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Do you know what can be:
- Open or Closed?
- Baggy or with a good Profile?
- Flat or with a belly?
Do you know
- what has too little twist (apart from Chubby Checker?)?
- what Bernoulli’s theorem involves? (click here.....)
- how it affects a sail? (think of the sail as a wing) (click here.....)
- where to put the traveller?
- why he put the car there?
- why you should be following the telltales?
If you don’t want to know any more, I suggest you jump to a different page. Click here ....
Alex Helbig has been running some themed days focussing on sail trimming, including one on 17th February when he took out Karen, Kevin, Robin, Jenny, Jeremy, Andy and Wynne Cha-Grinder.
Alex was a sailing instructor for 12 (or was it 20) years and knows loads and loads of stuff, but more importantly puts it across really well. Even I grasped it. So after a while listening to the principles, looking at the bits on the boat which we were going to play with (oh sorry, adjust), and getting to understand just why there are so many bits of string, off we went into Southampton Water.
With a monumental gust, the wind speed raised itself to about 5 knots and stayed there for a while. A good chance to practice light airs sailing, and adjust the kicker, traveller and sheet, but more interesting to see how trimming can make a considerable difference to the speed under these conditions.
With a flurry, the wind disappeared, so we dropped anchor and lunched. A bit more wind in the afternoon to further develop our skills, including putting up the cruising chute and rigging it as a spinnaker, followed by the wind speed and boat speed both indicating 0.0. Time to go home, albeit a little earlier than planned.
Alex that was a really good day, so many thanks. If you missed the chance to book onto one of these days, eat your heart out!
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