Call me suicidal but please help!!!

Hi,

I am an overweight, mediocre sailor with a young heart. Bought myself a 29erXX rig which I shall sail in a low breeze location. This is the first time I am going to be sailing a skiff and the fastest sailing I've done so far is Laser, Hobie and some 470 about 15 years ago... How do I teach myself how to sail this thing and stay alive? I had a test sail with a sailing instrcutor at the helm and just crewing was tough work for me and I caused many swims. Please let me know if you know of any resource I can rely on to get at least the theory down pat.

Thanks for your help.

The absolute key to sailing skiffs is agility and ability to move quickly.  As crew, you have to keep the boat completely, absolutely flat at all times.  Otherwise, the rudder will stall and you will get wet.

My advice would be to sail about without the kite at first, get used to keeping it flat and steering from the wire.  Move fast into tacks and keep the boat flat throughout.  If you find a relatively experienced crew, they can remedy a lot of mistakes that you might make when learning.  Then, stick the kite up and have a go in light winds.  Remember, with the kite, if it powers up and heels over, steer further downwind which will keep the boat flat.  If you lose power, head up to "hot it up" as they say and increase power. 

Gybing the 29er is quite hard as they can easily lose a lot of speed in gybes, but try to keep the speed on, don't use too much rudder to steer it, and once committed, don't lose your nerve and bail out, or you will swim.  The helm must move fast in gybes and be on the new windward side of the boat when the main fills (the crew will be taking care of the spinnaker sheets).  Don't steer too far up out of a gybe or you will swim, instead try to steer back downwind a bit after the mainsail gybes (but again not too far or you will gybe back and swim). 

Hopefully the 29er sailors here can add any more tips, or point you to a website with tips.  You've got a lot on your plate, but it isn't impossible as long as you think about what went wrong and try to work out how to avoid that the next time. 

Quite a lot of chat on 29ers on www.sailinganarchy.com, look here:
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4 2453&hl=29er
(probably not for the faint-hearted btw). 

subject line was "sailing the 29er" I believe.  Wade through the inital abuse and theres some good tips there.  

Another point to bear in mind is that when gybing you control when the boom comes across - if you just steer until it moves you will swim! It's a big fully battened main and when those battens crack the power comes on quickly. You want to be bringing the boom across by hand pretty much dead downwind. I have to admit I'd advise getting the kite out straight away, 2 sail reaching is often the sketchiest part of sailing a skiff and the boat handles very differently without it. If the wind's light it's probably a good idea to sail it like a conventional 29er, i.e. short tiller extension, crew on the wire at first. I'd done a lot of sailing before trying to helm on the wire and still found it an interesting experience! Lots of small tiller movements are the way forward, jerk it around and you'll swim. Don't expect it to be like sailing a Laser etc. the style of sailing is completely different! Going upwind you play the main much more in the 9ers than on other boats, as the crew is doing it. Don't pinch going upwind, it doesn't suit the boats, but is a good way of dumping power if you're going to swim if you don't! Going downwind the main and jib trim is left pretty much constant, and much tighter than in a Laser or similar - the end of the boom will still be inside the boat, and the boat is steered downwind - this is where the small movements come in! Make sure you get enough kicker on going upwind, but if you don't ease it coming back down you won't be able to bear off easily in gusts - you do need to keep some on though, generally more as it gets windier. There's lots of other things which you'll probably figure out as you go along, but most importantly don't get disheartened when you swim, it's not easy and there's a lot to think about!

Originally posted by k_kirk Hi, I am an overweight, mediocre sailor with a young heart. Bought myself a 29erXX rig which I shall sail in a low breeze location. This is the first time I am going to be sailing a skiff and the fastest sailing I've done so far is Laser, Hobie and some 470 about 15 years ago... How do I teach myself how to sail this thing and stay alive? I had a test sail with a sailing instrcutor at the helm and just crewing was tough work for me and I caused many swims. Please let me know if you know of any resource I can rely on to get at least the theory down pat. Thanks for your help.

Getting rid of the weight would help a lot. When you have done that you
will find everything a lot easier. Fitness in skiffs is a big part of it, and the
fitter you are the less mistakes you make, and the more time you seem to
have so you don't make the mistakes. It's a catch 22. So the thing I'd do is
go running 3 times a week, just make sure you run for more than 20 mins
( pref 40 ), as you need to get into oxygen debt for it to do the job. Speed
when running isn't important until you are fit. Nice and slow but don't
stop, and build the speed. After a month of that I would almost guarantee
you will be better at sailing your boat. Then training and honing your boat
handling will start to make a difference.