How much experience do I need to race? Q+A Live⛵️Your Catamaran Sailing Questions Answered

How much experience do I need to race? Q+A Live⛵️Your Catamaran Sailing Questions Answered

Yes hello that’s right it’s Joe here live for  Joy Rider TV back with some very interesting Q   and A and today we’re going in with what could  be quite a Hot Topic which is am I ready to hit  

The race course yeah it’s a big topic um because  a lot of you guys watching perhaps you’ve never   raced before you’ve done a fair bit of cat  sailing but never actually hit the race course  

So um to know if you’re ready to hit the race  course that’s quite a big deal because I know   if you haven’t done it before it can be quite  an intimidating Prospect um to get out there  

And mix it up with other boats so um I’ve I’ve  written some notes actually on a bit of paper   um and um it’s difficult to know where to start  in the whole thing but what um we could look at  

First is well what we’re going to break it down  into is you’re going to need a certain amount of   knowledge you’re going to need a certain amount  of control of your boat and once you’ve got that  

All you need is the actual competition to be  going on for you to be getting involved with   and I’m just going to say from the start it’s not  as intimidating as you think as long as um you’re  

Reasonably sensible about it so firstly there are  different levels at which you can race your boat   this is probably going to sound quite obvious to  those of you who have thought about this but at  

The most simple level of racing um it might just  be there’s you and one or more of your friends   who’ve got other boats and you say right let’s  go out and we’re gonna have a Race So oh the new  

Technology by the way uh magnet yes very nice I  know um yes so it might be right you’re you’re   standing on the beach you’ve got your boats and  you and your mates you say right let’s have a  

Little race um and there might be something out  here like there might be quite a convenient boy   out here there might be some sort of structure in  the water here there might be something else like  

A a boat that’s on an anchor here and you might  say all right so we’re going to go out we’re   all going to leave at the same time this is the  most simple easy lowest level of intimidation of  

Racing um the only thing to fear is if you think  you’re going to win if you don’t win that’s the   most that’s the thing that is the biggest uh bit  of Devastation in racing so you and the wind is  

From the top as always you go all right we’re  going to start off by going to the boys so you   have to tack out to the boy in racing by the way  we generally leave the marks on the leftand side  

It’s just the way that it is now the only times  when it’s generally not the leftand side is in   two styles of racing one is called match racing  which is two boats head-to-head like the America’s   Cup um the other style is long distance where  it might just work out that you’re going round  

The boys the other way so you go all right we’ll  go round that one round that one we’ll go around   there round that one again and then first one  back to to the beach is the winner so that is  

Very much the entry level of racing but it doesn’t  mean that you have to have done that before you go   in at the next level so the next level I would say  is what’s called Club racing which is usually if  

There’s a Sailing Club or somewhere like wildwind  sailing holidays um which has a fleet of boats um   most clubs or holiday places in fact will organize  a race day once a week uh where everybody can just  

Get out on the water and race so that would  be the next level again this is um quite an   un it’s less intimidating than the higher levels  because at a club in theory you would know other  

People there and those other people will be able  to help you um before you set off they might say   yeah this is what I’d recommend this is um the  sort of strategy you can apply if you need a  

Bit of strategy um and it’s very friendly at  Club level and there might of course at your   Club beat a couple of dingy Sailors who are really  into it who are not particularly friendly on the   water but you’ll soon learn who they are and  you’ll just stay away from them easy yeah so  

That would be the second level and um the co I  think as we go through these levels we’ll just   talk about what sort of course it might be so  in Club racing it could absolutely be anything  

Because maybe your Club um is on a river or um  a fairly narrow a a constrained Waterway let’s   call it so um you might be slightly restricted in  where the course is going to be uh because of the  

Geographical nature of where it is that you sail  so you might have like a a start line and then out   to a boy Round Here round here and then they say  right you finish between this boy and a building  

On land kind of thing might be like that uh at a  club level or it might be open sea might be on a   large lake anything at all um at Club level but  yeah you um yeah yeah all right so going up to  

The next level is um when boats from around your  area might be traveling to go to an event in the   UK we call this an open meeting um but it these  races could have all sorts of different names  

Like for example um in Ocean Springs Mississippi  USA starting on I believe it is the 4th of April   um is the mid Winters East um which is similar  the same kind of thing of as an open meeting  

