I opted to get out before work this morning rather than race tonight because there was wind, and it looks like there will be no wind this evening.

The conditions were great, it was an even 10 – 14 kts from the north east which meant there were some waves to play in, and some stronger, gustier conditions at the north end of the bay thanks to our local geography.

Session focus and observations

Today was mostly a boat-speed session, but I did a load of tacking practice, and in the biggest gusts cracked off to have some reaching and surfing fun.

I worked on these things:

• keeping the boat dead flat upwind.
• actively powering up and depowering, i.e. applying kicker only when I needed to depower in the gusts, then easing it again in afterwards. Too much kicker for the wind strength kills boat speed.
• actively moving weight back and forward to get over the waves without slapping the hull
• keeping weight a little bit further back to get through the waves, toes a bit to the left of the RS Aero letters on the toestrap.
• getting the bow down (i.e. sailing lower) to get through larger wave sets then tightening up again
• with tacking, keeping my weight out of the toe straps as short a time as possible, focusing on the glide, only changing hands when the boat was dead flat and moving well, and generally keeping boat speed through the tack. Today I was throwing an arm above my head (holding tiller extension and mainsheet in the other hand) to get more weight out to bring the boat flat more quickly. That seemed to help.

Not surprisingly, I think keeping the boat flat was the single most important thing for boat speed, and I had plenty of times upwind through the waves where the boat was flying. Great fun.

How to keep the boat dead flat? Mostly that came down to:

• being very active on the main sheet; quickly easing in gusts rather than let the boat heel or pinch, then quickly sheeting back in. You have to be way more active than you think you need to be.
• hiking… hard.
• depowering when at max hike I couldn’t keep the boat flat.
• powering up again in the lulls, releasing the cunningham and easing kicker. Not doing that whilst hiking, risked the boat heeling or even capsizing to windward.
• Watching for and anticipating the gusts, reacting to use the extra wind for speed and height rather than allowing any heeling which is slow.

Recovering the boat solo in onshore waves

I had to recover the boat solo today, with some onshore waves. I’m super careful recovering the Aero in waves because any slapping onto the launch trolley can damage the boat.

I’ve attached some foam to the trolley cross member which does a couple of things; it protects the hull, and it floats the trolley up under the hull snugly, so that I can push both swiftly ashore (transom first). This is as opposed to letting a wave drop the boat onto the trolley which risks damage.

Having a floating trolley is less useful when there aren’t waves, but that’s a small inconvenience compared to damaging the boat, and the foam can be removed. Also, I always get the sail down, and remove the rudder so the only thing I’m managing is the hull in the waves.

Handling no water to hose the boat down

Probably like other clubs, we’re conserving water at this height of Summer. Also our water storage tanks are low.

Salt water eats boats, so what to do?

Fortunately the RS Aero is great for not corroding like an ILCA or other boats. I’ve had mine since 2020 and the only corrosion I’ve seen is to:

• clam cleats
• rudder stock tiller joint (I’ve written about that here)

Sure, normally I’d get all the salt off and give the boat a good hose down to also flush out sand and stones, but today I just used a small container of water to flush the clam cleats (including top mast cleat), kicker swivel, mast step, blocks, dagger board case and trolley axles where the wheels sit. I always take my rudder home so could rinse that thoroughly there.

That didn’t take much water, and I think I’ll bring a water container with me in case the club’s hoses are offline. We have this thing called a Mud Daddy for cleaning the dog which will be good for boat rinsing.