mustoskiff.com

We had chat at the Rutland open about how easy it was to sail the Mustoskiff compared to sailing a laser 1, after three long races in a force 3 to 4 in the Musto and not hurting or feeling tired and also after going for a blast around after race 3 as it was warm and sunny in a nice force 3 with club racing still on for an extra half hour as well,
I Started by saying
“ I get slightly embarrassed when I say to people that I had to move from the laser because of old age as its easer to sail the mps, it’s the look they give you like you have one too many pints to drink“, he replied you are so right, if I was sailing my laser today I would be tired now and hurting instead of feeling fine.
The myth is that it’s hard to sail the mps, but its only like staring a new job it’s as easy as you make it, the hard part is to grasp why it’s hard to sail. If you help people to sail the boat you soon find out why it’s hard,
1 words only help if you read between the lines
2 advice only works with hands on guidance
3 Its very very hard to learn in private and takes 10 times the effort of having help.
words only help if you read between the lines, that a good one,
” keep the boat flat in the tack and keep the speed on”,

sounds easy very simple but the brain has a self-defence device in it that fights that one, unless some talks you through that one it’s a good few weeks swimming, or years, flat by the way means 10deg to windward by the average standard sailor, if you follow them they are saying they are flat but are 10deg from flat, if you ask them to sail 10deg to windward then they are flat and upright, it was the same for me and every other mps sailor at the start we just hated the feeling of flat your brain tell you it’s wrong but you have to fight it with the help of someone following you shouting at you, your choice, two days with help or months on your own, so the word flat is ten deg to windward for most people untill they have been helped at an MPS traning day.
so define flat ,is hard to know for the first go, take flat as 10deg to windward might work well.

The tack

The answer is a catch 22 , you have to move your weight in as you steer into the wind, your brain will fight you on that one, you need confidence to do that so the boat tips slightly to windward as you get your weight in as your brain thinks the boat will fall on top of you if you head up, so you fail to steer into the wind quick enough as you come in ,the boat tips 10 deg as you are now overpowers and the hull shape stops you head to wind, game over .With someone shouting at you in real time you master that in no time, flat in, keep flat, let the main right out, tip the windward rack in reach away.

“ once you go past head to wind in the tack you need to tip the boat so the windward rack is nearly in the water”
This is just so simple to do but you brain will fight you again, you will feel that if you tip the boat to windward you will fall in, you will spend days trying to tack without success but with someone talking to you at the time of the tack to force you to tip the boat slightly to windward helps with the outcome of the boat behaving itself, once you have done this your brain then excepts it,s safe to do the above.

The above is also the way to get out of the failed tack, let the kicker of fully, reverse steer, let the main sheet go till the boom is three-quarter out with the windward rack in the water and pump the main at the same time as sitting sharply on the windward rack, its not until you get the feedback from the sailors as why it took so long to master to grasp, it’s the brain playing self defence, they feel that if they tip the boat over to windward they will fall in, once they have done it once they are off to the next thing to master, sailing on their own could take months instead on half an hour.

The key point to understand how to sail the mps is only information sorting and understanding why and what you need to do, the big problem is the good sailors have forgot how hard it is to fight your self defence reactions, the correct way on how to learn sail the mps has not yet been done on paper, this is just to help you see how to save months or years, just ask us like I am still asking the better sailors.
A few will have forgot how much the mps will scare you at some point, it has been two years now after wave jumping at Mounts Bay that was the last time, the first is the first wild broad reach without the kite, I am going to die was my reaction and an normal one as well the hardest point of sailing for me was a gusty round the cans broad reach not done with a W/L course, keep away from round the cans racing for the first six months.

The Myth is the mps is hard, yes it is but once you have done your time on the water bit it a lot easier to sail in a blow than the easy boats to sail like a laser 1 so I have 20 years of easy sailing now till old age of 73? feeling sorry for some as I blast past someone in pain in a force 4 in a laser1, yes they are having fun but it takes it toll over time, if you want to sail in your 70s then get a trapeze boat now before its too late, the myth is kept going by people tying to sail this in private to save showing themselves up in public, we all did that, splat and crash its part of the fun. if you want a hard life try learning by you own, it hurts like hell. as for pain, my knees are now back to normal now having a rest from lasers1, I go sailing in my laser at a few opens now but limit it to 10 times a year but its hard work

Chris

Given the nightmare I was having at Rutland due to recent lack of practice I would have happily done a swap if a laser had been going past

Mark
GBR260

Well i got to say i have been putting 6-7 hrs in on a saturday or sunday and apart from my tacking on saturday which turned out i was not using enough cunningham i was ok not one capsize in a gybe and nailing every gybe drop routine so i guess practice makes perfect !

DangerBoy wrote:Given the nightmare I was having at Rutland due to recent lack of practice I would have happily done a swap if a laser had been going past

Mark
GBR260

Saturday was a strange day, I was hit with a gust from the side that was like a mini tornado, most got it wrong with the gust off the shoreline so you were in good company including myself.
Life is always backward, you need to be very fit when you start sailing a Musto but the better you get the less fitness you need to be, also you heart rate will get to 95 to 100% when fighting the boat around the course when starting off, if you want a rest in the musto you just go into turbo mode, sail low (bow down}at 1.5 x normal speed upwind sailing below other boats, just cleat the main, out a slight bit with max downhaul on and max kicker on with the boat 10deg to windward with a total neutral helm, no effort or fitness required but the slightest movement on the tiller will head up the boat in the gusts and bear away in the lulls, as you are going 1.5 times normal speed the gust are less and effect the boat less, if you sail the musto like a laser 1 too hight like most people start off doing you fight the boat as moving slow through the water. you see people using loads of energy up fighting the boat to get it upright after a swim, What you should do is use the boat like a ladder, once on the dagger board you should stand upright to save energy not pull your gust out pulling like mad, just stand and take a break.
Sailing in the bow down mode with the boat 100% flat takes the effort out of the arms with a neutral helm and less gusts, I am guilty of never doing a safety gybe, its in the forum somewhere? just let the boom out at full speed and just pull the boom across, the best sailors know how to do this and could save you a boatload of energy.
Each race for you would be 1000kcals or half a days work, three races would be 3000kcals see http://www.mustoskiff.com/reports-and-n ... m-data.htm. The importance of food and correct fluid intake will make a big difference to you results, isotonic water is very important to hydrate yourself without wanting to go for toilet on the water, also as you get tired you make more mistakes, fuel up well before the event.
Flying down the lake from church at max speed 20 mph with the kite up vers laser 1, urrr no.