Post by Martin McLean on Apr 6, 2003 15:25:51 GMT 10
Just thought I'd share some snippets from last Saturday's sailing - the things that helped me the most were -
Sail where the wind was strongest - which usually meant stay away from the wind shadow of Bulimba Point, start at the Hamilton end of the line, etc;
Sailing upwind, pay a lot of attention to being on the most favourable tack. Use the boats both upwind and downwind of you as wind indicators. Even if you think you're on a lift, if the other boats get lifted significantly more, then compared to them you are on a relative knock and are losing ground - you should probably tack across until you get their line of breeze and then tack back again;
Stay between the boats behind you and the next mark if possible;
Reaching and running, be very attentive to changes in wind direction, little wave patterns that can be used like the one running on the Hamilton reach when we got to the most downstream mark yesterday, and constantly adjust your course steered and sail trim to take advantage of these things.
Sail where the wind was strongest - which usually meant stay away from the wind shadow of Bulimba Point, start at the Hamilton end of the line, etc;
Sailing upwind, pay a lot of attention to being on the most favourable tack. Use the boats both upwind and downwind of you as wind indicators. Even if you think you're on a lift, if the other boats get lifted significantly more, then compared to them you are on a relative knock and are losing ground - you should probably tack across until you get their line of breeze and then tack back again;
Stay between the boats behind you and the next mark if possible;
Reaching and running, be very attentive to changes in wind direction, little wave patterns that can be used like the one running on the Hamilton reach when we got to the most downstream mark yesterday, and constantly adjust your course steered and sail trim to take advantage of these things.