I was navigating on the 80-footer Beau Geste on the Round New Caledonia Race, steaming towards a reef system when suddenly all the systems went down. We were on a…
5 tips – Essential yacht racing skills
There are places to be gained on every corner of the race course and in our 5 tips collection, we ask top yacht racers to give us their hard-won advice on how to deal with a variety of yacht racing challenges, from mark roundings and groundings, to sail trim and protests.
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Musto will will help you to stay focussed on your racing, whether you’re trying to get an inside mark rounding, clear wind at the start of a race, gain height on the windward leg or get better headsail trim.
Musto and these expert racing tips are an indispensable when it comes to getting to the head of the fleet.
How to check your depth sensor calibration (and why you need to)
It’s the second day of a race weekend, an early season shakedown for boat and crew. A pleasant 12-14 knots is blowing from the eastern entrance of the Solent. The…
5 expert tips: How to be a yacht’s watch leader
Although he’s the crew boss and watch captain of 100ft Maxi yacht Scallywag in his own right, Pete Cumming is always eager to learn from the best. After operating as…
5 Expert Tips: How to recover from a bad race
You learn more from your mistakes than from your successes. But when you’ve had a bad result, how do you get past the negative emotion and start turning that into…
5 expert tips to help you better understand sailing heel angles
Keelboat sailors obsess about maintaining the optimum angle of heel. According to Chris ‘Twiggy’ Grube, it’s a good obsession to have, and keeping consistently to that ideal heel is a…
5 Expert Tips: Your complete guide to mainsail trimming
Experienced sailor though he may be, Alain Sign has had his hands full getting to grips with the role of mainsheet trimmer in a fleet as competitive as the Cape…
The secret to double-handed offshore racing success
Three years ago a Sun Fast 3300 called Red Ruby, whose American owners come from the Pacific North West, popped up in UK double-handed races. It immediately notched up a…
5 Expert tips: How to perfect a time on distance sailing start
When I go out on the Solent to go racing, I often see a lot of boats not even doing a single practice run before the start,” says Ian Williams.…
5 expert tips: How to hold a lane upwind
Learning to live in a thin lane is one of the key skills that separate the great from the good. As Henry Wetherell explains, having boats tight to windward and…
5 expert tips: A professional’s guide to weather routing
Whether you’re preparing for a race or even just a leg of a longer race, there’s always a process for planning your routing, says Si Fi. “I’ll start looking at…
5 expert tips: How to prepare for a cold front when sailing offshore
Hugh Brayshaw wasn’t long into his offshore career before he encountered the importance of negotiating a cold front in the right way. “It was the first leg of the 2017…
5 Expert Tips: Tidal planning and strategy
“We’re all tadpoles swimming in a stream,” says Tom Dolan of single-handed offshore racing. With so many human, technical and environmental factors feeding into overall performance on the race course,…
5 expert tips for sailing in cold weather
Unlike most of us, Bob Beggs seeks out extreme cold and is currently planning his next yachting venture into the Arctic Circle. “When I was in the Commandos I did…
5 expert tips for catamaran racing
Modern cruiser/racer multihulls have a high level of safety provided you know what you’re doing. Helena Darvelid has taken all of her experience from world record-breaking passages in all-out speed…
5 expert tips: Guide to asymmetric spinnaker handling
One of the most significant advantages of racing with asymmetric kites is the simplicity of asymmetric spinnaker handling compared with symmetrical spinnakers. But the finer details of how to get…
5 expert tips: How to build a great sailing crew
Every crew has its own DNA, its own ecosystem. Making that the best and healthiest crew dynamic possible is a big part of what interests Richard Parslow. “Psychology is a…
Expert sailing skills: How to be a great crew boss
Being an effective crew boss relies on good preparation and a great sense of timing, says Annie Lush. “The role basically comes down to organising manoeuvres, so it’s about having…
The 10 modern and updated golden rules for line handling
They say that most accidents happen in the home, and I’d hazard a guess that the same is true for sailing. Of the accidents I’ve witnessed over the years, a…
5 top tips: Sailing upwind in survival conditions
Across 45,000 miles of steering around the world on the Clipper Race, sailing upwind safely in survival conditions becomes routine. But it’s something never to be taken for granted, and…
5 expert tips: How to hold a lane upwind
When you’re competing in a big fleet, it’s not the winning races that marks out the great from the good. It’s the ability to bounce back from bad positions and…