Yacht Racing Intelligence

Explore FirstShift by subject

Race Strategy & Tactics
Offshore race strategy, starting, positioning, helming, sail choice and the decisions that turn boat speed into results.

Navigation, Weather & Instruments
Routing, GRIBs, tidal strategy, navigation systems, instrument calibration and making better decisions from imperfect information.

Boats, Design & Rating
Yacht design, IRC and ORC, hull form, polars, performance optimisation and why some boats are faster than others.

Sails, Rigging & Technology
Sailmaking, sail selection, rigging, modern fibres, rope technology, equipment and the systems that make race boats work.

Seamanship & Human Performance
Offshore safety, fatigue, nutrition, heavy weather, reliability and keeping people and boats functioning properly at sea.

Crew, Coaching & Leadership
Crew development, coaching, communication, watch systems, leadership and building teams that perform offshore.

Race Guides & Case Studies
Detailed race analysis, tactical guides and practical lessons from RORC and other major offshore races.

RORC & The Future of Offshore Racing
Participation, pathways, rating, double-handed versus crewed racing and the wider future of offshore competition.

History & Heritage
The boats, sailors, designers and ideas that shaped offshore yacht racing and still influence the sport today.

Latest FirstShift articles:

All Posts

Buying sails for your race boat is an absolute minefield: How to get a good deal and a fast boat. Part 2

Part two of two. Part one told the story of how sailmaking became an engineering business. This part is about spending your own money TP52 yacht getting ready for a mark rounding. The sails are the key and you want to start with the best you can afford … fast, strong, robust and affordable… a big…

Sails, Rigging & Technology

Stuart Greenfield

23 min read

Who really invented the sails you just bought, and does it matter? Part 1

Part one of two. Part two looks at who owns whom today, what a small loft is actually selling, what is genuinely new, why quotations vary so widely, and how to run a sail tender rather than simply collect three numbers. Why I know it’s still complicated to buy a sail In 1999 and 2000 I was buying…

Sails, Rigging & Technology

Stuart Greenfield

17 min read

Offshore yacht racing: How do we create the next generation and who pays for it?

RORC has rebuilt a serious route into offshore racing. The next step is to fund it as part of the sport’s infrastructure, rather than as an annual act of generosity.

RORC & Future of Offshore Racing

Stuart Greenfield

8 min read

Inside the box: Explaining the yacht racing box rule and why it's contentious

A box rule tells a designer the truth up front. Published limits, real freedom inside them, and in its purest form no corrected time at all.

Boats, Design & Rating

Stuart Greenfield

17 min read

Offshore racing is now two sports. The results prove it.

No fully crewed boat has won the RORC Season’s Points Championship since 2021. A modest proposal for the results sheet, and a harder question about the autopilot.

RORC & Future of Offshore Racing

Stuart Greenfield

5 min read

How to build a polar for the boat you actually sail

Many offshore crews are routing on numbers computed for a fictitious yacht. Here is where those numbers come from, why they go wrong, and how to replace them with your own.

Navigation, Weather & Instruments

Stuart Greenfield

23 min read

How did a 1968 boat with a handful of GRIBs lead the fleet for a week?

This weekend’s Round Britain and Ireland Race will be a great adventure, however, technology is unlikely to decide the winner... again!

Navigation, Weather & Instruments

Stuart Greenfield

8 min read

Is the best business school cold, wet and moving? Why leadership is often learnt offshore

Shackleton, the 1979 Fastnet, and the management course with no lecture theatre and no dry seats, I look at the evidence.

Crew, Coaching & Leadership

Stuart Greenfield

24 min read

Real food at sea, is it possible?

With the RORC Round Britain and Ireland race just a few weeks away this is a timely overview about food onboard, first published in May 2026.

Seamanship & Human Performance

Stuart Greenfield

14 min read

Is there a battle between IRC and ORC?

Twenty-five years after offshore racing’s great handicap split, the real question is no longer which rule is better, but what gives owners the confidence to keep investing. I look at IRC and ORC.

Boats, Design & Rating

Stuart Greenfield

13 min read

The hardest thing in offshore racing is other people - Is it time to change who gets to win?

Building, training and leading a crew through an offshore season is one of sport’s great challenges. It’s time the silverware said so...a crazy proposal... you decide!

RORC & Future of Offshore Racing

Stuart Greenfield

11 min read

The fibre revolution or revolt?

FIRSTSHIFT TECHNICAL: New materials are quietly rewriting yacht racing. From halyards and sheets to standing rigging, synthetic fibres are replacing steel, and changing boat design.

Sails, Rigging & Technology

Stuart Greenfield

22 min read

Are we seeing the end of the fully crewed offshore race?

Double-handed racing is booming but as technology replaces people, who will train the next generation of offshore sailors and I’m not biased I’ve done both?

Crew, Coaching & Leadership

Stuart Greenfield

14 min read

The bowline: is it losing its grip?

The knot that is tied to the past, but is it now past its time?

Sails, Rigging & Technology

Stuart Greenfield

13 min read

Two boats, one conversation: Morning Cloud, Morning After, and the races Illingworth invented

A boat show swap with Ted Heath, five changed letters on a transom, a fifty-year thread that runs to Muckle Flugga and what that generation knew may still decide races today.

History & Heritage

Stuart Greenfield

12 min read

Understanding sailing hydrodynamics and aerodynamics

Understanding how hydrodynamics and aerodynamics work together in sailing

Physics underpin everything and never more important on a racing yacht

Sails, Rigging & Technology

Stuart Greenfield

4 min read

GPS spoofing and the return of real navigation

The modern offshore race boat is not short of screens. It may be short of independent truth, plus what Ukraine and Hormoz has taught us about technology

Navigation, Weather & Instruments

Stuart Greenfield

18 min read

More boats, more points: Why Cowes to St Malo is the RORC Summer’s race to win

A straight line across the Channel and a dog leg to St Malo what could possible make that difficult?

Race Guides & Case Studies

Stuart Greenfield

7 min read

Blunt force: Has a 33-foot scow conquered offshore racing and just proved it round Ireland?

The boats have never been better. So why does the sport keep getting narrower, and who is left to play?

Boats, Design & Rating

Stuart Greenfield

23 min read

Back to the Future: Why your next foulies may feel worse before they get better

PFAS, the “forever chemicals”, made modern foul-weather gear work. Now they are being forced off the deck, and sailors are about to rediscover the lost art of looking after their kit.

Sails, Rigging & Technology

Stuart Greenfield

18 min read