Topper 4.2 Training Team at ASC Porsmouth
by Daniel Cullen 20 Feb 23:19 PST
17-18 February 2024
4.2 training at ASC Portsmouth © Sarah Williams
This weekend, the ITCA 4.2 team met up at the Andrew Simpson Centre for the first time after a long break, in February. The team had been unfortunately narrowed due to winter illness; however, it was still a productive weekend for everyone. The focus of the weekend: boat speed!
On the very first day, the team went out for one long session because the tide was going to come in at 3, making it very tiring. In the briefing, we discussed a circle where if you feel a gust then you can lean out and put more weight outside of the boat, speeding you up, and then pull your sail in, and if the gust dissipates then you do the opposite, letting your sail off and leaning back into the boat. We started with experimenting with sail controls upwind, and then experimenting and going back downwind. On the whole, we found that on upwind, the most effective controls were kicker on fully, the outhaul half way to ¾ of the way on, the mainsheet fully in, and the downhaul relatively tight, depending on how heavy you were. After that, we then did rabbit runs, and ate lunch on the water, when we looked up and saw a cold and warm front coming in. After lunch, we went all the way upwind, and went all the way downwind, ending a very productive session.
On the second day, we got to briefing at 9, an early start. We had a briefing and went out at about 10:15, where we did more experimenting and even tried some blindfolded sailing to get a feel of the boat! After that we came in for lunch at 12:15, having a de-brief until 12:30 and having a 20-minute lunch until 12:50 and having another 15-minute briefing before going out and ending the weekend with some racing. We went out and did 3 races, based on boat speed so there was minimal tactics involved, and after 3 races we all headed in after a very fun and productive weekend. I can't wait for the next one!