Nobody tells you when you're growing up that "winning" and "success" come at a cost. At world level the cost is many times that which anyone outside top sport can imagine. It involves the sacrifice of dedication, not for a month or a year, but four years plus to reach anywhere near potential. The cost... Continue Reading →
Until around four decades ago hiking was viewed as a low returns skill to be treated with some cynicism as it was too physical to be a valued part of the art of sail racing. Yes, people hiked, but not with anything like the intensity that they do today. Hiking technique has become increasingly important across the classes, and certainly in the Olympic/WS development fleets Laser (so reliant on physical skills!), 470 and 420 are always seeking new levels to get the maximum leverage possible.
Driven by the incredible developments of technology in hull and especially sail design over the past 30 years, the powers that be are examining closely whether we should have a more modern version of race track on which to exhibit our skills. Toplevel feel very strongly that the idea of a race is to complete circuits. Changing this in our opinion is the equivalent to a Formula One race being run on a hill climb, or a horse race being unable to view the start and finish. By definition a race track consists of laps, whereas different types of racing consist of other skills needed than in lapping, in any sport!
Hydrofoils and more... In theory a sailing boat can travel infinitely fast. How? The wind generated by forward movement (we know as being a component of apparent wind) continues to increase with speed. With the increase in apparent wind everything changes, and more speed is theoretically possible. We should have video games based on this... Continue Reading →
You must be logged in to post a comment.