We were particularly proud of our ability to catch and beat boats in the last legs of high intensity races with the wining move often happening within a couple of hundred yards of the finish line. As the fleet drifted through the first race of the Great Pumpkin, Rail to Rail’s season was victorious with a third place finish. We realized our team-building goal and won the season championship in the process. It was a ten-year journey for the Rail to Rail team. We will remember it fondly as well as the times we spent together. Brain Mullen, Fleet 17’s captain, paid Rail to Rail’s teaming building effort a great compliment at our 2003 season awards banquet. When he handed Rich the season trophy, Brian remarked: “Whenever I looked around Rail to Rail was always in the hunt. These guys consistently performed well and could never be counted out of any race.” See everyone out on the race course.