Whether you’re racing in a venue like the Hobie World Championships, or just out to beat your neighbor’s crab crusher back to the marina, the principles of speed are the same.

Whether you’re a hardcore racer frothing at the mouth anytime the competition gets near your boat, or a day sailor out for a spin, sailing as efficiently as possible is often times sailing that is as fun as possible. There’s something about taming the shape of the wind and converting it into speed and leaving your neighbor’s boat in the dust that is hardwired into the sailing experience. Then there’s the mysterious crow-eating experience to be behind the boat that is pulling away from yours--you’ve been had and there’s no getting around it. It’s been said anytime there’s two boats going the same way, that a race is on. Here are a few things to keep the feel of speed at hand and the crow eating to a minimum.

The obvious place to start is the boat’s bottom. Naturally, depending on how seriously you take your fun, there’s a wide range of what’s going to be acceptable. Boats that are sailed and then stored on a trailer don’t have to contend with the slime, barnacles, grass and other marine life that makes the hull its home and a blemish for one sailor may look like a speed eating crater to another. Suffice to say that a clean hull is a fast hull. Even if you’re stuck in the slip and the haul out is a couple of months away, scrubbing the waterline is one place to start. Get the rudder and the prop as well as you can. A good way to get down the hull is to buy a extendable pole, something in say the 10 or 12-foot range, used for painting. Better yet is to have a diver clean the bottom of the boat on a regular schedule.

On the day of your sail, keep an eye out for floating debris that can catch onto the keel or rudder. It’s not uncommon to see boats come head to wind just before a race and sail backwards, just to get the kelp or weeds off the keel.

Now onto the sails. A big part of how well the sails work depends on the care that you give them. A mainsail left rotting under the sun with the outhaul cranked isn’t going to work as well as one that has the benefit of a sail cover or a sail that has been taken off the boat completely. Despite dizzying advances in sail technology, the best feedback in the world is still the lowly tell tale. Having strips of these at the trailing edge of the main sail and the leading edge of the jib is one way to know definitively whether your sail is trimmed as well as it could be. Get on course, let the sail out, and when the tell tales are streaming back at a 45-degree angle, the sail is trimmed. If the tell tale on the inside of the sail is luffing, trim until it stops. If the tell tale on the outside of the sail is luffing, pay out some line until it stops. Most sail trimming errors are the choking kind, so when in doubt, let the sail out. Run telltales on the shrouds and the backstay, and keep an eye on these as well for wind shifts, and to see if your course relative to the wind is still on track. Crew not involved in immediate sail trimming duties, should be on the rail, trying to keep the boat as flat as possible. The person at the helm should never be content in the quest for boat speed and should constantly be checking the GPS speed, the boat speed, as well as the telltales, and the windex. Your boat will likely let you know when it’s in the groove and when it’s feeling slow--the trick is to figure out why.

The shape of speed begins with the care you give to your sails.

As far as sail adjustments, there are a number of adjustments that are often overlooked. Let’s start with the upwind leg, or sailing to weather. The halyard tension of the jib and main should be tight. In heavy air, you want to make the sail flatter, and apply more tension. In lighter air, you can loosen them a bit. The idea is that you are adjusting the belly, or the draft of the sail. More tension flattens this lift-producing area, less eases it. Watch the boat speed and experiment to see which make the boat go the fastest. Another thing to keep in mind for halyard tension is that most roller furling halyards exert a lot of pressure on headsails. If the sail is going to be stored on the boat, remember to loosen the halyard at the end of each sail. The same idea applies to batten tension as well. Traditional battens give the trailing edge of the main sail shape, full battens give the draft shape and can be tensioned according to the conditions. Again, tighten them for heavy air, loosen for lighter air. The leech line is also often overlooked. You’ll want it snug, but not so tight as to cause the trailing end of the sail to hook. A flapping leech is also an indication you could be going faster.

Another nuance that is often overlooked is the placement of the jib car fore and aft. Usually, these are left set where they are without understanding the why behind it. The jib lead affects the shape of the sail by allowing a smooth flow of air over it. Turbulent air means air is flowing over the sail faster in one spot than another, bringing speed slowing vortexes. What you’re looking for is a jib lead that allows the telltales to all break the same way at the same time. With the boat sailing to weather, steer into the wind until the jib luffs and then back down again. Ideally, all the tell tales break at the same time. If the top tell tale breaks first, the lead is too far aft and the car needs to go forward. If the bottom tell tale breaks first, the lead is too far forward and the car needs to go aft. If it luffs the full length of the sail all at the same time, it's set in the right spot.

We won this drag race not because of any special sailing skills--my stepfather at the helm is a force to be reckoned with--but rather because this charter boat had tired sails and no tell tales.

When headed down wind, there are a couple other items to adjust to keep moving efficiently. For starters, move the crew aft--this will give the rudder more control, especially in brisk winds. You can ease the main and the jib halyards for the downwind leg. The outhaul can be loosened as well. The boom vang should be on. When the boom lifts and drops going downwind, it’s extra energy that could be devoted to speed. Just don’t forget to tighten everything back up when starting up wind again or you’ll be sailing noticeably slower. Try not to adjust everything at once. Adjust one sail control, and wait and see whether the speed goes up or down, and then adjust another.

And of course, the biggest asset to speed is knowing what the wind is doing. Is it increasing, decreasing, shifting left or right? The best way to keep track of this is by keeping your eyes open. Steer the boat into the wind and note the wind direction. You should be able to figure out what courses you’ll be steering after that on the upwind legs. If one leg is suddenly not as high, you’ve been headed, and it’s time to tack. If one leg is higher than you anticipated, the wind has shifted in your favor, stay with it. Local currents and eddies are another thing to look out for--knowing the tides in your area will give you an idea at the direction the water is moving. Sailing past a small lobster buoy or mooring and noticing how it is pulling in the current will let you know how big of a factor the current is. Even a quarter of a knot will make a big difference over time. Note also any flags on shore, smoke, dark wind lines in the water or boats on the horizon upwind of you that are now sailing over on their ear. These will all give you some indication what the wind is doing, and what to anticipate for your next big move.