Jib sheets

Sue

You only need to know about 3 basic rules and some common sense to start racing.

If the start line is crowded start about 10 seconds back from every one else. Easiest way is at the startboard end of the line after everyone is lining up reach down to leeward behind everyone and then as the gun goes harden up into a space. You will be at the back, but not too far back. You can then follow the fleet round, so you get a course to steer and you can see how many of the slower boats you can overtake. pictures worth a thousand words (no rude comments about my artistic skills please )




I would advise anyone starting racing until they have built up their confidence to:

• Leave a couple of boat lengths between you and anyone to leeward
• and the essential rules - Same tack windward boat keeps clear
• Port gives way to starboard
• At a mark give the inside boat plenty of room and until you're happy with close quarters handling go wide (or slowdown)rather than trapped in the middle of a bunch (in fact if a big bunch is at a mark slow is often faster even for experienced racers)

You could also buy an understanding the rules book - Bryan Willis is fairly straightforward but there are lots available. Don't buy the actual rules because you can download them for free and if you're not familar with the interpretations they'll seem like gobblydegook anyway.

You could also get one of the better sailors at your club to helm for a few races for you so you get a feel for what's going on. Anticipation is the key to avoiding incidents (and, as I'm sure Redback will confirm, the faster your boat the more you have to anticipate).

Edited by Garry

Great idea, Garry.  I'll use it with some of the newer racers at Bough Beech.

Yeah the rules in a nutshell.

Originally posted by KnightMare yeah, I would say race. But it is upto personal choice. Also I see you have chosen cont. jib sheets.  if they are too much trouble they can always be cut into two.

careful here...continuous sheets can be a lot shorter
than the combined length of seperate sheets. This is
more noticeable on the spinnaker than the jib, but
still true.
that is another advantage of continuous sheets

We use contiuous sheeting but with the ends of the sheets tied in the middle of the boat this always gives you something to grab for if u drop the sheet. We have one length of rope with the center attached to the jib by pushing the folded over center through the cringle and thn putting the rope back through this created loop you have a very light atachment on the sail.