Andreas Josenhans holds court at Chester Race Week

by Katie Nicoll on 13 Aug 2010 For the past three years, several mornings during Chester Race Week, PRO Andreas Josenhans, holds court. At 0930 hours, he sits down in a Muskoka type chair and divvies out go fast advice to competitors. Here are some of his helpful hints:

1. Clean your bottom!.... the bottom of your boat that is!... NOTHING is slower.
2. Get everything off the boat that you don't need. Extra weight is slow.
3. Make sure that the numbers on your sails match AND that they are the same numbers you have given the Race Committee.
4. Bluntness of the bow comes away at the knuckle. You need to have people forward of the knuckle in light air so that the back end of the boat is out of the water (where most of the wetted surface of the boat is and the drag).
5. The Centre of gravity is in the middle of the boat, over the keel, and that's where you want your crew downwind.
6. If you have people not doing anything in light air, send them below. Make sure you have good reading material and food down there to keep them happy.
7. The more the breeze, the less the mast should fall off to leeward. The true test in 19 knots of breeze is that the leeward most shroud is hard when going upwind.
8. Tune your mast! Take some time to ensure that the mast is straight moving up from one set of spreaders to the next.
9. The bigger the breeze, the shorter your headstay should be
10. Clean your turnbuckles – use a silicone based product (the best one on the market is Landakote, which smells like sheep oil