Friday, March 23, 2007

Things I learned in Florida

We had a great few days of practice down in Stuart. I know that I learned a few things. How about the rest of you?

1. Crews have to flatten tacks on their BACK foot

2. Crews keep the water out of the boat when doing multiple reach-to-reach jibes

3. The improved "Bermuda Fitted Dinghy" Drill

4. For small skippers, it is all about control and very little about boat-handling

5. Skippers, on reach-to-reach jibes, make sure you go from trimmed to trimmed. In other words, the "Pedrick Jibe."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Things that Lisa learned
1. As a crew, to go from the reach to the wing, stand up (because you will
be standing on the wing) to bear the boat off, then snap the jib as you
come down. To go from the wing back to the reach, hit the leeward rail
(because you will be holding the jib out to leeward on the wing) and pop
the jib as the boat comes up.

2. If you are trying to pin someone downwind, don't drop too hard. They
will end up bow out or you will foul them and end up behind instead of in
a loose cover. They also need room to alter course in both directions...
If you get in a tacking drill with them, sail a few boatlenghts to
starboard before tacking back. That way, you will have starboard advantage
and more leverage and you will still be in control.

3. When the crew is holding out the jib on a reach in light air, you have
to hold the jib up a little bit instead of down so that you don't close
the slot.

4. Tacks always loose at least one boat length, but gybes always gain at
least one boat length unless it is really light (then you just stop).