Where boats will travel to the event um and  you generally get bigger numbers in the sort   of meetings so in an open meeting depending on  the class of boat it could be between maybe 10  

Boats if it’s a less popular class or it might be  as many as 30 or 40 boats if it is a popular class   hopefully at the mid Winters East um there’ll be  50 or 60 boats we’ll see I’ll be there um and then  

In all of the rest of these um categories  the course is fairly similar where you’ll   either have what’s known as an upwind downwind  course or a triangle course um so let’s just   talk about what the course would generally be in  this kind of race so you have a start line which  

Will be between a boat this might be a motorboat  or perhaps uh a yacht anything at all um and then   you have that’s your start line it might be a  boy it might just be a pole with a flag on it

M you’re gonna s you’re G to be asking how do  we find out well this is going to come into   the knowledge section of um what we’re talking  about and then the first Mark is what you’d call  

The Windwood mark because it is to Windwood of  where you starting from um and then a standard   course for Catamaran racing these days would  be to have you’ll either have one or two marks   we’ll keep it simple we’ll say we’ll have one  Mark just here uh the other side of the start  

Line and then the course would be something like  this you’d start and we’ll draw in the tacking   as well and jibing so from the start we go off  we ignore this Mark from the start again going  

Around this boy leaving it on the left side the  port side of the boat and then coming down wind   and we want to go round this boys so we J when  we’re at about 90 degrees round a boy and um in  

The sailing instructions which we’ll come on to  in a minute they’ll say how many laps it would   be so maybe it’s two laps good idea to count  we tack there go round for a second time and  

Then perhaps the finish line is the same of as  the start line and there we go easy um the the   course might vary but um this would be a standard  course from open level all the way through to the  

To the highest level so the next level after  open meeting kind of level might be a regional   championships like perhaps um your country has an  inland championships or um I think in Italy they   have what’s called uh Alpine cup which is like  on a mountain lake um Regional and then after  

Regional the top level event with in your country  would be a national championships which is where   all of the boats of a certain class are invited  to travel to a venue uh which would be a venue   with enough space for the expected amount of votes  and um then at the national championships everyone  

Races against each other and at the end of that  the new National Champion is declared lovely very   nice and then of course we could go above that  level to a above National level would be perhaps   European we have yeah you wouldn’t have that  in America so much not a Europeans but um in  

Europe would you believe we have a European  championships in most classes and then above   Europeans would be World Championships and then  above World Championships then you get in to the   heights of like the Olympic classes and um the top  of the whole thing would be the Olympic Games for  

The types of boat that we’re talking about on Joy  Rider TV yeah so those are the different levels of   um competition which you could attend now one type  of competition that I didn’t mention which would   kind of be somewhere between club and open kind  of level would are longdistance races now these  

Can be a great way of getting into some racing  if you haven’t done any racing before because   generally in Long Distance races the fleet is much  better much more spread out so in a long distance race you might have the same sort of start  line but then there might be a um geographical  

Feature that you’re going to sail around or um  you might be sailing around an island like in   the rondom tessla the biggest catamaran race  in the world um you might be sailing along a   coastline to the next venue uh to the the Finish  would be at the next point on the coastline many  

Different um formats for a longdistance race  it basically depends on what geographical   features are available in that place um but  a longdistance race could be anything from   I don’t know about 15 miles all the way up to  in a day maybe about 100 miles or something um  

Could be quite a long one uh just depends on the  event so that is also a consideration a type of event all right so I’m just going to check in with  everyone who’s checking in before we continue into  

Part two of um what experience do you need to get  into some racing so we got Mark and Janet on board   in Ohio 40 days until spring no ice on the lake  right now hoping for an early start oh yes we got  

Mr Tony k in Denmark uh great to have you with us  Mr Tony KP spicy fist one is on board as always   uh just helping to keep us all going okay we got  Jose who is in maau haven’t heard from Jose for a  

While um happy new Chinese year Happy Chinese New  Year uh Year of the Dragon in fact Jose says which   um maybe in the sort of boats that we’re talking  about out it’s Year of the Dragon yeah um so it’s  

Time for the kids to get on board um we got first  light sailing from gallano Island British Columbia   Canada great to have you with us Aaron’s here  from New Zealand good morning Aaron I believe  

It must be something like uh what half past 5 in  the morning where you are great job Leland Lee as   always tuning in from Clear Water Florida we got  Edward on board who uh says if uh we didn’t race  

