Wiki Sail by GRF

Originally posted by 2547 <span style=": rgba255, 255, 255, 0;"> Originally posted by fab100 Originally posted by iGRF I dare say Rushall whoever he is paints some excellent pictures, but he from what I've managed to garner is an RYA man and the sum total of what the RYA can teach on tide and tide tactics can be written on the back of a fag packet. </span> <span style=": rgba255, 255, 255, 0;"></span> <span style=": rgba255, 255, 255, 0;">More ignorance. Utterly wrong as usual. </span> <span style=": rgba255, 255, 255, 0;"></span> <span style=": rgba255, 255, 255, 0;"> </span> Winning a few regattas on beach toys in the 70s when the one who dropped the rig the least times won clearly didn't require much knowledge of tide and tactics which you are expertly demonstrating on this thread.  The RYAs record in delivering Olympic medals is second to none so I expect the coaches they employ are well versed on simple vector arithmetic to understand tide and wind.  However, no doubt Mr. Park will soon be on the hotline to engage you to enlighten them all.

The Laser is a beach toy, still is, even back then you would have been surprised at the money and resources that were thrown into racing sailboards, you'd have been deafened by the cracking noise of hundreds of CYT sails on proctor spars that arrived at the 1979 Finals of the Heineken series all in the hands of anybody who was anybody in the racing dinghy world, because the prize was six figure volume sales that could only be dreamt of by the dinghy industry.
Those finals were held in Chichester Harbour on the first couple of days, where the tide and tidal channels as I'm sure anyone who sails there regularly will testify to can remove the chances of success of anyone who can't read the water.
Back then Dinghy sailing was a different animal to the dumbed down thing you all experience these days, sailors were highly tactical, the knowledge base was deep as was the depth of competition in most of the major classes, that stuff you read from Rushall (Yes I had a look and the first thing I saw you could drive a coach and horses through), maybe it gets better, maybe it's just the same stuff that had already been written in the early eighties, regurgitated with some fresh illustration sequences, nothing wrong with it, just nothing new that I don't already know, nor would any of those top boardsailors that lined up with all their gear as racing sailboarding approached it's hey day.)

The RYA these days wins what it does by sheer volume of cash and resources, those 49er lads who's great tactical example was to take the loser tack out the back door and to gybe off when a tactical advantage offered itself, spent £50,000 I gather, on trying to buy boat speed and everyone knows boat speed makes you a tactical genius if you even remotely go the right way, if on the other hand you go the wrong way fast...

Despite all that money, all those resources, new boats a great new sailing centre, sailing on their local water, our team had it's arse handed to it by the Aussies, and Ben? You'd best ask him how he won, was it by getting mad or was it by a bit of generous team sailing from a chum? He was very lucky, the best tactical sailor didn't win that medal. You want tactics? Go down under they still teach them and excellent tacticians they are to.

Anyone will tell you you need two things to win stuff, and one of them can be bought and if your competitors don't have the financial resources to match it then tactics alone wont do it, except in the one design fleets where the equipment is supplied and how did we do there?

Despite employing full time professional athletes with everything from equipment to a ping pong psychologist to tell them they're not a bad person when they lose, why would they need to be tacticians when not another nation in the world has that level of professionalism.

Who TF is Mr Park?

Edited by iGRF - 01 Apr 13 at 5:39pm

 


Edited by ex laser - 01 Apr 13 at 11:49pm

Originally posted by iGRF Don't talk to me about which beach toy is the more technical.

Edited by Medway Maniac - 02 Apr 13 at 2:28pm

I dunno the cutting edge of windsurfing seems to be doing ok with oldies ... http://www.seavets.co.uk/

Fleet race- with no excuses or spreadsheets or accusations of banditry to be levelled... Oh no, not again thank you. Being handed his arse by nearly every other 100 owner on here was just too embarrassing.