The shoot up will cut your drift time down the line in half and allow you to remain in control when someone to leeward of you holds their spot. Practicing this manoeuvre will give you tons of control on the start line.
The shoot up will cut your drift time down the line in half and allow you to remain in control when someone to leeward of you holds their spot. Practicing this manoeuvre will give you tons of control on the start line.
Very few sailors excel in light wind and choppy water. It is the most challenging condition because your sail and telltales aren’t always working. You must constantly anticipate changes in boat speeds and this never allows you to get comfortable.
It’s been said that going fast upwind in moderate and heavy air is all about fitness and energetic hiking. Laser […]
Nothing is more frustrating than getting your mainsheet tangled in a manoeuvre. Most of the time there is no rhyme or reason. Here’s the secret to frustration free sailing shown in the video, along with some other small tips that may help.
In many conditions, we often see sailors with poor gust and/or lull response. In regards to hiking, particularly in gusts, there can be a tendency to “fight” the boat with hiking and often use too much steering to control power. We see heeling of the boat, pinching, corrective steers and other issues in gusts. These issues often lead to unnecessary strain on sailors and reduced speed and VMG.
Launching in onshore breeze can seem tricky, but with a few tips, it can be a smooth and easy experience. Click below to read our full tutorial.
Once hiking conditions present themselves, a balanced boat with appropriate rig setup becomes particularly important to maximize your hiking efforts into productive speed. In order to obtain our upwind objectives, we need to get the powerful rig working for us by setting up appropriately for the conditions.
Many people often ask us how the downwind style has changed over the years. Here's a quick summary of what modern downwind sailing is like and how to achieve it.
Fitness can really limit your upwind boatspeed when the breeze is up - consistent hiking on windy days can feel truly unsustainable. It’s a constant battle, with thousands of hours required in the gym and on the water to improve fitness. And while hiking may be paramount to upwind speed, there’s a lot of other technique involved that can help you go faster and even make hiking less painful. After all, there are some fast laser sailors who aren’t that fit. So what are they doing anyway that makes them so quick? This four part series will get you started.
Pinching is bad, but what happens next is worse...
After just moments of noticing they are sailing too close to the wind, the helms person bears away back to the correct angle. What they don’t know is that they are slipping sideways due to something even worse: stalling of the sail. The reason? a shift in apparent wind.
In this video, learn how to get a speed edge and how to maintain your clear air going downwind.
Learn about Efficiency and Power in the laser mainsail and learn how to increase speed through trimming and easing the mainsail based on boat speed and sail forces.
The most important thing to understand about downwind sailing in Lasers is that every time you are off the breeze, […]
First, the fundamentals: The most important thing is a good balance. You need to be at the point where you […]
After having done my pre-game research and having a good idea of where I want to start, I set up on the line, then use the remaining time (usually between 1 minute to 1:30 left) to create a bigger hole to leeward, and defend from poachers. The skills to increase your hole are known as "downspeed maneuvers" and they can be classified as:
Bow Down - The most advanced techniques in Laser Sailing. The first time I heard the phrase I was at […]
What is the best advice you've been given when trying to sail fast in light winds? For me, I remember […]
The death roll is the most common way to find yourself swimming. Moments after slamming into the water, the boat proceeds to turtle, leaving a helpless, swimming sailor to scramble to recovery gasping for air through the cold water and frustrating slurs as the fleet passes him/her by helplessly.