We would not know how to gauge ourselves and how  well we were sailing yeah which is a very good   point which we could even say what is the point  of racing I like going out sailing and having a  

Nice time without the stress of other boats um in  the same like sailing in close proximity to where   I am but if you go through your whole sailing life  without ever sailing in reasonable proximity to   other boats you’re never really going to know  unless of course these days we’re using GPS’s  

To get on the speed stick but you never really  know how well you’re sailing your boat because   um there’s nothing better as a gauge for how well  you’re sailing your boat than another boat of the  

Same type typ uh which is near to you and either  you’re going to be going faster or they’re going   to be going faster or you might be going at the  same speed would you believe yeah so um yeah it’s  

A very good reason to start racing but another  good reason to start racing is it gives your   sailing session some real purpose and discipline  which means you have to be on the start line at a  

Certain time you’ve got to be starting the race  at a certain time you’ve got to sail around a   certain course so from perhaps your sailing life  is not so disciplined you just do what you like  

Which is nice because as we know it’s meant to  be fun um but a bit of discipline now and then   is going to make you a better sailor which do  you think you would have more fun in those fun  

Sessions if you were a better sailor perhaps you  would yeah so um those are some very good reasons   for uh doing some competition but for like going  to an open meeting like um the mid Winters East a  

Really good idea of going to something like that  would be especially if you haven’t been before if   you’ve never even considered racing there’ll be  a load of other sailors there a lot perhaps in   the same type of boat that you’ve got and it’s  a great way of looking at other people’s boats  

Like when they’re on the beach seeing how they’re  set up thinking oh I could do that’s a good idea   I could do that with my boat um and talking to  the other Sailors finding out if you and they  

Have similar issues with your boats or you’ve done  similar things and new ideas can come from these   get togethers of likeminded individuals and it’s  a great way of meeting people who might end up   being really good friends because of these Mutual  interests good reasons to get into a bit of racing  

Okay we’ve got Ryan on board in uh the Hawaiian  Islands yes we have um Ryan says hi all from the   deep pacific the bees are starting to swarm that  means we’re chasing the nectar let’s get after it  

All right nice one Ryan we’ve got um sorry I don’t  I my knowledge of reading the Russian language is   limited but um is it Hector from Russia uh nice  to have you on board hope um it’s not too cold  

Where you are right Leeland Lee says we race  twice a month at my club we got Max on board   in rosenheim Germany uh great to have you with  us Max always a pleasure uh never a chore um all  

Right I’m going to go on to the um the next part  of am I good enough to go to my first race so so   next bit is knowledge there are a few things  you need to know before you um be before you  

Actually get on the race course for the first  time so the first thing which is good to know   is the procedure of the whole thing so at these  different levels that we just talked about the  

Procedure is going to be different so at a mates  level it will just be like a couple of couple   of guys standing on the beach and you say we’re  going to go there there there right you get you  

Boat everybody on the water okay we ready let’s go  easy procedure then going up the procedure might   be slightly different so at Club level it might be  like right the race starts at 11 a.m. and at 10:  

A.m. there will be a briefing nice not all clubs  do this but some do and um you might have a   briefing when you go to an open meeting or to a  regional or national or any level of competition  

There should be some sort of race briefing on land  in good time before you need to actually be on the   start line and in the briefing what will usually  be there is um at the lower levels like at Club  

Level um or yeah Club level will be all right this  is the starting sequence but at Club level most   people will be racing their most weeks so you’d  know the starting sequence but it’s a good time  

To ask questions like if you haven’t raced there  before you could say uh could you let me know what   the starting sequence is so I think the starting  sequence is a good thing to know what you’d   usually have the starting sequence will come from  the starting boat or perhaps if you are sailing

Um at Club level the wind might blow side onto  your club and you might have a boy like here   and then you might have a a box on land with  a flag pole um and this is the start line like  

This but regardless of which type of start line  you’ve got um what’s likely to be is some sort   of Preparatory signal which would be at around  five minutes so it’s good idea to have a watch   with a um a countdown timer when you know what  your starting sequence is get your countdown  

Timer ready so set it to five minutes and then  when you go out for the start of the race park   your boat and wait for the five minute signal  this will usually be a sound signal accompanied  

