Firstly let us remind the main benefit of hiking flat out. IT IS FASTER, you might ask yourself how much faster, below you can see a graph of a boat hiking flat out periodically, the peaks are top speed while hiking flat out, the rest is regular hiking, the average speed difference can reach as much as 2 knots which accumulates to over 20% in boat speed. (This boat has been doing a 30 seconds flat out 30 seconds regular hiking)
How to fleet race
Transitioning from a club or national fleet to a big fleet can be very challenging to many sailors, sometimes it feels like all your previous knowledge and training is just not in line with the tactics and decision making of big fleets.
Spotting the Gains
In sailboats racing, risk factor can make the difference between a very good race and a horrible one, We have been discussing risk management in many different forms, The fact is most successful sailors have a great ability to manage their risks in a heartbeat. Some would say it is a gift people are born with, we argue and claim risk management is an acquired skill.
Symmetric Pumping
Though we have been discussing much about downwind sailing and ways to go fast, based on our experience the big money in sailing is on the runs, so there is always room for more gains to be made.
Pushing Water
When we go sailing, the boat may just push water out of the way (usually called displacement mode), ride on top of its own bow wave (planing) or foil. This week we look at how water resistance effects boatspeed, and what we can do to minimise this resistance.
The Art of Reaching
the technical abilities to be fast on a reach and control your angle of sailing are still worth mastering as every small gain to be made is worth a while. It is incredible how many boats you can take on a reach if you are both fast and smart.
Smart Reaching
Reaching may be thought of as a dying art. However it is still extremely critical to results in many classes, and even in asymmetric classes sailing windward leeward courses, the same skills apply to an extent when you are in a group of boats that overstand the mark. This blog is about how to be smarter than the opposition on a reach, and deals with various scenarios that need thought, and a lot of practise that gives judgement through experience.
Recognising Shifts
It is truly incredible the number of projects we have worked on where the sailors do not know how to recognise headers and lifts. When we ask them what happened to the wind during a training run, they can get it very wrong, and when we ask them what happened during a race, their impression is often at odds with reality, and completely wrong.
Foils
The sailing world is going foiling mad. Time alone will tell whether it's a good thing or not, but what we can say is that it's fun and fast, and very different in feeling. What is the same for the sailor is that we need to understand a far greater range of sail settings in order to optimise the performances of these boats.
Setting Sails
In competitive sailing we are looking for every advantage we may get if we want to win and going fast is a pretty important advantage to have - the gains from using the correct sails are more than just marginal!.