Jonesieblog

This season I’m crewing for John Hookway in his RS400 dinghy. This is what we might look like on a good day:

I only started sailing last year, so I have a lot to learn! I’ll try to share some of the thing I pick up along the way.

The first thing that has become painfully apparent to me is that you need to be fit - in particular to have good core strength, as you spend a lot of time hiking:

Photo by dinghyman

So far, it seems that my main tasks are:

• Acting as ballast - moving around to keep the boat level in the water.
• Tacking and jibing
• Keeping the jib trimmed correctly
• Hoisting and dropping the spinnaker, and flying it when it’s up
• Adjusting the outhaul - tight for upwind travel and slack for reaches.
• Keeping an eye open for stuff that the helm might have missed.

I’m not particularly good at any of these yet, but at least I’ve got some things to work on!  John is a patient teacher, and we will be winning by the time the Summer Series gets going

Stumble it!