River sailing - tips and techniques

First sail on the river this weekend. Breezy and gusty conditions. Sailing in a borrowed laser for the first time in about 10years.

Good fun sailing. Totally different from the cat sailing I've been doing over the last few years. Gusts were difficult to manage, but the lulls and shadows were worse. I seemed to go so slowly at times whilst others ghosted along.

River traffic was also entertaining - and its early in the season.

Looking forward to my next outing and knowing that windy weekends on the river don't come along often enough.

Watch out for the trees overhanging right where you'd like to put your mast - gets expensive in burgees otherwise!
And learn to spot the minute windshifts and eddies.
Old Merlin Rockets under 6ft wide are popular river boats on the Thames - they were first designed at Putney so suit local conditions.

And just mind the traffic on the river...especially the hen and stag groups who have hired a cruiser for the day, and who may not be fully in control!

But it has a beautiful situation and is really friendly and it will be an ideal place to get your smaller ones on the water as early as poss.

PS I'm sure you are doing the right thing and borrowing something first to get used to the conditions but later on if you wanted to try an X1 or X0 (that are designed for amongst other things river conditions) I'd be very happy to bring the one along that we are sailing tomorrow at Hammersmith (... although maybe you are looking for a single hander in the long run?).
PPS Just to be clear that the X0/X1 is my commercial interest.

"Water for the cow please" is somthing to get used to!

Roll tacks - these need to be for a reason. A great roll tack to keep the speed up when you finally have to tack as you pinch your way up the bank (and another a boat length later to stay out of the current) is fine, as is tacking as the shift hits. Rolling your way up the river will make no friends.

You have to develop a ninja sense of when a windshift hits - first twitch of the telltale, feel of wind on back of neck - no idea what the prompts are really, but I grew up sailing on a river and used to be very, very good at that. My favorite weapon of choice has always been the Firefly, and I've never been convinced that any boat is better at river sailing. Love the British Moth as a singlehander on the river, too.

You are right, it really is a different sport. But it is a fun, friendly one which really gets your boat handling good. Learn to pinch like hell up the favoured bank, learn to sit way, way forwards in the boat, and remember, when it has all gone horribly wrong, river clubs often have an excellent bar.

Yes, it seems to be legal on Rivers but else where i would suspect a River 'Roll Tack' to be completely illegal.   ha ha