Well its new to me... I collect it from LDC tomorrow

I am a pretty good laser sailor and have done lots of other sailing too so not really a beginner... but I will be a beginner in the 7

The last time I trapezed was when I was 12 and that was crewing a 3000, 6 years have gone by since then and now I need to get back on the wire, with tiller in my hand, and a kite sheet.  I bought the boat on an impulse buy because I got a deal on it because at LDC they normally service the boats before they sell them again but this one only just came in so I turned it around and will be taking it away without a service, instead I get all the gelcoat and stuff to repair it for free. I also realised that buying a reconditioned boat would be pointless as I expect to put more dents in it learning to sail it that it already has!

I hear tacking is a bit hard but I have a lot of experience of a lot of different boats so I expect that I will be able to feel this and sort it out pretty quick, or am I wrong?

Obviously getting used to being back on a wire will take a bit of time but my balance is alright and I dont mind getting wet so I think I'll get back into that fine.

What other things should someone like me expect to encounter on the learning curve of a 700?  I dont want to be caught out when I go for my first sail with some little fiddly thing that I could have sorted or expected/anticipated earlier.

Obviously this is a strange request in that ive never sailed the boat before but I'm sure there are some tips out there somewhere!

David

Buy the K16 vid; it's done on the Musto but many of the techniques will translate.

http://www.mustoskiff.com/dvd/index.htm - http://www.mustoskiff.com/dvd/index.htm

I have a copy and learned a few things for sailing my F16 single handed.

Except you cannot play the mainsheet and kite at the same time on the 16 as the sheet loads are too high (even with a 10:1 mainsheet system).

Don't put the kite up on your first go! (unless it is really light winds)

The other thing, is keep going, you will experience what its like to start sailing again and why you wear your Bouancy aid! But when you get to the to stage of hoisting the kite and getting out on the racks, you'll be grinning from ear to ear!

Another that I did at the weekend after a few swims. When you are going downwind and with the kite up, go onto a dead downwind run, gybe the main with the falls of the mainsheet and then gybe the kite, otherwise the kite goes over before the main and you go swimming, well I did!

From what I hear you have to steer quickly into the gybe and as soon as the main goes then you stick it back downwind... this may solve your problem but i wouldnt know because i havent sailed it yet! sorting the kite out aswell as this may be a different issue!

And im going to ignore the advice to keep the kite down on my first sail, the only way to learn is to do it! so why wait!? I cant stand those awful club sailors who dont put their kites up or even go out when its above 15 knots! if you cant do it then get a boat with less rig! I am secretly expecting to get the hang of this fairly quickly because im pretty fearless when it comes to sailing, the main reason for people capsizing is being too afraid to throw the boat around and go for it! my view is if your going to capsize then you might as well make it look as fast and as difficult to sail as possible while you're doing it!

I will see how i get on but unfortunately wont be able to sail the boat for a week and a half because of my exams. I want to but the rents wont let me

Nooooo ... steer slowley and not much, keep the speed on and just flip the main and punch the kite through.

Very different to sailing a Laser ....

if you watch some of the mast head sequences on Stens DVD some of the gybes the tiller hardly moves of the centerline.

Noooo.....

As Rick says, speed in, smooth slow steering, move across early and more specifically for the 700 control when the boom comes across (grab it at the right moment, then you don't need to oversteer to flick the sail over, nor reverse steer it onto a run afterwards)

I think you both need to get to an Association Coaching day.  There's one scheduled for Oxford in July and potentially another Newcomers Sea Conversion course at Hunstanton in the next couple of months.

