Today we will focus on heavy-air sailing and crews, potentially trying several HA crews with different people. One particular goal for today is for our top skippers to identify HA crews that they work most effectively with.

IF the wind abates enough, we will switch to a more normal skipper/crew arrangement. Be advised, if the wind stays very strong, only the boats listed will go out, and all others more than likely will not sail. The bus is ON today as normal, and certainly there are things to do at the marina to help with boat work, and we have a second and maybe third coach boat today to go out and watch. And again, if the wind backs off by practice time, we will edit the plan.

HA sailing tips

• 420 is a planing hull, the FJ is not. Boats are sailed very differently in breeze Learn both.
• in an FJ, aggressively ease jib while attempting to keep main in and boat flat. Keep boat upright. combination of jib easing, pinching, and hiking is the thing
• in a 420 (less so in the z420) keep jib in, bow down as much as possible, plane, and play the mainsheet aggressively.
• 3:1 or 4:1 on mainsheet? What are good arguments for both?
• Be conscious of shipping water ( esp in FJ). Heavier teams tend to ship water too much and the boat can fill up and go very slow. Water is heavy.
• Downwind, skipper sitting to leeward can stabilize the boat, so give it a shot.
• Changing vang tension is critical…. be careful to over-vang downwind.
• Max out outhaul and cunningham in most sails, most of the time.
• Downwind you cannot be timid; you must be the opposite of timid: be quick, keep weight centered, and practice feeling the balance of the boat. Too often I watch teams that are content with how fast they are going downwind in breeze because that’s as fast as they’ve ever gone, so no need to push it. This tends to put you in a very defensive, timid physical presence and mindset. The best big breeze sailors I’ve ever seen are always trying to go even faster… what this translates to is that they are dictating boat handling to the boat, being active, balanced, and engaged, and not reactive.

We will simply go out and practice basic sailing:

• stops/starts,  and a few practice starts.
• tacking and windward mark roundings.
• Gate roundings in big wind
• gybing!