Well that was awesome! My first time sailing at the Gorge and it really turned it on. Still a training day but we had Jonathen, Dalton and Lyndsey, Matt, Zack, Eric and me out. Started off at aroudn 11am with a relatively sane 15 knots, but quickly built to over 20, then built some more.....25 to 30 ish. At which point we all came in. Liz and I went off for a bit of sight seeing but there are a couple boats back out at aroudn 6pm. I suspect Zack Dalton and Lindsay.
Used the Raptor / Nano for first time and still have a few tweeks to do but loved how repsonsive it was in the big breeze. Had max vang and max d haul on to hold it and it sailed great. Uphill saw some 16 knots boat speed at times so pretty pleased with pace. All I need now is consistency, but the relatively flat water cf Long Beach does flatter tacks and gybes.
Lookng at some video I shot couple learning points:
- Nice and steady into the gybe, even carve
- Focus on not waggling rudder all over place,
- Move body and tiller in unison to keep boat flat through gybe and tack
First race tomorow, little less wind would be good!
Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteYou are so right! Watch Simon Payne gybe and it is virtually always a smooth arc. At Mar Menor we were all surprised by the size of the arc that he described during a beach chat. It was enormous. As you say, the real skill is to cross the boat at the right time. Good luck with your championship.
ReplyDeleteI put my Go Pro video camera on the back wing bar mounted centre line, and filmed a few gybes. That was really instructive in how not to do it! If I can ever figure out Blogger i'll post the video,
ReplyDeleteMore regatta reports later today, but winds already up which means it will be nuclear here by race time.