Consolidation: Safe or Stupid? To consolidate a position, whether it be in business or sport, is a well known play to minimize risk of loss. Usually we throw a little profit away to protect a larger gain. Sometimes we are lucky and can keep all the profit whilst securing the gains. In sailing consolidation is... Continue Reading →
Nobody said it was going to be easy... Many of you sailors know that feeling, you start the event well but on the 3rd day you are so tired the brain stops functioning, from there it spirals down until the rest of the event. Unfortunately, this is a very common situation to many sailors, luckily... Continue Reading →
Wind We have all encountered this question in the past “What is wind?”. As coaches we have also encountered many different answers to this, but usually the initial response is far from the very simple answer that wind is air movement from high pressure to low pressure. That would lead to a further question; how... Continue Reading →
Positive Sailing We often talk about “staying positive”, surrounding ourselves with “positive people” and using “positive energy” to boost our results or gain the winning edge. Very often this is then left to the sailor, no matter how young or inexperienced, to get their own vision of what “positive” may be - often the... Continue Reading →
Speed and DRAG Boats are designed to go through the water, and over the past 70 years have been designed to ride ON the water. Over the past 10 years plus they’ve also been designed to fly over the water. These hull designs are termed as displacement (through the water), planing (riding on the water)... Continue Reading →
Gybing a Laser Most sailors will gybe an average of 3-4 times per race, so the toll a bad gybe might take on your overall result is usually minor to an overall performance, however there are gains to be made by performing a good gybe. What are the reasons for gybing? In a laser heading... Continue Reading →
Tacking a Laser Many sailors struggle with the concept of a good tack, in this blog we will try to shed some light as to the right and wrongs when tacking. Firstly, let us discuss the reasons for tacking. The legend Paul Elvstrom once said, "don't tack without a great reason to tack". By that... Continue Reading →
The Art of Gaining Funding in a Wiser Way In a previous blog, we introduced the principle of spending your funds wisely to achieve greater efficiency and build a legacy for more sailors to build on. In this blog, we introduce you to some of the principles of gaining funding more wisely. Good funding is... Continue Reading →
420 Dynamic Sailing As previously discussed, at Toplevel Sailing, throughout our sail coaching sessions, we believe and encourage our sailors to adopt a dynamic sailing approach in order to maintain speed. In double handed dinghies (in this example the 420) the boat will be limited by the collapsing kite going downwind. So the question will... Continue Reading →