By a flag or it’s actually a flag accompanied  by a sound signal when that sound signal goes   flag goes up you start your clock and then you  know that five minutes later you need to be   crossing the start line with good speed in the  right direction all right but we’re not going  

To go into tactics strategy or anything else  like that just now we’re just going through   the nuts and bolts of how to get around the  race course and what level of experience you   need so um yeah there’ll be other flags during  the starting sequence so um there’s likely to  

Be a second flag at four minutes with a sound  signal this is um really useful because you   might miss the first signal but you know the  flags are going to be different colors so the   second flag would probably be don’t know if it’s  everywhere but in a lot of places called the Blue

Peter which is a blue flag with a white square  in the middle uh blue Peter or P signal flag   that means Preparatory that would usually be  after the last flag the first flag that goes   up and then maybe there’ll be another flag on  one minute um but again at the race briefing  

This is where you’ll find this out now if  you are sailing at a slightly higher level   rather than having a race briefing to explain all  these things what you might have is what’s called   sailing instructions which is like a online or a  published like photocopied couple of pages which  

Just have numbered points and one of the points  will be this is the starting procedure this is   what the course is so it might be in sailing  instructions which you can actually read or   it might be at the race briefing um so before  you can race you need to know your starting  

Procedure which will either be in a briefing  or in your sailing instructions and you need   to know what the course is going to be um because  although you might think well I’m not going to be  

Winning I could just follow the other boats you  need to know it’s a good practice to know where   it is that you’re going like if we cast our  minds back to the what’s most important when  

We go sailing video I think we decided that what  is most important is where are you going so you   need to know even if you don’t think you are going  to be winning you still need to know where you’re  

Going um what else do we need to know before we  hit the race course yeah so our briefing it’s a   time when we can ask questions like what um is  the procedure for a shortened course they might  

Say in the sailing instructions uh it’s two laps  but what if the wind drops and there’s not enough   win to get around two laps the race committee will  still want to get a result from that race so they  

Might say okay if there’s a shortened course  we might move a mark make it actually shorter   in distance or we might have a sound signal with  a flag that means you only do one lap instead of  

Two that sort of thing things like that good to  know second thing we need to know are the rules   very important um because the point of the rules  is so that we can avoid collisions so the most  

Important rule there is is to know the rules but  to avoid collisions now the best way of avoiding   collisions uh while you’re out sailing two  things one is spatial awareness so to always know where the other boats are so if you’re lucky  enough to be sailing a boat with two people  

Then it can be the job of the crew on the boat  to be looking around all of the time and letting   the helm the person steering know all right we’ve  got boats there boats there we got boats there or  

They could just say no we’re clear we’re fine um  but um just feeding information about where the   other boats are because you need to know where the  other boats are otherwise you might actually have  

A collision or at best a last minute Panic of oh  gosh we’re about to hit that other boat we better   do an evasive maneuver that sort of thing so um  yeah avoid collisions by being spatially aware the  

Second way of avoiding collisions is by thinking  ahead so um like if um we get rid of these boys and this boat has right of way because he’s  on starboard attack the wind is coming over   the right side of the boat first um so  if this boat is being spatially aware he  

Knows that that boat is there and thinking  ahead so rather than leaving it until we’ve got a sort of near Collision um about to  happen so you have to do an emergency tack   by thinking ahead you could just alter  your course slightly say you s clear

Behind and avoiding the collision and not being  forced into a last minute maneuver like if you   can imagine if you have to tack your catamaran  and you’re not really ready for it what are the  

Chances of that tack being a good one not as  much that’s how much yeah so there we go um   knowing the rules just so you know there are three  main rules to know Porton starboard when we’re  

On opposite taxs like this there’s Windwood and  lewood so if one boat is going this way and one   boat is going this way this is a big example  um Porton starboard the boat on starboard Tac  

Has right of way so the boat on Port Tac has  to keep going Windwood and lewood um or lard   um the boat the lur boat has right of way so  the windward boat has to keep clear again we   can avoid collisions and last minute Maneuvers  by thinking ahead and being spatially aware the  

Third one and this is uh can be very relevant  in a mixed Fleet is overtaking boat keeps clear   so if this is you on your Hobe 20 formula and  there’s Little Billy sailing up ahead in his Optimist this situation seems fairly obvious  that the boat overtaking should keep clear but  

Um if you’re in two boats of a similar speed  the same rule applies that if you’re coming   from Clear behind you have to keep clear of  the boat in front there we go all right and  

