These days, it's my aim to try to systematically find these and apply them.
One of these aspects came to mind very forcefully a weekend ago. The club organised one of those occasional "fun" type events - a race for GP14 and other two-man dinghies, but with the added twist that only one person was in each boat. What that meant, in practice, was that I was on one occasion holding the tiller extension, Main sheet and Genoa sheet all in the same hand, whilst I had to adjust some other controls on the boat.
A single handed race is always good fun, whether or not you do try launching the spinnaker as well; I didn't, because it was a northerly wind (at least, that is my excuse!). But, for me, the real value was what it taught me about the boat.
Everyone who races knows that the rudder is just a "brake", to be used with care, and that the boat sails best when flat. For the single-handed race, I had hooked a bungee onto the tiller extension. This mean that I could drop the tiller in order to sail single-handed. But the other effect was that I felt a strong pressure whenever I tried to apply the "brake". It was really striking how much I must have tried to slow down the boat. Lesson one: don't use the rudder too much.
The other aspect that was highlighted to me was how much the boat flies better when it is absolutely flat. During the single handed race, I was the only person on the boat, so the "feedback" was just from the boat itself. It's amazing how much more sensitive you can become if it is just you and the dinghy. Lesson two: keep the boat really flat.
It's great to learn these lessons, but the trick is to put it into practice. We have had a number of "good" races recently :- although the results do not always suggest that. For example, last Saturday, after a really bad start we were at the back of the fleet, and gradually began to pull up to the tail-enders, just by keeping the boat really flat.
So I have learnt a lot, and am looking forward to the next race. Watch this space...
The other aspect that was highlighted to me was how much the boat flies better when it is absolutely flat. During the single handed race, I was the only person on the boat, so the "feedback" was just from the boat itself. It's amazing how much more sensitive you can become if it is just you and the dinghy. Lesson two: keep the boat really flat.
It's great to learn these lessons, but the trick is to put it into practice. We have had a number of "good" races recently :- although the results do not always suggest that. For example, last Saturday, after a really bad start we were at the back of the fleet, and gradually began to pull up to the tail-enders, just by keeping the boat really flat.
So I have learnt a lot, and am looking forward to the next race. Watch this space...
No comments:
Post a Comment