Mugshots....

nice pics


got these from sunday. 

Moments before the mast went SNAP......

 Poise, style and unadulterated elegance   I'm talking about the orange buoy, of course!

This is a photo taken by a friend from the beach tonight, as I was coming back (that's why I'm so far back in the boat while going downwind). Nothing thrilling, but I'm only trying to prove that I do sail a Contender - it's not all in my imagination!

i'm so glad luke hasn't got ahold of that photo of me screwing up a gybe and posted it here yet

Originally posted by Wave Rider Hey naughty PB, thats not straight leg hiking now is it

But he's upright, which is what counts.

There is quite a strong argument against using the straight-legged hiking technique. Frank Bethwaite carried out a range of experiments using a sailing simulator conected to transducers monitoring the performance of the sailor health-wise aswell as boat speed wise. The simulations were carried out under a wide range of conditions comparing straight legged hiking to bent legged hiking. There was no direct affect on boat-speed and sailing performance by using the different techniques.......however, on the sailor fitness scale, the sailor using the bent legged technique conserved consistantly higher levels of energy (i.e was less tired than the sailor using the straight legged technique). The article was documented in sea-horse magazine a while back and I wouldn't be suprised if it's on the Bethwaite website. Basically what it was trying to convey is that there is no advantage to straight legged hiking due to the fact that the sailor hiking with bent legs had their weight lower down so had aproximately the same righting moment as straight legged hiking without the exersion that straight legged hiking causes. Being less strained will have a positive affect on concentration levels and will also have a knock on affect to boat-handling skills.