Sailing Reports

Tip of the month – using the Cunningham upwind in a blow! Andy Southall, a regular and experienced club racer at Chew, recently had his ‘cunningham epiphany’ moment at the recent Laser training day. After 10 years of Laser sailing, Andy says that he has finally realised just how much of a difference that a couple more inches of Cunningham tension can make to improving speed and enjoyment of upwind sailing in the laser in a breeze. Let’s share the love! When to get that Cunningham on? If you are fully hiked but are consistently feeling weather helm on the tiller when sailing upwind; then you need to do [...]

The psychology of gybing in strong windsHow many times have we all approached the gybe mark on a windy day with trepidation? How often have we validated our concerns by taking a swim with our mates in the ‘graveyard’ of upturned hulls?!The problemThe biggest problem that I observe when watching sailors gybing in strong winds is either lack of commitment to the gybe or ‘freezing’; seemingly hesitating and forgetting where they need to be and what need to do in the key moments. Occasionally people are even still on the leeward side of the boat when the boom comes across; as if they have ‘frozen’ and disengaged from the activity [...]