IMPROVE YOUR RACING SKILLS - Boatspeed requires a combination of sail trim, accurate helming, and good balance and trim. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
Settings for a particular wind speed in flat water won’t work in big waves, nor in light airs.
Just like riding a bike you need to be able to change gear to suit the conditions.
Acceleration gear is used when...
Of course, there are some things you can do by yourself. Areas such as boat preparation, sail shape and boat handling. It's almost impossible to improve your boatspeed very much by working alone. Use a tuning partner to get Faster.
For you to make substantial progress on speed development you need to line up with two boats side by side....
I recently re-read the following article by the late and great Paul Elvstrom regarding Sailing Psychology and have reproduced it here because I believe that if we can internalise these points we will go a long way to overcoming our feelings of self-doubt and self-belief on the race track.
"You must not believe that a fellow competitor is better than...
You Can Win Without Natural Talent - What are you good at, what are you bad at? Ever looked out at a mill-pond day and told yourself “I hate light airs” or seen it blowing dogs off chains and muttered nervously: “I’m rubbish in strong winds.”
Maybe you’re just not talented enough, you tell yourself.
First, ask yourself:
What makes a...
With Special thanks to David Dellenbaugh of "Speed and Smarts" Newsletter - Keep a good record of notes about speed.
Good boat speed is about consistency as much as anything else.
Of course, almost any sailor would welcome a flash of super speed, even if it's short-lived. But that’s not what your goal should be.
If you really want to improve your...
