Month: November 2020

Sailing fitness is often overlooked but it is one of the weapons that we can achieve with minimum cost and a little effort. A new sail or a new piece of gear has a finite life but fitness is something that has benefits both on and off the boat forever as long as you have a regime to maintain it.

In an off the beach boat, are you able to hike or trapeze longer and harder than your competition? Can you pump your sails hard downwind (as allowed) for the whole leg? If you can do either more than your fellow competitor, chances are you will be able to beat them.

When sailing in a regatta, the competitor who sails their boat as hard at the end of each race on each day of the event as they did at the start of the event will be more likely to be fighting for the silverware.

In a multiple race day or event, your body must be able to recover and being very fit is also something that you can easily reach by putting in enough training time. Often half an hour a day is enough to be as fit as the other top guys in an amateur class.

As most sailboat races are not decided on one day or in one race, it is important to have enough endurance for a several day regatta. Endurance can be gained by cycling because you get very strong legs which is good for both hiking and trapezing. Swimming trains your upper body but rowing is a good alternative if you don’t like being in the water.

For flexibility, yoga is great and it also helps you to come down after a stressful day – no matter whether it is on the water or in the office.

For strength, weight training is hard to beat but make sure that you get advice from a professional who understands sailing. They will provide a routine that builds the right muscles for the activities that your class or boat requires.

Proper nutrition is another key to performance as it helps with energy, recovery, injury avoidance and repair, attitude and decision-making.

Make sure that you eat things that give you power for the next day, help your body recover and also stay away from foods you don’t know. Work out what is the best food for you to take on the water by testing various things during training. Some sailors prefer energy bars, others go with fruit like bananas.

Lastly, hydration is equally important to maintain performance capability. It is said that once you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated so take every opportunity to have a drink. Water is more than adequate but many sailors use electrolytes or energy drinks.

Some of the consequences of a lack of fluids are mental tiredness, concentration decreases and co-ordination ability decreases. The cardiovascular and central nervous systems are affected which causes an increased pulse rate, lower blood pressure and loss of muscle strength.

MORE TIPS AT SAILING TO WIN!

1. In light air – steer to a higher luff telltale which will find you sailing a little lower, one of the biggest mistakes many helmsmen make in light airs is to pinch. It is important for the trimmer to use all the telltales both up the luff and on the leech to get the whole sail working efficiently.
2. In heavier air – say over 15 knots, steer more to heel and not be so reliant on telltales. Being over-heeled means the keel is not working efficiently and the boat slips sideways. Sail a little higher in heavy air which helps with lessening the heel angle.
3. Scalloping – is the ability to be sailing upwind efficiently and then to take about a 5-degree luff up for a few seconds and then steer back to a normal angle without losing boat speed. Each scallop will gain you half a boat length or so to windward.
4. Marks on Wheel – you should have 3 marks on your wheel, one at the centralised position and one at 4 degrees either side. These marks will show your mainsheet trimmer if he needs to depower the mainsail because you are over trimmed which creates drag when the wheel is beyond the marks. A similar system should be set up on a tiller steered boat although this can be more difficult to do so the main trimmer should watch to see if the tiller is beyond the magic 4-degree angle and react accordingly.
5. Avoid turning the boat too far through a tack – Before you tack, look to windward about 80 – 90 degrees from where you are heading (depending on your boats tacking angle) and see if you locate a point on the land, or another yacht and set that as where you should be pointing after the tack. If you steer too far you risk over heeling and going sideways plus getting a heavy helm which indicates drag and slows you down. Another problem is that if you oversteer, it is harder and slower for the crew to get the genoa in.
6. Tacking isn’t just a matter of putting the helm over – In lighter airs, always come out a bit lower than your normal angle in order to build speed after the tack. In stronger air, when going into a tack, let the bow come up 5 or 10 degrees slowly which allows you to gain to windward, then steer to go head to wind and beyond fairly quickly, this also gives the crew a better chance of trimming the genoa in quickly on the new tack.
7. Wheel Steering – Wheels don’t have the same feel as a tiller. In strong wind and heavy seas, it is best to stand as this allows larger movements than you can make when sitting plus you are able to see over the crew to watch for waves and gusts.
8. The less you move the helm the better – Moving the helm causes drag and the less you move it, the faster you will be. In Strong winds with big seas though, you will need larger helm movement. In flatwater try to get the helm at 3-5 degrees of weather helm and you should use small slow movements of the helm. Try not to overwork the helm upwind which is a common weakness in helmsman. If you get a lift slowly push on the helm until you get to the right angle is all that is needed. Likewise, if your weather telltale if lifting showing you are too high, a slow bear off is needed, not a big quick pull.
9. Most boats should have 3-5 degrees of weather helm in medium winds – This allows the rudder to provide lift. If in light winds you are not achieving this, try moving the crew weight to leeward to get feeling back in the helm. As the wind increases, slowly move the weight to weather to keep the feel right.

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