Training Camp - Lake Garda - September 19th - 22nd 2004 by Mark Rushall

Thanks to the class for asking me to join them on their traditional trip to Malcesine. And particularly to Paul for facilitating the whole thing. Paul's estimate of "about 10 or 15 attendees" was one of the most conservative estimates I have ever heard from a boatbuilder: I was blown away by the attendance and enthusiasm at the first briefing: I counted 27 sailors including both class champions and newcomers. I'm sorry that time, numbers, and breadth of experience meant that my time was spread fairly thinly. If the class decides to repeat the experience there are many improvements to the formula we can make to take account of this.

Thanks to "Sten" for an excellent on land demonstration of his "safe" tack and gybe, and also the more high tariff "wire to wire" version.
On the water, I could only just keep up upwind in the rib, and had no chance downwind. You all obviously really enjoy sailing your boats: I have never found a class so difficult to keep together: every time the wind came up just all just wanted to go for a blast!

I learned lots from on and off the water sessions I have put some of my thoughts below.

Boat handling
There are clearly several schools of thought here, and of course if you practise enough you can make any system work well. But my philosophy is always to try to learn a technique which will not hold you up in the future. That is why I would always advocate tacking facing forward, and always keep control of the mainsheet through the upwind manoeuvres. The "sit down and hook on" advocates have a fast, tried and tested routine, but I still believe, having watched from the rib, that sitting down adds an unnecessary operation. I was interested to note just how fussy Sten was about precise feet positioning, I could see that this plus the mainsheet hand on the new windward deck technique gave a stable but mobile platform through the manoeuvre. Interesting also how important it is to get forward as far as possible once past the mainsheet: this would have helped me with my short sail on Sunday afternoon! This plus easing lots of mainsheet as the head of the boat comes through the wind entirely eliminates the rounding up problem, and if you ease exactly the right amount and hang on as you step out it all comes back in automatically!

Downwind the main lessons were: Boom right out in the "second gear" position means you can sail at a nice safe hot angle while hoisting (with one knee on the windward gunwhale and the tiller tucked under the other)
Once the spinnaker is up and under control you can sheet the main in to the quarter and go! Again, dropping the mainsheet to second gear as you step into the boat means you can turn the boat right through the gybe without fear of broaching on the new gybe, and second gear also makes the drop a little more sane!

Rigs
The fast masts are set up fairly straight in the dinghy park. If you have to pull the lowers harder than about 12, and there is a hint of an s bend, it probably means the spreaders are too far aft ("closed"). Take care when comparing lowers tensions as there are some 2.5mm wires and some 3mm. On the windy morning easing the lowers a little made the rig slightly more forgiving.

Its clear from the rib that outhaul kicker and cunningham all significantly affect the sail shape. Outhaul: flattens the bottom third. Kicker: flattens the luff and rounds up the leach in the middle third. (And affects the outhaul) Cunningham: flattens the top of the sail, if you pull hard enough you can get the top batten completely flat.(And affects the outhaul!). Because you can only adjust the outhaul with k and c off, and the foot tightens when you pull them on, I'd suggest some serious calibration on the control line on the boom would be helpful. With C and K on hard, a mainsail dead flat along the boom means the bottom third of the sail is over flat in almost all conditions, but you don't have to ease much on the rope for it to turn into a spinnaker!

When the breeze is up the boats that can avoid excessive feathering go faster and end up going higher because the foils are working better. Morale: if it feels like you are fighting the boat change something!

On the way home I realised that I hadn't seen anyone raising the board in overpowered conditions: this would be worth testing say 4-6 inches might make the difference between staggering and flying upwind.

And in the evenings, it was great to chill out with a fun bunch of people, and get down to the serious issues like "which classes should be consigned to the dustbin for ever?".

Overall I found the boats interesting, fun, and rewarding to sail, and the sailors friendly and amazingly keen to share information and ideas with all their competitors. Thanks for the opportunity and
I sincerely hope to do some sailing with you next year.