Yachts & Yachting – August 2019

depower the sail by pulling on kicker,

so you need to do everything you can

to increase your leverage. Trapezing or

hiking o your tiptoes, your front arm

over the head, getting your clothing

wet so you weigh a bit more, anything

so you can keep holding the power.

Whatever the situation requires

heel-wise, you don’t want to be yo-

yoing between  at and heeled. As you

can imagine, that disturbs the wind

and water  ow around your boat

and isn’t fast. If you are struggling to

keep it dead  at, have a bit of heel on

and aim to keep that consistent.

BOAT TRIM

Boat-trim wise, if it’s light winds,

move your body weight as a team as

far forward as possible to get the wide

transom of your boat, which you are

dragging around, out of the water.

But you can go too far forward. If it

sounds and feels like you are ploughing

through the ocean, then that’s too far!

As the wind builds you want the

maximum waterline length from your

boat, as that will get it up to maximum

speed. So, as a team, spread out a

bit. Your crewing position will start

o near the shrouds. As the wind

builds, move back to the widest part

of the boat, where you have most

leverage.  ere will be little bits of

chop or wave to move forwards or

backwards on – you need to judge

whatever feels right to help the boat

keep smooth and not bounce around.

As you move into planing mode

you need to move back to free the

bow out of the water so you don’t

plough into the waves. It also puts the

boat onto its planing surface, which

is the most e cient for speed.

A huge element of performance is

how you transition through these modes

as the wind builds or drops. If you are

planing in a gust with weight back but

about to enter a lighter patch, it is hugely

important not to waste any time in

moving forward and sheeting your jib

harder so the helm can instantly head

up, transitioning to displacement sailing

and vice versa if you are trying to plane.

In a fast asymmetric trapeze dinghy,

the trapezing position moves a once

it is windy enough to plane upwind: by

about 70cm in an RS800, for example.

You should see the knuckle of the bow

li out the water when the sea is  at.

 e decision on when to trim back

should be made by the person who is

sheeting the main because they can

feel when the boat is ready to plane.

Up and downwind (but particularly

upwind): if trapezing in a double

trapeze boat, keeping both helm and

crew bodies at same height and close

together reduces windage, which is

important for speed in windy conditions

for a boat driven by apparent wind.

Communicate with the helm to

agree your trapezing height and trim.

BODY WEIGHT

 e  nal upwind technique is using

your body weight to  ick the leech

of the mainsail, called bouncing or

pumping, which accelerates wind o

the back of the sail.  is is controlled

by Rule 42, so is prohibited upwind

unless your class rules create an

exception, which increasingly classes

are doing at a certain wind strength.

 e outcome you are trying to achieve

is movement in the mast, which then

a ects the sail. It is easy to feel a jolt

through the boat that doesn’t translate to

any e ect on the sail. If you are trapezing

this will be a fast jolt downwards with the

hips, so the energy goes straight up the

wire. It is not a  ick through the feet or

ankles. Use this technique when you are

over-powered and need to get some wind

out of the sail, so at the top of a wave or

as a gust hits to get you back to upright.

 is unprohibited pumping is also

being increasingly used in less than

max power conditions: the  ag to allow

it has to be hoisted (Flag O). In this

situation it is not being used to exhaust

wind out of the sail but to increase the

power and go faster. You are trying

to repeatedly replicate the pull down

out of a roll tack and essentially row

yourself faster through the wind.

Give the boat a little leeward heel and

then pull down through the trapeze

wire to vertical: rhythmically repeat

this process and you will feel that,

as the boat gains speed, you will be

able to build the force and speed that

you can pull through the wire.  e

technique and application of this style

of pumping are constantly evolving so if

it’s happening in your class, watch and

speak to the experts

to understand how

and when to use it.

 is is an excerpt

from Crewing to

Win by Saskia Clark,

priced at £16.99,

published by

fernhurstbooks.com

Above

Crew position is

key for trim; here

both sailors have

moved forward

in lighter winds

Below left

Lines on the

foredeck give

a visual aid as

to the depth

of the jib

HOW TO WIN STRAIGHT-LINE SPEED

50 Yachts & Yachting August 2019 yachtsandyachting.co.uk