Start: 11:13pm
Waves are good, waves are powerful... wind is obviously the most important thing to get right, using it to your advantage, maximising the power on your sails, pushing the boat forwards towards its destination..
BUT
Smack, you hit a wave and it don't matter how well trimmed the main is, how flat the boat is and how in tune with the shifts you are, that bnlasted wave is gonna cost you boat-lengths.... or it's gonna be your tool to eeek out an advantage over the competition...
Use the waves wisely...and all the time. Some people say you only start thinking about "wave sailing" when its blowing old boots and the white-caps are rolling in...nah, they are wrong, very wrong...
Here's the important bit ALL waves have energy and they would love to give it to you, so use waves all the time, work the boat over them smoothly and seek out the increased wave hights when your sailing with them, let them push you forwards ahead of the mark... I guestimate that working the boat constantly on the waves on the course of a normal leg can gain you a minimum of a few boat lengths... how many times have we finished two boatlengths behind our arch-enemy... a little extra focus on using the waves, seeking out the larger ones is all you need to do to gain the advantage...
Bugger, thats all I have time for..180 secs gone... ask me for more info if you want me to properly explain the techniques involved...
End: 11:16pm
sailing boat soulsailor
2 comments:
You are absolutly right. I sail on the sea and so often sail in quite choppy conditions. If you can get the boat to ride over the waves upwind then you gain hand over fist and offwind! well if you can get the boat planing or surfing well then you gain so much over those who don't work the waves. One good 30 second plane can open up a 50yrd gap! The trick is keeping the boat at the right attitude and a quick pump of the sails to get her going! (And keeping the bows from digging into the next wave!)
Also, never ever underestimate the power of small waves, the ones that you don't surf or plane on.. use them to push you forwards, seriously a whole leg of using the power of small waves will give you some serious benefits...
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