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.
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.
For most sailing boats the ability to control the power is made by bending or straightening the mast, as the mast bends it flattens the fabric of the sail, moving the center of effort down and opening the leech, the opposite happens when straightening the mast.
As boat speeds increase, the wisdom of conventional tactics become far less relevant that they have ever been. For example, in a fast boat, covering one of the opposition can create an opening for 10 boats to get past you. Not what is needed…..
Operating a Coaching Business such as ours is a widespread business. Our operational services include Coaching, Coach Training, Consultancy, Design input, and running training camps. In everything that we do, our goals are to be the best that we can, and certainly the best in the business. Essentially we are competitive people, but we are also fun loving people. Combining the two facets is essential to gain success - as soon as we can get positive people hungry to succeed, anything is possible!
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 →
As to every athlete there is a very delicate balance between the needs of the sports and education
An important skill in downwind sailing is prioritizing weather to sail the boat flat or healed to windward by the lee referred to as kiting, Sailing by the lee means that the air is flowing into the sail from the leech towards the mast as opposed to normal sailing when the air is flowing from the mast towards the leech of the sail
There is a considered observation that we either have high mode or low mode sailors at the top of any fleet. Sailing high or low mode has individual advantages in different conditions, so we have to look carefully at what we mean by high or low mode. The purpose of this blog is to discuss sailing styles and blow some setup myths apart.
