Musto Skiff Focus Day at Rutland Sailing Club
by Kit Stenhouse 17 Apr 2014 09:11 BST
6 April 2014
Musto Skiff Focus Day at Rutland © Tim Olin /
www.olinphoto.co.uk
The conditions were blustery, there was a gust of 30 knots in the morning session. We decided do some 3 boat upwind training, and long downwind blasts. Richard Stenhouse, Tim Olin and Pete Hayward were in the rib.
Looking at the downwind photo of Kit, she saw that she could lean her shoulders and upper back further, and wire lower to drive the boat fast downwind.
Upwind, sailors were over compensating for the gusts and lulls. Top tip from Richard - focus on the windward flat of the hull upwind, react quickly to changes in direction and strength of wind. You may only have to ease approx 2 cm of main sheet if you react fast, if you react slowly you will need to release an armful of sheet, steer and move your body weight. Staying on the windward flat of the hull is faster, this smooths out the changes because of the apparent wind.
Richard observed from the rib that Kit's sail GBR 369 was too deep and and Dave's sail GBR 169 was too flat as seen in the photo below. Both made the boats more difficult to sail, Kit's sail was too powerful and the extra depth is drag, loosing top speed. Dave's sail being too flat looses power and height, as there is no return on the leech. A flat sail is hard to feather as it is all or nothing. It turned out his batten tensions were too low.
Dave Annan reported that the main things he got out of the training were:
- I always knew the main sheet strop should be set so that you could only just block to block, but I was underestimating the amount of effort that needs to be used to block to block. Therefore my strop needs to be shorter than I have had it previously.
- Upwind, the boat needs to be sailed on the windward flat of the hull, so a tiny amount of windward heel rather than dead upright.
- The best upwind VMG is achieved by alternating between height and speed every few seconds through small main sheet movements, so you effectively get both.
- I need to be much fitter to keep up with Kit!
I'll be trying to put it all into practice at Stokes Bay...
Pete Hayward reported:
From my point of view, a great weekend. I'd planned to be there for both Sat and Sun to maximise training opportunities given the trip from Eastbourne. This did mean I was able to make the most of the lighter winds on Saturday to get some useful solo practise in.
Sunday getting the chance to see you more proficient Skiff sailors in heavier conditions was very informative, I also picked up loads of tips and things to work on from Sten... plus driving the RIB for Tim's photos was a blast;-)
In summary great! Thanks for laying on the session.
Stuart Keegan reported:
"Tim's photos are cracking"
Having the rib and a photographer at the weekend was like having a private coach and someone there to catch all of the good moments and bad moments. I learnt the importance of going upwind - having 3 boats to train with was ideal for speed training up wind and comparing pointing vs speed. I also learnt the importance of the correct trim going upwind to prevent the boat slipping sideways by trying to sail the boat as flat as possible whilst reacting to gusts and predicting what wind will be hitting you next. I always comeback from a focus day with areas to improve on which means I can target the areas I need to improve. Its an hour and a half drive to Datchet for me and consequently I get limited time on the water so I must use the time I get productively. I've found training with other boats, speeds the learning curve up because every body can tell you something to try to make thing a little bit easier which you don't get when sailing around by yourself.
After the training session we had lunch and joined in Rutland Sailing Club's Pursuit race.