Ian

RS700 GBR960

http://www.sail4cancer.org - www.sail4cancer.org

ok im only going on what ive been told here! now i know! im gonna get to grips with it first and im sure I'll work it out resonably quickly.  Just gonna be quite hard co-ordinating this with gybing the kite at the same time!  I think it may be a case of it being harder to imagine doing it than it is when the sheets are in your hands in real life.  But I may have a lot of learning to do by the sounds of things! Boats like the laser rely quite a lot on muscle memory because most tacks are the same, just have to process what the boat is telling you that it wants and then do it, all part of learning the personality of the boat i suppose! I can imagine the 700 being more about thinking on your feet and trying to process all the feedback as fast as possible while trying to keep the wings out of the water!

Right got the boat, it came with intermediate bars so i went to take them off, getting the racks  off is no easy task because the plastic bearings cannot pass each other. once this was sorted i went to unscrew the inside bearings but the screw on one of them was rotted and the head was shredded so I couldnt undo it. Any tips on how to get this out?

David

I would recomend going 2 up with someone that can already sail a 7 or MPS, they can show you how and let you learn each skill on its own with instant feed back . within an hour you will know what you are trying to do and will have saved yourself alot of swims.

your laser steering instincts will get you in alot of trouble, keep it in the middle most of the time and only steer smoothly, my boat ran me other the first time I agressively steered over a wave. play the main alot to keep the boat flat, and much flatter than you think. trapezing is quite easy if your fearless you will pick it up quick. 

yeah i love trapezing just havent done it for a while! i have sailed a lot of fast boats, maybe not this fast, but 29ers etc and know how they can bite!  will take a bit of getting used to but i think i will get the hang of it, and getting wet teaches you more than anything i think! If you dont know when its gonna tip you in then you will never be able to push it as hard as you want to... Interesting idea about going 2 up though, I dont think there are any other sailors that could do that at warsash, im probably the most likely candidate lol most of them are wayfarer sailors and boring boats like that  There is one other 7 but he picked it up the day before i did haha so that wont help me apart from perhaps take the spotlight off me so i can make a splash in peace

I just cant wait to go sailing!

Going for my first sail in the boat tonight, sadly I couldnt sail last night because I had someone coming to see my laser looking to buy it, which they did

The weather last night was so nice too! But tonight looks like it could be even better although the wind looks a bit light, probably no bad thing though!

I will let you know how it went later tonight...

David

You'll have to change your name now then, eh?

No i still have another laser, i sold 180442 last night, so i can still be called laser193713 for now...

Oh and the sail, well that was insane! 17knots on the club weather station when we launched, pretty windy for a first sail and such a big jump in classes!

Had some trouble with the trapeze lines which meant i couldnt go wire to wire, i could but i kept coming unhooked, i seemed to pick it up fairly quickly somehow!? but anyway, a bit of cockyness there led to my only capsize of the night. got the kite up too and did a few nice gybes

Such a fun boat too, i was out with a 29er and they were well off the 700 pace!

Cant wait until next monday when i can give it another go!

David

Last night I was out again in the 700 and was happily sailing around before the start of the wednesday evening race, unfortunately too happily as i managed to miss my start because I was showing off planing up the river with my kite up when saw the rest of the superfast fleet all sailing straight at me from the startline

Anyway I turned round and joined in from the back of the fleet and was catching fast, that was until the rescue boat commented on how much twist i had in my main, so i pulled on the kicker and the boat suddlenly became impossible to sail.  It was ok in a straight line but tacking was impossible! Is it just a case of letting off kicker before each tack? or is there another trick to this?

It was very gusty wind last night, earlier in the day it was gusting 35knots according to the weather station on the club, when we launched it was gusting 20 knots i would say... and by the start of the race it was gusting 16knots ish and in the lulls it was completely dead, so spent a lot of time going in and out on the wire which was interesting!

David

The trapeze lines were virtually unadjustable because the tails were so short so i couldnt take up the slack in the trapeze lines when i was hooked on and about to step out so they kept coming unhooked, sorted now though. Part of it was just needing to throw myself over the side and go for it. 

Its hard sailing in the river because its so gusty but as soon as you get out and round the corner its much nicer! Just need some more time on the water!