27 & 28 January

Preparation & Venue Information

17 & 18 March

Preparation & Venue Information

2,3 & 4 April

Preparation & Venue Information

14 & 15 April

Preparation & Venue Information

28 & 29 April

Preparation & Venue Information

12 & 13 May

Preparation & Venue Information

23 & 24 June

Preparation & Venue Information

15 & 16 September

Preparation & Venue Information

29 & 30 September

Preparation & Venue Information

All comments are provided by Ian as feedback and tips for improving your sailing.

Good, but get the sail locked down – reduces the risk of a catapult, and look to get the mast track back

The carve gybe – get that front arm straight and stay committed

Try to get the mast track back if possible, sail nice and locked down – good

Again, sail locked down – good

Catch me if you can! Try and get the track back!

Good – get the sail locked down as quickly as possible

Sheet in, and if possible, get the front hand down the boom, a great photo!

Sail locked down – great – very little risk of getting pulled over the front – very committed

As with George, but even more committed

Difficult to tell if Matt’s (453) just gybed or not, but needs the sail locked down

Leech coming away at the top nicely – even on small sails, you need to get the rigging right!

Look at how George’s body is committed to the turn – good!

Check out how loose everyone’s leeches are – good

Great shot. Connor (678) needs to commit more to the gybe and not stand upright. Check George (422) and Kate and Jamie (1641) leeches – nice and floppy

Good boardhandling – even in 20+ knots

And they’re off…

Yep, they’re still going

A great shot as you can see how loose Joash’s sail is at the leech

All comments are provided by Ian as feedback and tips for improving your sailing.

Again, look at the loose leech on Connor’s sail

Chloe getting the sail under control

Connor chasing Callum in the final race of the weekend

The quicker Kate (984) gets the sail sheeted in, the better. She’ll be in more control and able to chase Connor

Kate still chasing Connor

A great shot – on the good side – look at Callum’s feet positioning – keeping that trim going and committed to the turn. What could be improved would be getting the rig in front of him quicker and going for the funky monkey

Nice and locked down, and the mast is at the back of the mast track!

When the gust hits, be prepared to sit down, exactly how Kate is!

Mast track movement:

As a general rule, in marginal winds, the mast track should be forward for going upwind, with the dagger board down..

For going downwind, when planning, the mast track should be at the back of the board and the daggerboard up.

Power / Commitment:

There is an issue which one parent likened to skiing – when you’re flying down a mountain, one of the worst things you can do is be uncommitted – you’ll lose control and fall over. It’s the same with windsurfing – the windier it gets, the more committed you need to be to keep the kit down (on the water!). If you don’t sheet in, the board will bear away and you risk getting thrown over the front (catapulted).

The loose Leech:

It’s absolutely vital that the sailor has enough downhaul, and we tend to find that most people don’t (even at the highest level). The sail can’t function properly if it cannot flex like an exhaust. A simple test on this is to get one person to stand on the mast base, whilst another person pushes down the top of the mast – putting on the downhaul should help the leech flex.

High Wind sailing:

Linking to the above, general rules as the wind increases are:

Add the downhaul

Extend the boom / add outhaul

Move the harness lines back

Raise the boom

As a rule, we tend to see not enough sailors doing this.

A rough guide to the Tushingham:

A few quick pointers (especially for those on 7.8s);

It’s important that too much pressure ISN’T on the camber inducer / front end of the batten when rotating the sail.

The sailors use adjustables and let a lot of outhaul off for going downwind – they should bear this in mind for when they are rotating the sail.

NB – in recent months, the new batten’s have been working very well and I haven’t seen a batten snap for months.

Adjustables:

As a rough guide, the sail needs to be adjusted at various parts of the course. Standard procedure is that to go upwind the sail is flatter than going downwind.

Therefore:

• The sailor lets the outhaul (sometimes the downhaul off at the windward mark to go downwind
• The sailor adds on the outhaul at the bottom mark to go back upwind

Saturday am

Goal: to test gybing ability and general strong wind sailing competence. From this to find a way forward.

 Feedback: As in Ali’s group most did not have enough downhaul, they then went in to change down but did not put enough downhaul on their change down either. Instead they should have put more downhaul on their racing sail and there would have been no need to change down. This prevented sailors from concentrating on high quality gybes.

 Key point: you kneed to have your kit tuned for the conditions to make the most of the session.

 Saturday pm

Goal: To sharpen up our gybes

 Feedback: A big improvement from the morning every one was getting round the course and making full use of the session despite the challenging conditions. Just remember even though the session was on gybing doesn’t mean the rest of your sailing should get sloppy (lay lines)

 Key points:

·        DEEP

·        RIG IN FRONT

·        TRIM

·        FUNKY MONKEY

·        COMMITMENT!!!!!

 Sunday am

Goal: to get on the water in some very hard conditions, improve sailors confidence in those conditions. Starting in windy conditions.

 Feedback: A big well done to everyone who got on the water!!!! Me and James were really impressed with the attitude. Despite the wind you all managed to be on the start line for the start (we know how difficult it can be to hold your position when it is windy.)

 Key points:

·        when its windy get out early and get used to the conditions.

·        When its windy you need to be planning at full speed across the line when the gun goes.

Sat Am

 Goal - To assess sailors ability in stronger wind and develop technique.

 Feedback - No one had anywhere near enough downhaul/outhaul.  Once changed down in sail size they didn't adjust harness lines accordingly.  Those used to strong wind sailed well.

 Key learning point:

Get that downhaul on – if you’re rigging isn’t right, there’s no point going out.

 Sat PM

 Goal - To sort out kit issues and give core skills coaching. Bearing away in the gusts to learn how to use footstraps.  Skills covered harnessing, footstraps, blasting control and deep beachstarts to start progression to waterstart.

 Feedback - A much better session as kit issues resolved and the wind eased slightly.  All sailors became comfortable with conditions, some achieving blasting in the straps for the first time, others getting comfortable with harnessing in strong winds.  Massive improvement. 

Remember the fast forward principles.  Tacking needs to be worked on more.

 Key learning point:

Use Vision, Trim, Balance, Power and Stance to improve

Try more tacking sessions in your own time (we will cover this again too)

 Sunday AM

 Aim - To give the sailors the opportunity to "have a go" in very demanding conditions but in a safe environment.  To ensure kit was rigged correctly before going out.  Good briefing on how to and where to launch and what to do in the event of being overpowered. To experience "survival sailing"

 Feedback - Just by having a go was great.  All showed determination and bravery. A really pleasing effort.

 Key learning point:

Those that survived should now be confident they can handle the conditions.

Kit set up was much better.

Please click on this link to open the presentation

Coaches emails:

Iangbr1117 at hotmail.com, james.bulleid at ntlworld.com, alex526 at btinternet.com, beth_518 at hotmail.com