Lightweight/Female Helms - Is it worth it in a Musto Skiff?
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 10:42 pm
Hi Iver
Am i right in thinking you are the Iver who was sailing at Kiel this year (going very well top3)?
The reason i am asking is i heard you are 65Kg's is this true?
I am the same weight but have always been told i am too light for the skiff. and i am interested to hear your thoughts on helm weight etc.
My son is also around the same weight and is also very keen to have a Musto.
Look forward to hearing from you
Ian Escritt
Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club.
Hi Ian,
that is absolutely right, I am 65kg and have been since I started sailing the Musto Skiff.
A few noteworthy things about lightweight helms:
-You can sail a Musto Skiff competitively at 65kg you just have to be away that there are conditions in which you gain and others where you loose against the average weighing crew. The latter will be slightly more often, but you get rewarded with having more fun and less pain in light conditions! Plus, there aren’t so many in the lightweight range, so that there aren’t many with an advantage when it gets light .
-The ideal weight for any boat falls with a rising skill level across the fleet. This is what happened in the 49ers and has happened over the last 15years in the Musto Skiff. I reckon the ideal weight is now about 80kgs (ideally tall, about Frithjof Schwerdts build ), although this much depends on venue etc, see below.
-The Musto Skiff is a very light and mainly planing dinghy and is less sensitive to crew weight when compared to heavier and mainly displacing dinghys like a Finn or a Laser. The sail/rig can also change shape very efficiently with the fully battened design and hence a flat sail as required by light sailors is easily achieved (in oppose to an RS700 where it can't due to only partial battens).
-Having said that 65kg is pretty light and every kg makes a difference. I definitely notice a difference in boat handling and speed between dry and wet, winter and summer sailing kit
-Hence, in races above 8 knts, it is recommendable to make sure your gear is wetted out at about the 5min gun, this gives you the best leverage during the critical start beat
-For a given wind speed, swell and chop require additional helm weight to punsh your way through. Hence, waves exaggerate any weight disadvantage.
-A long course or very constant wind conditions put emphasis on boat speed, again exaggerating any weight disadvantage.
-At Kieler Woche on the last day there was 10-18knts (unfavourable) wind strength but it was shifty and patchy offering big gains. I had a bit of a strain of luck to do quite well on the day. The full racing can be seen here: https://youtu.be/d3y2wPJJPUw
-I believe there is no notable difference in how much wind you can go out sailing in with different helm weights. Above 20knots its all about skill, not weight. The weight disadvantage even diminishes in a blow, because its more about getting around the course neatly rather than about maximum boat speed. You might not win a championship race, but you can be at least in the top 20%.
-A free running cunningham system with high quality ball bearings as well as a McLubed sail track are extremely helpful so that you can effortlessly adjust your cunningham several times on a beat. This is even more important for the lightweight helm as it is for the average helm.
-Always try to pull on cunningham BEFORE heading up at the mark in a blow, otherwise your deep sail will stop you dead in the water. You can easily loose gain several boat lengths every lap through this.
-The daggerboard can be lifted as much as 20cm to alleviate pressure, I do this progressively starting with 10cm in swell/chop above 15knots. Sailors as “heavy” Jon Newman actually does this as well. You can see this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk7nTORCq78
-having your mainsheet at hand going downwind is also even more recommendable for a lightweight crew as you are even more blow around by gusts (change of direction of travel). Changing main sheet tension will massively help you readjusting your course
-make sure you some well working course adjusters on your trapeze, when you are light you need to wire very low when conditions allow but as high as everybody else when its light:
http://www.mustoskiff.com/pimp-my-skiff ... -lines.htm
-I guess these tack sticks also help lightweight crews although I have yet to try them myself
http://photoskiff.com/sailing/weymouth1 ... opy-sm.jpg
-there are some tips on lightweight rig tuning here:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2494&hilit=crew+weight
-there is also a releted topic here
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1430&hilit=helm+weight
-when talking helm weight I refer to body weight ex clothes.
Sorry lots of detailed stuff here as well but I thought I might as well tell you the "whole story"