In modern racing we are often demanded to become short term weather forecasters to help us predict changes within the next 10-20 minutes that will help us to get an advantage over our competitors and sail the course quicker than them.
Clouds
The Backpack of Experience
Coaching has evolved a massive amount since 1990. Yes, there were coaching courses of sorts back than, but somehow you'd spend three days on a course and come away with one useful nugget of information that would improve your coaching skills. Now a days information is so readily accessible that you can gain enough information to be a good coach in a very short time. What you can't get is experience.
Waves
Sailing is a sport full of variables. Waves are one of these variables, and the term “wave” can include anything from small undulations in the water to giant walls of water moving across the surface of the sea
Gybes that Count
When we go windsurfing, one of the most exhilarating manoeuvres we can pull is the carve gybe - a manoeuvre that even the most remote person on the planet can see is beautiful, skilled, poised and somehow effortless and magical to achieve. Timing is everything, strength is not needed for a perfect carve gybe
Finding Gears
Anyone who has sailed against top sailors will know that many times you can be approaching half way up the first beat, and either in front of or in touch with some of the regatta favourites - often alongside them. A minute later the top sailor will have climbed on you, hit a gust of wind that you can’t reach, and gone from high mode to extremely fast forward compared to yourself, and from feeling great, being in touch or ahead of the good guys, you’re suddenly a hundred metres and forty boats behind them within around 90 seconds. This blog is about beginning to understand how they do that, so you can start to do it too!
Coaching to Win
We've been engaged in several interesting projects lately. We are writing this blog to illustrate the effects of prioritising the right aspects of sailing when coaching, and also to contrast the position of a sailor when subject to a "reactive" coach, when they coach according to conditions and squad behaviour, rather than a proactive coach who coach with certain minimum expectations. We will neither name the class nor the country, because that's irrelevant. What we will do is tell the story.
Tiller Talk, Boat Talk
We sail, we want to sail fast, and the only thing stopping us sailing faster is drag. Drag comes in two main forms. The hull and centreboards creates drag in the water. The Rig creates drag through the air. Water being 1,000 times denser than air by a lot, the drag created by the hull... Continue Reading →
Sail Twist
There are a lot of theories of why we need sail twist. They are mainly disputable, but the fact is that boats go better with twist. That’s all we need to know to understand the importance of this factor of sail trim. For us its simple to prove - when the tell tales are flying, and most importantly at the head the leech tell tales,
Sails, Tuning, Masts, Logic
The mysteries of sails are often best unravelled by thinking of them as simple and logical tools. We can go into details of flow, turbulence and aspect ratio, but it doesn’t really make the boat that we are trying to tune any faster. This blog is about understanding the goals of tuning masts and sails, and hopefully will give you some ideas on how to go faster.
Choosing Your Coach
When you begin to take any sport seriously, the choice of a coach or coaches will make or break your ambitions. You can see it in all sports, and sailing is certainly no exception.
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