Firmly ensconsed into my routine back here in the UK after my 6 week Australian jaunt. Working hard really makes you appreciate every sail you have and I was out for 4 hours last Saturday, and really enjoyed a beautiful day foiling around in about 10-15 knots. After my Worlds experience, I am extremely aware of my major shortcomings which are:
1. Downwind speed - after several days with people around me holding up their Speedpucks with 26 knots on them when I can only achieve 23 means that I am on a mission to grow some larger cahoonas. Letting everything go, hike, keep the boat high and lean it slightly to windward seem to be the order of the day.
2. Tacking - the Queen Mary could turn faster than me.
3. Starting - the delicate art of hitting the line foiling needs some work.
That's not to say that everything else is good but at least I can now pull off more than one gybe on a downwind leg without mishap.
Top tip - by the way if you own a Velocitek Speedpuck and cannot get it to log onto the satellites if it has been abroad - reset it by uploading the firmware.
I have ordered a new Mach2 which hopefully will be here in early March. I reached this decision as there is still no competitor for the Mach2 and no likelyhood of one in the foreseeable future. Its not all about performance - there is still nothing out there that offers the control and security of the Mach2 at speed or the overall reliability with the support to go with it when it is not.
2011 looks like a good year for the Hayling fleet. We have new members joining plus the club is going to provide a Moth rack for storage as our numbers increase. We are very excited to be hosting the Worlds in 2014.
The next major event for me is the Moth stand at the London Dinghy Show which I am helping to organise. On the stand we will have Phil's homebuilt Ninja and a brand new Mach2. It is always very busy and our stand will be overun with keen sailors. Alan Hillman of Pro-Vela is doing a talk on Foiling Fundamentals as well which should be good. Anyone who would like to volunteer to help us man the stand for a session gets a free ticket to the show and our endless gratitude.
Hi Grahema,
ReplyDeleteWhy the new boat?? Thought youd put a lot of effort into developnig your current one. As far as i can see, nmines still less than a year old, they are bpmb proof if you maintain them...
Re improving, one of the best uses of time I had this year was to spend 2 days 1 :1 with a coach. It really helped me address most if not all the issues you had above.
Also re down wind speed really check out your front horizontal. I used to have issues like you getting past the 23 - 24 knots D hill speed, then chnaged the howrizontal, painted both that and vertical, make sure they are fair, now Im hitting 28 and I dont thnk my technique changed that much more.