Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Gybing the big spi

I had a coffee with Andrea this afternoon and he did not find tacking particularly challanging - he said we worried much more aboug gybing. Sure, with waves in strong wind I am concerned, too! At the same time Andrea himself admitted that in the actual regatta he did all of his spi run without gybing even once! You can hardly expect avoiding some competitive tacking, so I will keep working on these tacks!

Later today I went out for training with Wojtek and Greg and the conditions were just perfect: stable SW force 4 with no waves. I played the shifts and finally the beat to windward looks like tacks and not a christmass tree.


Some of the mistakes you see in the track were as simple as not preparing the sheets before tacking; this shows the importance of staying focused. More practice is needed, but I am more optimistic - probably also because wth this wind it was fun to go as far as the Societe Nautique de Geneve and the view on the Jet d'Eau was just gorgoeus.

On the way back I practiced with the big spi for the first time. Andrea is right: the boat is not at all stable, it is easy to broach and I didn't even have any waves!  The final gybe was successful, but more practice is needed.



Anyway, that's it for this week - tomorrow I am going to get the family back home from the Polish lake district - a good opportunity for some aerobic exercise.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Michal, I'm really enjoying your posts.
    Just one thing I'm missing, excuse my naïveté on solo-sailing questions, and maybe I missed it somewhere, but when you do the sail-handling, how are you fixing the tiller? Can't see in the videos... Thanks!

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  2. I'm using this rudder lock: http://images.bucher-walt.ch/photos/bw_s1927_5_1.jpg . The clip is screwed to the rudder and you can lock it on the rope, which is spread between two cleats.

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  3. Hi Michal,
    In the video, you gybe first the main and then the spi. I normally do the opposite. Is there any reason why you do it this way?
    Michel Chevallier

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  4. You can do it either way. In fact, I try to first gybe the spi and then the main (see my earlier gybing video). On this occasion, the main gybed on its own as I went on the foredeck to switch the pole. It worked well, but the swinging main smells of a broach - I would not like to repeat this in force 5.

    The decision also has strong tactical consequences: by gybing the main you change from starboard to port tack or vice-versa, so you lose or gain priority over other boats, and it is useful to be on starboard when you are on the foredeck!

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