Stopping Rounding Up Dead in it’s Tracks

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Rounding up is caused by many factors. One is too much wind and force aloft which tends to heel the boat over. This reduces the amount of rudder in the water and thus the rudder’s effectiveness. Another factor in rounding up is the center of pressure of wind on the sails is too far aft […]

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Life Saving Tip for downwind sailing

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Some tips are long and some are short – This short one will save your life or one of your crew. As you know – sailing downwind has the dangerous potential of the accidental gybe. This can be quite a common occurrence if you have an inexperienced crew at the helm or perhaps with a […]

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True Wind versus Apparent Wind

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We took this from a section in the Crew and Skipper Courses to easily explain the difference between true wind and apparent wind. >>>>>> Section 7.2 – True Wind versus Apparent Wind – Explained Put you hand outside the window of your car traveling at 60 miles per hour on a still day and your […]

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Trim the main sail

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When learning to sail the main thing we’re excited about doing is getting the boat moving, but as we become more advanced, we really want to understand the different forces on the boat and maximize the efficiency. Proper understanding of sail trim can help us achieve that. This post is a good example of exactly […]

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Rrrrrrrripp

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That’s the last sound you want to hear when sailing. Now you have to pull the sail down, fold it up, carry it up the dock to the car (it’s heavy) wait for a week day to take into the sail maker, beg for them to fix it fast, pick it up on a week […]

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What about COB – Captain overboard?

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Last week we made a pretty good point about using the engine as your first method of pick up when you have a man overboard while under sail. And it was quite well received by followers – thanks. Many sailing schools teach the figure 8 recovery method whilst under sail and this is correct we […]

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Preventing an autotack in a sailboat

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In continuing our learn to sail series of blogs we discuss the annoying problem of autotacking. Scenario – A gust of wind comes ripping through and causes the sailboat to round up and autotack or you’ve given the helm to a novice, they’re not paying attention and sail too close to the wind and they […]

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Gybing trick

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When you’re getting ready to gybe, take the jib lazy sheet and wrap it around its winch and pull quite tight. This will pull the jib towards the windward side of the boat just a little. Now when you gybe, you don’t have to be so busy about pulling the jib sheet across quickly because […]

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Weather Helm Versus Lee Helm

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What are they and what’s the difference? These two terms were established when vessels were fitted with tillers rather than wheels and so the term weather helm refers to having to pull the tiller (helm) “to weather” in order to sail in a straight line. Lee helm is when you need to push the tiller […]

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