Your recommendations please....

[crazyuncle]

Finding myself with lots of free time over the next few weeks I want to get onto the water as much as possible. I don't have anyone to sail with so what drills would you recommend? My priorities are:
1. Boat handling
2. Downwind mark rounding
3. Starts (especially accelerating from stop to full speed)
Thanks
John

 

[Murphs]

use some moorings to practice mark roundings

for starting, sail up next to a mooring or mark and stay next to it for as long as possible (as you would on a startline)

when you can do that for 1-2 mins, start timing it and practice sculling out of irons to below close hauled (10-15 degrees), then pull the sail on hard (not before, its sloooooowww) then go back up to close hauled. if you can do this a few times it will allow you to get a good guage on how long it takes you to accelerate from a standstill so you can kill starts

 

[Rawson]

For boat handling I find long upwind legs of tacking every 20 secs is good exercise and practice, hard to practice boat handling without others around

For downwind pick a buoy and jsut do it continuely until its perfect