Ingenious Sailing

This season’s Adult race training day was entitled ‘Ingenious Sailing’. The purpose was to take a day out of the racing programme to allow us to think about our sailing and racing techniques and to try things as a group and hopefully for everybody to improve their sailing and racing. A lively group of 15 Club members attended and we had the benefit of a bright sunny day with a breeze straight down the Tarn

To start with we looked at trim and balance and the use we make of our rudders.



Pete showing the force on a rudder as it passes throught the water



Peter gave a very simple demonstration of the effect of rudder drag whilst Luke showed us how good his stomach muscles were whilst showing position in the boat, sitting out and sheeting

Luke demonstrating sitting out



On the water we had some fun with sailing with tethered or lifted rudders looking at the effect of varying the trim or the balance to steer the boat which proved to be very informative to everybody who tried it.

After lunch we looked at mark rounding techniques and how using trim and balance could assist you with that. That was practiced on the water by sailing round a simple windward / leeward course which gave people the chance to practice, but with a number of boats sailing together it introduced a racing element to it.

Close sailing approaching the leeward mark

Then we finished off with 3 short races. These proved to be highly competitive with a different boat being first over the line in each race and with a short race the benefit of getting a good start was demonstrated on each occasion.



Action from from the first short race




Helen showing how fast a Laser Radial can go in the second race

 Many thanks to the John, Pete, Andrew, Luke and Clive, who helped me run the training session and provided everybody with valuable insights and assistance throughout the day.



Neil
Hon Sailing Coach