Tips for upwind sailing?
Hello all, I have recently started sailing a solo at club level racing (Southshields). There is quite a strong laser dinghy presence and some solos which is great. The last race I did was very challenging - I could not get the solo to point to windward as high as the other racers and trying to figure out why. It seemed I could only get power heading 10-20 degrees further down wind than the rest of the fleet.
I suspect that my settings were not correct. It was a good breeze 15-18 knots with gusts of 25-30 (probably the strongest I have sailed in yet). I had the kicker on as hard as I could, the same with the outhaul and the cunningham too. The one factor I did not try (as I was too busy enjoying all the rolling and spilling caused by wind over tide) was the center board which was fully down the while time. Off the wind I had tons of power, but as soon as I headed a bit upwind it was like someone flicked a switch and boat stopped moving.
Many thanks,
Robin
Hi Robin, I hope you’re still sailing your Solo and that these comments helped.
I’m the new Solo Northern Rep and I’d love to hear from you as a recently keen Northerner and also as we don’t reach the North East with the Northern area series, something I d like to change
Andy Carter 07789526104