Tag: rs aero

16th July – RS Aero Training Session

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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.

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Hunting for wind before work

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Wind conditions in Swanage Bay in the Summer can be weird. Our local geography gives us offshore sea breezes which cancel out the easterlies such as we’ve had recently. There’s also this thing where the surrounding areas up the hills where I live have plenty of wind, but the bay is calm. Frustrating, especially when I see that Poole Harbour has sailable wind.

I figure over the Summer when there is no wind in the Bay, I’ll either do SUPing or windsurf nearby in Bramblebush Bay.

Continuing the curious weather theme, here are some photos of an interesting day last week. That day we had a cold sea breeze hitting damp air in the bay or near land, causing it to condense.

I’m hunting for wind to sail in before or after work currently, and was on the water at 6.30am this morning (left picture below). There was enough wind for the RS Aero 9, with hiking conditions in the gusts.

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RS Aero Tiller and Rudder Stock Corrosion. Stored in Boat vs at Home

Published on by Klaus Harris1 Comment

My Aero will be six this year and I can share some interesting pictures of two rudder stocks + tillers that I’ve had.

My first was damaged in the boat park and was replaced around two and a half years ago, so they have both now had about the same use.

I have a sea boat, and while both were rinsed the same after sailing, the top one was left in the boat whereas the bottom one lives at home in my office.

A striking difference.

In the picture below, the top one is the home stored rudder, the bottom was boat stored. They don’t look that different at first glance, but there is more corrosion on the bottom one which also has some swelling.

Here’s a close up of old boat stored one.

In conclusion, if you can, don’t store the rudder in the boat if you sail in the sea.

Fortunately the RS Aero is pretty good for corrosion compared to an ILCA/Laser that has metal spars.

RS Aero spars are corrosion proof, and the only things that appear to corrode are the deck clam cleats, mast top clam cleat and the tiller / rudder stock.

Get Your RS Aero Ready for the New Season

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With the new season just around the corner, I thought I’d share some pre-season preparation tips.

1. Replace the halyard or halyard top

If you’re an active RS Aero sailor, it’s probably a good idea to get a new halyard every season, or at a minimum replace the halyard top.

When the halyard top wears, it won’t hold so well in the mast top cleat. My halyard tail has broken a couple of times over the years, each time just below the knot or splice depending which halyard type I was using.

The halyward tail broke again recently – and since it was starting to slip anyway – I tried Sammy Isaacs-Johnson’s suggestion to use the Rooster RS Aero Halyard upgrade. This works a treat, holds tight, is easy to pull through the mast top bullseye and I was able to reuse the halyard tail.

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My Top RS Aero Sailing Learnings in 2025

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I did more training events than competition events in 2025 and it feels like things are starting to click. My race results are improving nicely too. If I had to choose the top learnings of 2025, it’d be these:

1. Keep the boat flat

Nothing new here, we all know to keep the boat flat, but doing it well and consistently really is key. Flat as in not heeling.

Doing this is relatively easy to improve as it comes down to technique and fitness, both of which can be worked on.

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Christmas Gift Ideas for Dinghy Sailors 2025

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At last I’ve gotten round to writing this Christmas gift idea list.

For context, I’m a dinghy sailor who regularly sails an RS Aero, ILCA, and 2000, plus the usual mix of boats when instructing. I sail solo a lot in coastal waters, so everything I rely on for safety is included in this list. I also use it for SUP’ing too.

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RS Aero Training Felpham UK, October 2025

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The RS Aero Youth and Adult training season 2025/26 started last week, the first one was at Felpham SC on the UK south coast.

We ended up shore based both days because of the conditions for launching, but nevertheless, thanks to our two coaches Sammy Isaacs-Johnson and George Cousins, a great training group and super facilities, it was a brilliant weekend.

Training weekends like this remind me of the master classes I used to do many years ago when I was a classical musician (guitar), where ‘ah ha’ moments would have major shifts on my playing. I had a couple of those ‘ah has’ this weekend.

Loose kicker, open leech
A little kicker, lifted leech, no mast bend
More kicker, mast starting to bend, flatter sail, (more so higher up) leech opening again
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RS Aero Worlds 2024

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Links

There seems to be a rhythm to my sailing year and there is always one big event that focuses my training for the year. In 2024 it was the RS Aero world championships in August at Hayling Island, a five-day event.

I’d trained hard and was in pretty good shape going into the event, and went with the 7m rig which is my natural rig size. The wind turned out to be light for most of the days, so I could probably have stepped up to the 9m rig.

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Starcross Steamer Jan 2023

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Last Sunday saw the first race and first open event of 2023, the Starcross Steamer, a handicap pursuit race on the Exe estuary in the UK.

Pursuit races are a great fun race format. All boat classes have a handicap, the race has a fixed length (e.g. 150 mins), slower boats start first, faster boats later with the idea being everyone is trying to catch up to and overtake everyone else. After the fixed race time, the race is stopped, and positions are taken by the safety boats.

It was an early start to the day, and we were rewarded with some lovely views.

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