Well if there is absolutely no wind at all, the answer is simple. Nothing. But if you are headed upwind and feel that there is just a little something there in the sail and the chop is knocking the main sail shape to pieces , then try a roll onto the other tack. It can sometimes help if the boat is now more beam on to the swell/chop and with a heel to leeward the sails can hold their shape more easily.

You will of course have already released the kicker and tightened the outhaul : board full down and both sheets eased, cars raised, strut prebend fully on and weight in the boat as far forward as possible with the crew down to leeward and crouching to ensure that nothing gets in the way of a clear open slot. Ok, so the sails are as flat as possible, allowing even the slightest zephyr to exit without stalling in the sailcloth. "We do that already" you might reply," and a fat lot of good it does us". what then ?

Patience and stillness my friends are the two key words in such situations. As we know , patience is a virtue that is not all that easily acquired, but that combined with a really good look round to see what is happening elsewhere on the course is absolutely vital . While there is nothing to be gained by chasing rainbows, it is an obvious and observable fact that sooner or later the breeze is going to come back from somewhere so keep your eyes open and be among the first to spot it.

These are the times when a good team relationship really comes to the fore as frustration often builds into mutual recrimination. The helm thinks that the crew is not tending the jib to best advantage, while the crew is certain that the helm is stalling the boat out and –" look. Those boats over there are moving quite well. What the hell is wrong with us or more precisely -YOU" ?

Downwind, a spinnaker is quite often counter productive to progress as the effort to make it fill disturbs the stillness on board and only adds to frustration. Keep your calm, take it down and anything you do in the boat – do it slowly .

Rather should both on board be scanning clouds, patches on the water, certainly other boats and absolutely anything that might give a clue to where a breeze may be starting to come from. Initially, your direction and certainly your pointing are unimportant compared with getting moving again.

If the day is one of light airs, then tide can be a vital factor and if there is a possibility, work over to a side where the current is more advantageous. Be over there and let others suffer for their lack of tactical appreciation. There are also those awful times when the current exactly matches the air from the opposite direction. All you can do then is sail more on a reach to see you can generate lift in the sail.

Should everything fall light or look as if it might just fall light within the starting sequence , then keeping close to the line offers at least half a chance of some air at the gun. Being behind a heap of canvas at the start on such days will leave you wallowing helplessly until the rest of the fleet have sailed off and away. If you can keep a little way on no matter how, then at least you are in some control of your destiny when the gun goes and even then you will destroy it all if you sheet in fully and try to point. Relax if you can and keep moving.

There of course is truth in that a lighter all up weight does tend to favour non brain dead pygmy teams on such days, but it is simply amazing how much rubbish/weight is carried around by heavyweights which is completely unnecessary. And what about that water slopping around your feet in the cockpit? If you had to weigh it you would be in for a shock. Ah come on now : the price of a sponge even today doesn’t add up to a whole heap of beans does it ?

Not one of these observations offer any revealing flash of received wisdom, but as Aristotle is supposed to have remarked, knowledge even though it lies within you, has to be made manifest. If any of these pearls of wisdom have hit a button or two within your own particular psyche then perhaps next time round you will have the makings of a much happier day. Either way . . . may the force be with you !