Twin Wire Helming

just make sure to jump clear of you rig wen it all goes wrong or things start getting expensive... i found this one out the hard way

Exactly as the others have said, and get out there and practice! its only bones and boat you will break  welcome to the official 14 owners club! 

It's pretty easy to get used to, I just took my new 14 out having never done it before! What makes it harder is if you have the main led of the floor with the helm steering and doing the mainsheet (like my 14) since you can't do the hand over hand sheeting thing you can do in hiking boats and ned to use the cleat to help. If your crew has the main it is a piece of cake. Also, learn on flat water if you can!

A few ways to make it easier:
1) Borrow a spice. It is SO easy to sail
2) Take someone good out with you as helm and take the tiller/sheet for a bit as crew to get used to it.

Tacking is the hardest bit, especially if you have a slow/inexperienced crew who doesn't wire to wire tack (like I do) in the boat like the 14. One of you *must* hit the wire before the battens go or you will swim. See higher and faster dvd for how to do it well.

Edited by m_liddell

erm... from my small amount of experience...


In a twin wire boat I would suggest in marginal trapezing make the crew do the monkeying about keeping the boat flat, then when there is enough to wire constantly make the switch and get the helm out all the time (again make the crew do the keeping the boat flat), then when its windy enough to twin you'll already be out there. This applies to upwind as downwind is obviously much more dependant on angles and wind strength etc

Downwind you will have a lot more power in the 14 but i normally advise getting the crew on the wire asap and then either sitting comfy and soaking or powering up and going for the twin. It can take a bit of getting used to and its definitely not fast if you are floating out the windward side tiller in hand with the boat 3 metres downwind of you! (been there before too many times!)