Um the last thing we need to know before we go  racing as I said with the sailing instructions   and procedure of the whole thing is we need to  know where we’re going very important so also in  

The procedure of the whole thing how the races  run you then need to know when we finish the   race are we going to have another race or or  are we meant to go back to the beach because  

There are safety uh considerations that the race  committee have to take and a lot of the time if   there’s been a race they like to have the boats  to go back to the beach first um so that you can  

Or or at least let the committee boat know that  you’re staying out sailing um so that when you’re   not on the beach later on uh people don’t start  worrying we’ve lost the boat that kind of thing  

But knowing how many races there are GNA be very  important stuff so that kind of thing um all right   hope everybody’s enjoying this great insight  into are you ready to go and race just going   to go back to the live um questions all right  Leland Lee says any methods to weighing my Hobe  

16 um yeah we could quickly go into that yeah it’s  not easy actually um you’d need to I suppose the obvious you see at a World Championships  incidentally they do occasionally depends   on the class they might weigh your boat  where they actually put your boat on um  

Four like kind of like bathroom scales but  four scales which are all linked together   through cables um so they get an accurate  reading for how heavy your boat is but um   the easiest way of weighing your boat might  be um to do it to get an accurate idea with

Normal um let’s call them things yeah I  would probably go this is gonna this is   the best that I could come up with just  thinking about it now if this is our boat   like this there’s the beam um we want to get  a strap or a a good rope which we can somehow  

Support the boat with so like make a bridal  with rope like this maybe from the back as   well and it will take a bit of trial and error  because what we’re actually going to try to do  

Is pick the whole boat up so we need to have a  strong tree this is the best that I could come   up with on the spot there Le uh strong tree  there’s the branch of the tree the strong

Bit and then we put a rope or a strap around  the strong tree then we could put our um main   sheet blocks upside down so the cleat is on the  top one and then onto the main sheet blocks we  

Put like a big um scale that can weigh up to  I I would go up to 200 kilos that would be a   good range on there um but you want to have  that scale where you’re going to be able to  

See the gauge yeah and then that attaches to  this elaborate Bridal that you’ve put on your boat and then you pull the main sheet hoisting  the boat off the ground and that will give you   a that’ll be actually a pretty accurate how much  does it weigh but without the Mast you might have  

To weigh the Mast separately because with this  hanging boat configuration it might be difficult   to balance it with the Mast on the boat as well  so that would be option a option b would be to   weigh all the component parts individually which  you could do either with a hanging scale or with  

Like a a bathroom style scale that can go up to I  think you’d only need to go up to about 60 kg with   a kind of bathroom sort of scale which bathroom  sort of scales do go up that High um as we know  

Uh more 300 maybe um yeah that would be option b  uh option C if we just want to get a rough idea   of how much the boat weighs we could have one  hole on the floor have the other hole resting  

On these bathroom scales and see what it says  and then we’d have to do a bit of a guess for   you know someone from the science department I’m  sure could come up with a better uh way of doing  

This but if you’ve got an idea in fact and you’re  watching this um do put it in the comments below   what would you do to weigh your boat there you are  all right back to the live chat I hope that helps  

A bit we got to on board in Texas great to have  you with us too um Ryan says anyone gets sailing   insurance for taking people out on the water I  just got quoted $1,500 for two days curious if  

Anyone has leads on cheaper insurance companies  yeah usually you’re um if you’re doing it in a   non-commercial way and you’re just taking friends  out on the water I know in America um insurance is  

A Hot Topic because um um you can get in trouble  if somebody uh breaks a a finger or something but   um in the UK for example you ensure your boat  which I don’t know what a premium is these days  

Maybe about 500 pounds for the year and that  covers you for all the time that you go sailing   if you syn somebody else’s boat while you’re out  sailing and um it covers you and your um sailing  

Partner for if something happens while out on  the water so I don’t know what you need there the   other thing you might be worth looking at is some  sort of liability insurance if you’re taking many  

People out and you are concerned then maybe for  something like 200 I did speak to someone at the   German Boat Show and um about my own situation  with going sailing with people um for some Li  

Ability insurance and I got quoted about 300 for a  year to be able to take people out professionally   uh giving them instruction and things so I’m sure  that kind of thing should work so uh worth having  

