What gives a boat 'height'?

Originally posted by Jack Sparrow Great bit of video... all I'd add is the 470 has the kicker set to control sail shape. Which is quite different to how <span ="bold">ellistine </span>was sailing.

Fair enough. I've never sailed a Vago, but a lot of the
principles will apply, whether you achieve leech tension
with the kicker or the mainsheet.

The principles are:

Helm to sit still.
Stop adjusting the mainsheet when it's not necessary.
Steer in a straight line!
Division of labour: Make it the crew's job to keep the
boat flat through gust/lull cycles. After all, they have
a trapeze and you don't. That's what it's there for!
Trust them to do this job and make it easier for them by
steering straight, not adjusting the main and sitting
still.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=J5E8jvPWR0s&feature=channel_page

Here's how not to do it. Watch from 8.09 to 8.29. The
helm is:

1) Letting the main out in gusts, when it isn't
required. - I'd advise him to get the main in the
centre, and leave it in the cleat.

2) Holding the extension in an awkward dagger grip,
resulting in too little control over the tiller and
steering an erratic course. - I'd say sit on the side,
hold it by your side and steer in a straight line!

3) Moving around in the boat, making the crew's job
harder. - Sit on the side and sit still!

The helm should trust his crew to keep the boat flat,
instead of trying to do all the jobs himself. These guys
could improve their performance easily with a couple of
hours' coaching on simply improving their straight line
sailing technique.

The thing is, a lot of people will sail like this and
then come into the bar afterwards and complain that they
aren't pointing and start trying to make improvements to
the rig, when it's not the source of the problem. A
small tweak in sailing style can make a lot of
difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw1I2Z3-yeE

This is a good training vid for what I mean. Especially
from 6.23 onwards. The crew is marginal wiring, and the
boom never moves from the centreline. This is how it
should be. As a gust arrives, the crew goes out on the
wire with confidence and the boom stays put.

6.23 - 6.44 shows a gust arriving and the crew dealing
with it. Note also the tiller extension being held down
on the deck in the frying pan grip. This can help with
smoother steering.

I think that in a lot of cases, as long as the rig is
set up properly, pointing is largely a function of
technique. It's fairly common to sail a new class for a
year, struggle to point at first, and then find it
becomes easy to achieve as your technique improves, even
though you're not particularly doing anything different
with the rig.


*Google Chrome isn't letting me use the link function.
Sorry, you'll have to copy / paste.*

May consider binning Chrome!

Originally posted by ellistine Perhaps I need to alter my mindset so that we're hiking until the boom is some way off the center line and then get her out on the wire.

Eek! I wouldn't have thought so!

If the boom goes off the centreline, you're dumping
power. Why dump power unless your crew is fully
trapezing?

A good technique upwind in marginal trapezing stuff in
all but the most shifty conditions is this:

Pull the main into the centreline, cleat it and throw
the sheet into the bottom of the boat. Sit on your spare
hand so you can't do anything naughty with it such as
letting the main out when you're less than fully hiked
and trapezing.

A benefit of this is that it gives your crew more
confidence to go out on the wire in a gust, knowing that
it's all her job to keep the boat flat and you're not
about to ease the main as well.

Try it sometime between races.

The trapeze is the advantage - but in marginal stuff your crew must trapeze very high so that they can move in and out according to the puffs and so that you don't have to struggle to keep them right out there.  They should also look at trapezing off the centreboard case occasionally, so they can stay on the wire and still move in and out easily.

I agree with Jack Sparrow - sometimes having everything in too tight has a nasty stalling effect.

I'm hoping to be at Castle cove this weekend for the contender open - maybe I'll see you on the water!