The evolution of skiffs and foils have generated the necessity for the evolution of the skills of pressure hunting.
Pressure Season
Federation Role in Development
Any national team will benefit if the federation takes an active role in supporting development sailors. The jump from development to senior is always large and a trial for the sailors, so that to be in the system with a continuity of coaching methods and systems is a big advantage for the younger sailor.
Aggression Pays, Sometimes
We have all read copious amounts of wisdom about sailing being a matter of coaxing the boat through various conditions, listening to what she wants to do and then using some kind of gentle psychic powers to magically steam ahead of all the opposition and win. This blog is about the brutal truth. Understanding... Continue Reading →
Spinnakers
The spinnaker is a sail which many misunderstand, and few master. In this blog we show that it isn’t a black magic sail and you don’t need a doctorate to appreciate what it can do. The blog is written at what seems like a basic level. All we can say is that speed is basic, whether its advanced or beginning - the same rules apply.
Uninhibited Thoughts, Uninhibited Actions
When we talk sailing, too often people will claim that its primarily a mental game - a game of chess on water which leads to winning. We do not believe this. We believe that first ingredient to success is to have among the best technical and tactical knowledge that you can get, and then the mental game kicks in. This blog is about the mental game and more importantly its development from the start of racing careers.
The Diamond
A major source of beginning to understand tactics is dealt with by Toplevel sailing as tactics for the first half of the beat (when the boats are diverging into a wider area, as against tactics when the boats are converging into the tiny area around the mark.
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.
Racing Developments
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!
Shifts and Compass
In order to sail the beat as quickly as we can we need to keep the best average VMG that we can. In this blog we will discuss the influence of shifts on our VMG and the use of a compass to improve our tactical decision making