A look at there all right so we’ve got kenure on  board oh it’s Phillip from Brussels great to have   you with us Phillip nice to have you on board Paul  on board in Ottawa Canada all right so spicy fist  

One says total newcomer to racing is it better  to have a rolling start trying to time the line   or just sit behind the line in irons waiting for  the start all right yeah this is a good question um now what it depends on is the  consistency of the wind and your  

Ability to control your speed  so if we’ve got our start line here we want to be rolling at the time of the  start so that’s the first thing but um what we   want to um look at is when we put the boat into  motion because we don’t want to be just constantly  

Going up here all right we’re a bit early all  right let’s go round again Jive go up here and   just keep going all of the time instead what we  want to do as a strategy for the start and this  

Is a good way to start off is do some practice  good thing to do before you actually hit your   first start line even if it means on the day of  your first race just get out 20 minutes minutes  

Early or 15 minutes early and just have a trial  run of sailing through the start line and see how   it feels to actually have to sail through this  Gap you may be wondering how big will this be  

It’s meant to be one and a half boat lengths long  um per boat in the fleet so if you’ve got let’s   do easy maths 20 boats in the fleet that would  then be 30 boat lengths long the start line which  

Would be more than enough space for everybody to  cross the start line at the same time but what I   would suggest when you’re first getting into the  racing is depending on the amount of wind have a  

Few practices see what works for you but put your  boat down here and then Park up so uh you could   park up by letting the main Sail Out possibly  put the jib on the wrong side and then push the  

Rudders across that’s the best way to park your  boat you may feel uh that maybe we’re not going   to push the Rudders across quite as hard what’s  nice to do sometimes is just to keep the boat   going forwards very slowly because when the boat’s  going forwards that means we can steer which can  

Be quite valuable but if you’re parked sat still  on starboard attack so the wind is coming over the   right side of the boat first then the only time  another boat will actually have right of way on  

You is if they are right next to you underneath  here and they decide they want to save s up that   way a bit more then you might have to sail up that  way as well because they’ve got right of way so  

Sit here and then depending on the number of boats  that are also starting basically the more boats   that are starting you are going to have to move  forwards earlier because otherwise everybody else   is just going to get in front of you but the fewer  boats that are sailing that are starting you can  

Start a bit later and uh from back here get your  boat up to speed but gradually bring the jib onto   the other side straighten up the Rudders let the  boat start sailing and then slowly start bringing  

Your main sail in timing it um perhaps you feel  that you’re getting to the start line a bit too   soon let the main sail out if that doesn’t slow  you down enough head up towards the wind of course  

You can only do that if there’s enough space  up here um and uh then just use that slowing   down if you need to speed up a bit maybe bear off  slightly or that could be another strategy if you  

Are too early and you think we’re going to cross  the line but there’s loads of space down here you   could bear off into this space which yes you’re  going to go faster but no you’re not going to  

Cross the start line as early as long as you’ve  got that space But if it is your first time out   on the race course and there are several other  boats there you don’t have to feel that you need  

To start with the other boats you could just  get in your position down here let the other   boats go off a bit if it’s looking a bit crowded  and then sheet in once you’ve got space and start  

Going forwards now with this position the one  thing that we do want to make sure is that we   put our boat in a position where we don’t have to  tack before the start so if we put our boat down

Here we’re not going to be able to get across  the start line so we’re going to have to tack   once and then here on this Tac wind is coming  over the left side first that means we’re on  

Port Tac which means all of the boats coming this  way have right of way so we don’t really want to   start on Port Tac not the first time anyway uh  so we have to attack again so it’s better to put  

Your boat kind of behind the committee boat maybe  a good position depending again on the amount of   boats in the fleet the good position between 10  and 5 boat lengths behind the committee boat so  

Then you can hit the start line in the middle and  off we go there we go all right I hope everyone’s   uh enjoying uh getting into some racing so  uh we got Kevin on board in Illinois great  

To have you with us Kevin um I’ll be seeing you  in Ocean Springs Mississippi looking forward to   it already um right first light sailing says  this is addressed to spicy fist you can always   Park then ride timing the line will gain you 30  seconds to a minute of Advantage so it’ll depend  

For that particular kind of racing you’re doing  uh for example a longdistance race might not be   worth it yet if you try to come in at speed from  far back and you don’t have this ability to bear  

