The hardest thing in sailing I have ever had to do.

newbiedave said:
Pah - The RS400 is tame, for real excitement I'd pick a 4000!
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I'll trump your 4000 and go for the RS800* .... which we raced for a few years until we got bored with hitting the bottom with a crunch ...




*other people on here have sailed far more tricky boats ... but I raced one series with the International Canoe World Champ as my crew
 
pteron said:
Pah, it's never too windy for an RS400 :)
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Depends - I tend to start thinking about it >F5 and at F7 it's more likely to be the 2k if it's available. It also depends on the direction and state of tide as well as the competition - no point in racing a 2k if everyone else is in faster boats - but also the reverse - if we have few faster boats then I may take the 2k out to join the slower boats - it's still a race afterall!
 
fireball said:
I'll trump your 4000 and go for the RS800* .... which we raced for a few years until we got bored with hitting the bottom with a crunch ...




*other people on here have sailed far more tricky boats ... but I raced one series with the International Canoe World Champ as my crew
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FWIW I think the 800 is in many ways trickier than the 49er, simply because the driver has to have the mainsheet, and it's a single, not twin tiller set up.

However as a driver there's a lot more power to deal with on the 49er, and the foils are much smaller so you need to get the rig steering the boat too, rather than just stabbing away with the rudder. 49er is also much, much more physical for the person in the front of the boat...they do tend to moan a bit more!
 
Iain C said:
FWIW I think the 800 is in many ways trickier than the 49er, simply because the driver has to have the mainsheet, and it's a single, not twin tiller set up.
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OO .... so I'm better than I thought! ;)

Nah - not really - thing is with the 800 is that it is fairly predictable and if you know how too you can sail well within its limits - it's just not as fast ... I did enjoy pushing it on quite a few occasions - my downfall was slow reaction time to lulls - and two of the most impressive things I've seen was with the IC world champ as my crew ...

First when we dipped in to windward (both on the wire) he grabbed my leg, put it back on the rack and yanked the mainsheet - off we went ...
Second (may have been the same race) - with the kite up we had a lull and I didn't react in time - in to windward - well, I did, he RAN up the boat and over the top of the rack onto the board - leaving me to drop the kite into the sock ...

Which reminds me of a 3rd event - also with the same chap ... last leg of the race, back along our channel home - tide is fairly low and the mud banks are looming. We've got the kite up and giving it some welly, but with each gust we're taken closer to the bank ... I'm absolutely sure we're going to hit, but carry on anyway - we've already discussed dropping the kite and it will be a last minute thing - eventually we go for the drop and it's in the bag within a few seconds and nothing lost to leeward when he comes in off the wire ... His balance and ability to control the power in the sails was just amazing ...
 
Going back to the OP..

When I started to learn how to sail I came across a number of people with different levels of RYA qualifications


Beginers were good at loosing shackles and shackle pins
Intermediate qualifications managed to break tiller extensions
Advance sailors cound snap centre boards and bend masts
Those with instructor certificates managed to write off whole boats....

I gave up the will to live trying to conform to the RYA method when the instructor was teaching how to do a running fix and he said that in twenty years sailing, he had only done it once... and that wassimply for practice..
 
Tomahawk said:
I gave up the will to live trying to conform to the RYA method when the instructor was teaching how to do a running fix and he said that in twenty years sailing, he had only done it once... and that wassimply for practice..
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Yes, my RYA training incuded how to signal a Mayday, and in over 20 years I've never needed it! Obviously don't know what they're talking about. ;-)
 
LittleSister said:
Yes, my RYA training incuded how to signal a Mayday, and in over 20 years I've never needed it! Obviously don't know what they're talking about. ;-)
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Mine included how to call a Pan Pan .... and I had to use it a couple of years ago ... on behalf of a stricken dinghy that I couldn't safely get to mind ...

As I said previously - the RYA method isn't always the best method or the quickest method - it will be the safest method that will work in the vast majority of cases - well, I believe that's the intention - so you can learn that by rote then adapt or change it - and when everything goes tits up and you're concentrating on something else you can subconsciously revert back to the RYA method - safe in the knowledge that it is a reliable method.

I've seen some bizarre methods of tacking and gybing - some of them are just plain daft and wouldn't work in anything above a F3 ...
 
fireball said:
Mine included how to call a Pan Pan .... and I had to use it a couple of years ago ... on behalf of a stricken dinghy that I couldn't safely get to mind ...

As I said previously - the RYA method isn't always the best method or the quickest method - it will be the safest method that will work in the vast majority of cases - well, I believe that's the intention - so you can learn that by rote then adapt or change it - and when everything goes tits up and you're concentrating on something else you can subconsciously revert back to the RYA method - safe in the knowledge that it is a reliable method.

I've seen some bizarre methods of tacking and gybing - some of them are just plain daft and wouldn't work in anything above a F3 ...
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I teach too and I don't see the problem with the RYA method. I have to use it slightly modified on the RS400 because the tiller extension won't go across forwards due to the position of the falls, but what other methods are there? Do they differ significantly from the RYA method?
 
just trying to think how I tack/gybe the 400 now ... not sailed it for 6 months!
gybe is racing method - and will depend on how windy it is ..
tack is pretty much the RYA method including tiller extension behind the back - not had a problem with the length of extension - and it's long enough for me to sit at the shrouds ... but it is shorter than some others in the fleet.

The other "methods" I've seen are just ways ppl have got into the habbit of doing it - mostly dodgy but a couple dangerous .. I don't teach any more so haven't seen anything recently.
 
What's the 'official' method for tacking a boat with a headsail, when singlehanded?
Obviously as I mainly sail a Wayfarer I can get away with murder. I drop the mainsheet on the floor, then tend to the genoa sheet as I go through the tack, then pick up the mainsheet again and off we go. If I'm feeling lazy I will cleat the main instead. But I cannot see how one person can tack the boat whilst holding on to two sheets and still maintain a semblance of control.
An SI told me my method was '****' and OK, I won't win any races with it because of the length of time spent with the main depowered- but is it actually unsafe?
 
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