How many people does it take to run a race?

When Sea Cadets have their annual regatta, their are 2 safety boats and officers stationed all around the lake, all linked by 2way radio, this is a sight to see.

Walking up the jib luff... simply reach down and grab the jib luff as low as you can, and, perhaps with a bit of *very* gentle motor assistance, restore the boat to horizontal by pulling the mast up bit by bit working your way up the jib. In serious waves probably less easy. The other thing is that the hull drifting to leeward of rig and safety boat will tend to help as well.

The other thing I think should be more widely taught is the Australian navy method for capsize recovery in serious wind. Don't bother to try and get the rig to leeward, leave it to windward. Second person instead of being scooped up wraps both their arms round the shroud and stays in the water. When the boat comes up its almost impossible for it to flip again with the weight at max beam on the shroud, whereas if you scoop someone up its rather easy. First person gets over the gunwhale if they can safely, if not climbs in at the stern. Second person remains wrapped round the shroud in water, and is acting as a sea anchor so the boat stays more or less hove to. First person sorts everything out then helps second person get in. Its slow, but I find it almost invariably results in a first time recovery without endless energy draining flips.

Edited by JimC - 01 May 18 at 7:50pm

Perhaps in sketchy conditions every boat should carry lines from mast top to either side, that way if their is an issue with boat being inverted, safety boat can detach one of the lines and gently pull boat upright, you could do something similar with trapeze lines.

Originally posted by rich96 Originally posted by iGRF [QUOTE=A2Z] even if he isn't an Olympic standard sailor,   Er... was selected to represent the UK in the 1984 Olympic Windsurfing. Declined because they wanted me to divert my sponsorship into their definition as to what was good for me. QUOTE] Crumbs - an (almost) Olympian on the forum Must be a first (and possibly a last ?) - someone turning down a place for a new Olympic sport at a games ?

It wasn't uncommon amongst those of us that were earning money from our sailing. Back then the Olympics was an amateur affair, so any money you had via sponsorship had to be 'laundered' by the RYA who would then take all the decisions as to what events I could enter. I wasn't about to turn a 50 grand budget over to the RYA and felt I could do more good with it at grass roots level building a class and spreading it wider and thinner than they ever would have. So the Carlsberg Team and Windsurfer then Mistral Series came to pass without the damn bureaucracy of that lot muddying the water. Lots of Windsurfers declined the Olympics I wasn't the only one, it never held any real cache with us as competitors either being held as it was at the time on antiquated equipment.


Edited by iGRF - 02 May 18 at 10:22am

Jet drives are a nightmare around shingle beaches, the smaller gravel gets sucked into the intake and destroys the impellers as many of our jet ski brethren find out launching off Seabrook at low tide, there are intake guards but they reduce the effectiveness and power of the drive quite dramatically so around here it's old fashioned props with a decent prop guard.