Away if you’re early being over the start line  before this timing has expired um means you’ll   be early on the start line which will probably  mean that most times it means that you have to   recross the start line and most times um well  not most times sometimes if you’re early you  

Can just duck back under the start line like that  but if there’s other boats there you’re not going   to have any rights so difficult um the other way  that it might be in the sailing instructions is  

After the start if you’re early you have to go  round the end and then restart that’s generally   a bit safer and especially if it’s a fairly um  competitive Fleet they might say there’s around  

The ends ru there we go all right Johan 66 nice to  have you with us says put a race signals sticker   on your boat yeah good idea if um yeah so that  you can get these stickers which have all of the  

Flags and what they’re called on there so that  when the race committee says all right on five   minutes we’re putting up a w flag for example  you’ll know what a w flag looks like that kind  

Of thing all right uh toot says if you want to do  well in racing hit the like button on this video   thanks toot good F good thinking all right Paul is  on board oh in Ottawa Canada I was in a position  

Last year uh where a guy tacked in front of me  in the starting box he was Leeward and pushed me   up into the race committee yeah probably it does  sound from that brief description that he didn’t  

Have rights to do that and um what good question  uh that nobody asked but I’m going to answer it   anyway what happens if a rule is broken perhaps  you’ve broken a rule um you wouldn’t obviously  

Do it deliberately because you’re all good people  but um if you break a rule two things depending on   how serious it was one is that you can exonerate  yourself you can make it all better by performing   a penalty turn which in camaran racing is  usually a 360 degree turn which if you’re  

If you’re sailing up here or let’s um let’s get  this fell out so if we’re sailing along a penalty   turn would be like this you have to tack bearway  Jive and then back on to your original course so  

A 360 which includes one Tack and one jib um the  other thing that might happen if you’ve broken a   rule especially if you didn’t do a penalty turn is  you might get protested where um the boat that you  

Infringe Will shout protest and then depending  on the level of the competition of course you   might have to go to a protest hearing where it’s  basically like being at school in front of the   Headmaster uh the person who’s complaining the  person who was meant to have done it wrong and  

Between you all you decide if you were wrong  or not and if you were wrong you might just   get disqualified from that race it’s quite a  valuable learning experience but um the problem   with protest hearings are usually at the time when  the pro protest hearings going on that’s when you  

Want to be drinking a cold beer that’s a problem  um yeah so there we go all right we got hands on   board nice to have you with us Hans hope it’s all  good in Germany he says weighing the boat put it  

On the trailer and then drive to the scales that’s  of course if you got those big scales for weighing Vehicles right Charlie’s with us hi Charlie  nice to have you on board um all right and   then uh Hans continues take the boat off the  trailer go and weigh your trailer and calculate  

The difference yeah that would be if you’ve got  these big scales which are I think they’re for   weighing trucks then that would be a really good  way of uh weighing your boat all right uh Benny in  

Sweden is signing in good evening Benny yoins  here in AR Tina I believe uh nice to have you   on board also all right here’s what Charlie says  you sit on the line and then at about five or 10  

Seconds you would do a trigger pull on the line  trigger pull meaning you get the boat going as   fast as possible as quickly as possible then  you give some good speed that’s what I do on  

My boat um yeah very effective so depends on  the type of boat the amount of wind and the   amount of other boats and how confident you’re  feeling as well the more confident you feel the  

More you can kind of push it so this question  has lasted the whole Q&A by the way very good   uh thanks to everybody for staying with us so  in conclusion to this question um in terms of  

Your actual sailing skills how good do you need  to be before you can hit the race course it’s   all about control the first thing is you need  to have the ability to sail your boat around a  

Course so um ideally you can sail your your boat  around the two types of courses which we mentioned earlier which would be around  an upwind and downwind course   so you need to be able to get your boat around the

Course like this have ideally you’ll have  practiced a little bit uh at least sailing   around boys when we go around a boy we want  to go in wide come out tight um ideally but   most importantly is when we go around a boy  we want to be letting the sales out as we go  

Around because as we know when we’re sailing  downwind we want the sales out so upwind we   want the sales in so as we turn around the boy  letting the sales out um we need to uh have in   our mind different strategies for getting round  the course depending on what’s happening cuz  

Like for example off the start line you might  have ended up over here so then you need to   be able to work it out all right if we tack here  we’ll go this way and then we’ll tack again over  

