By Ken Legler Practice Drills for Team Racing Most team racing drills fall into two categories; race and re-set and forced rounding combinations. There are plenty more but let’s start with these two. In race and re-set simply start a team race until one team has a big lead. The boat in first can sail … Read More
By Ken Legler Practice Drills for Team Racing Most team racing drills fall into two categories; race and re-set and forced rounding combinations. There are plenty more but let’s start with these two. In race and re-set simply start a team race until one team has a big lead. The boat in first can sail … Read More
Ken Legler, just retired from a multi-decade run as a successful championship college sailing coach, most notably at Tufts University, shares his notebook with Sail1Design in this Team Racing how-to series> Enjoy. Winter Teammate Meetings, By Ken Legler “Telling ‘em ain’t learning ‘em,” was the sage advice of Gary Bodie’s (famous sailing coach) grandfather. Before … Read More
By Airwaves writer Lucas Masiello Team racing adds an incredible amount of complexity to sailing tactics. While everything from fleet racing strategy applies to a team race, the tactics and what is important on the racecourse is very different. Because of this, as sailors, we need to augment our conversations from a fleet race mentality … Read More
By Airwaves writer Lucas Masiello As sailors, we participate in a sport that is uniquely dependent on the weather. Everything from wind shifts to puffs and lulls is all products of both large-scale and local meteorological factors. However, aside from offshore racers and elite level course racers, not too many sailors know what is going … Read More
By Airwaves Contributor Ken Legler “See that guy? Not only does he never foul, he never gets fouled,” said my Dad when I was 15. “That’s impossible,” I thought, not with so many tight races in these 9’ Dyer Dhow dinghies in racing we called Frostbiting. That guy, my dad was pointing to, was Roger … Read More
By Andrew Kerr Having recently sailed a 10 race series at Key West Race Week that featured a large part of the regatta with waves and cluster chop. Here is some strategy, tactics and boat handling key elements that can help your team sail a fast and consistent series when the waves are up. Pre-Race … Read More
By Airwaves writer Andrew Kerr Picture this: A team is approaching the weather mark in 3rd place on a tight starboard tack lay line , it looks like that with some good sailing they will make it around the mark ahead of 55 other teams and will be off and running with a good spinnaker set. … Read More
By Airwaves writer Rachel Bennung In high school and college sailing your start is one of the most important things. You may be thinking, well getting a good start is important in any race. You are correct, however, in high school and college sailing it is the key component to doing well in a race. … Read More
By Andrew Kerr Recently when thinking about how racers utilize time and distance, I customized a chart to use as a reference for 1 minute of sailing from either a starting line or a mark. The purpose was to help with both starting proficiency and with estimating the length of a starting line. It also … Read More
By Airwaves writer Eric Tobias (for part 1: https://www.sail1design.com/using-weather-dominate-competition/) (for part 2: https://www.sail1design.com/using-weather-dominate-competition-part-2-sea-breeze/) Precipitation Precipitation is an important factor to consider as a sailor. Rain doesn’t only mean that we might have to change gear or be ready to get wet; it could also signal changes in wind or act as a preview of the … Read More
By Airwaves writer Eric Tobias (Editors note: To start at the beginning of this great series, check out Part 1 here: https://www.sail1design.com/using-weather-dominate-competition/) Sea Breeze I was once racing a distance race, and we were probably about 30 hours into the race at this point. It was extremely light wind and we were beating to windward … Read More
Part 1: Surface Maps and Wind By Airwaves Writer Eric Tobias To move on to Part II, Sea Breeze, click HERE To skip to Part II, Precipitation, click HERE I was waiting at a train station in the rain the other day, and I overheard a woman complaining, “They said only 20% chance of rain … Read More