29 March 2015
Event date: 21/22 March 2015
With a Fireball Worlds in the UK this year, there was considerable enthusiasm for an early training event to start the racing season. Tim Rush of North Sails volunteered to run 2 days of training for South West sailors at Chew Valley Lake SC.
The training kicked off on Saturday morning with some boat handling exercises and a number of short races. The sun gradually broke through cloud to relieve the chilly temperatures and allowed some great sailing in a northerly F3 to F4.
Over lunch, video analysis of the morning's sailing was used to look at everyone's rig set-up and sail trim. Tim has an exceptional understanding of rig set up and shared some great techniques to maximise speed and pointing, going beyond the primary controls, such as kicker, to look at the effect of different rig tensions on mainsail shape.
In the afternoon we went back on the water for numerous short races, which helped to sharpen our starting skills and speed off the line.
Sunday morning provided sunny sailing, but in lighter conditions. Tim split the fleet into 3 groups. Each group used one of three approaches for a race: sticking to an overall race strategy, following the wind shifts or applying fleet tactics. Analysing the performance of each group provided a great illustration of when following one approach worked well and when it didn't.
The day finished with roll tack practice, with video footage providing an illustration of some good technique and some less good. Heeling until the boat's gunwale kisses the water is good, but heeling until the helm and crew are on the centreboard is much less good (names omitted to protect the guilty).
Many thanks from all the Fireball sailors to Tim, North Sails and Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club for an excellent training event.
The next event in the Fireball calendar is the Staunton Harold SC Open meeting on 28/29 March.