Here so you just need to be able to uh kind  of visualize your method of getting round the   course and have the control to be able to sail  around the course so around an upwind downwind   course Maybe around a triangular course like  this which would be similar except down here  

It would take any decision making out of it for  you when it is time to J because there’s a boy   instead um and then the other bit of actual boat  uh handling skills that you need is the ability to  

Stop and start your boat so um watch the video on  going into irons uh which I think the video might   have been called stopping your boat um because  you need to be able to stop your boat and then  

After you’ve stopped it you need to be able to  start again there we go so I think if you can do   all that in the amount of wind that is on the day  of the racing then you are good to go and hit the  

Race course like I said earlier you don’t have to  absolutely go in pistols blazing um expecting to   mix it up with everybody else you can hang back  a little bit just keep your eyes open for other  

Boats look at what the other boats are doing copy  them if you uh think that’s applicable uh like the   direction that they’re sailing in think oh okay  we can sail a bit closer to the because they are  

Nice and that means you’re going to gain so  much experience from even your first day on   the race course and you know maybe it won’t go so  well maybe things will go wrong maybe um you’ll  

Finish a long way after the other boats but the  way to get something out of that is if you can   kind of analyze as it’s happening if you can kind  of be thinking so why is it that they’re doing so  

They’re going so much better than us and you know  if you can take one thing away from a bad result   then that makes it positive because next time  you can um apply what you’ve learned and perhaps  

You finish behind the other boats but you really  don’t know why then that is what the Sailing Club   bar is for where you could go and have a drink  afterwards talk to the other Sailors and say um

Do you have any idea of um why I didn’t do very  well in that race because I can’t work it out uh   they might say yeah um you just weren’t sailing  uh up wind as close to the wind as you could have  

Been something like that might say one of your  Rudders was halfway up something like that there   we go so I think if you’re confident to be able  to sail around a course stop and start your boat  

Get the knowledge get on the race course I think  it’s a great opportunity to boost your skills try   it when it’s convenient and then you can see  if you like it because without trying how do  

You know if you like it or not there we are all  right I’m going to wrap that up there um on the   racing all right one more from spicy fist who  says is there a standard Direction one goes  

Around a boy oh yeah uh you must have missed this  from earlier yeah in racing generally we always   leave the boy on the leftand side of the boat um  but again this is what your sailing instructions  

Or your race briefing are going to uh tell you  which way you go around the boy but basically   um I can’t think so much of an um example of  when it wouldn’t work you have to imagine that  

You’re actually putting a a piece of string  around all of the marks of the race course so   um you wouldn’t go down here and then kind of  round here like this it has to be The Logical  

Way there we go okay so I think I’m going to wrap  that up there thanks to everybody for tuning in um and um oh yeah gosh I almost forgot we’ve  got something very exciting coming up would you  

Believe thanks for staying with me there there was  a bit of a silence because I was trying to think   about what it was that I was meant to announce  yes um I’m collaborating with Whirlwind sales  

In San Diego probably the best place in the USA to  get non-original hobiecat sales from um because uh   chip has kindly offered chip is the head salemaker  at Whirlwind sales he has kindly offered to make  

Me a set of sales um but the problem is at  Whirlwind sales you’ve got way too much choice   of what what color the sales can be so gonna  launch on Sunday I’m G to launch a competition  

Where you guys are going to design the sales and  then I’m going to look at everybody’s designs and   um whichever ones I’m going to between myself  and Chip the salemaker whichever ones are we   decide are the best designed sales colors they’re  going to be the winner there’s going to be prizes  

Involved so I’d like everybody to get involved  because um the more people that if only two   people get involved and their sale color choices  are bad that means I’m going to be stuck with bad  

Sale colors for all of the videos on Joy Rider  TV in the next couple of years is so please get   involved because the more of you that get involved  the more chance there is that we’re going to come  

Across an absolute pearler of a color scheme for  a set of Hobie 16 sales so get involved we’re   launching that on Sunday so check out the video  on Sunday and get involved because that would  

Be great um thank you very much and I’m going to  chip off there just like to say hello to Ian who’s   just tuned in in pemr Shire UK nice to have you  with us in and uh toot says hit the like button  

On your way out and I’ll see you on Sunday for the  launch of this massive it is a competition prizes   are involved I’ll let you know more about it on  Sunday thanks very much see you soon see you on Sunday

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