Recent content by cabalar

Hi everybody, I'm from Spain but I'll visit Vancouver during May. I was wondering whether anyone knows some sailing shop close to downtown where I can buy laser parts. My closer retailer is more than 600 miles away, so I would save shipping costs and possibly take benefit of the currency...

Hello everybody, today afternoon I've been installing an inspection port in my laser, because it's getting water through the mast step and I plan to make some repair work, following the instructions in other threads in this forum. The port is already installed but I have to prove it with a...

In the race there was another sailor with whom I usually sail and he has a similar technique level. Typically, he is slightly faster than me, but has less experience in buoys, tacking/gybing and tactics. We usually sail in shorter fields, so I take benefit from these little advantages to balance...

Thank you for all your answers! I'm happy to read that, perhaps, the boat is not the problem, or at least, the main problem. I was really sad when thinking about a change of boat. I can't say accurately. I used a home balance and it seems that it could be around 140/143 lbs. The sail...

One of them (the one who observed that the hull was weighty) has directly suggested me to sell my boat and buy something else. Of course, when you're the last boat, nobody "observes" the way you sail :-( I don't think I pinch too much: perhaps the problem can be the opposite one, I don't know...

Hi all, it's the second time I ask something similar, but I'm getting a bit desperate. I'm making a horrible performance in upwind legs, especially with medium wind (11-15 knots) and choppy water. By "horrible" I mean that even making a good start, I'm the last boat after the first 200 meters...

In the meanwhile I've been searching the web and finally found these recommendations from the RYA. They agree with most of you in warming up before sailing and stretching afterwards. Compared to other sports, the warming up seems to be mostly focused on joints. At a first sight, it looks...

Hi all! Do you make warming up exercises before starting a regatta? In other sports these exercises are important to prevent injuries. However, I haven't seen many (or would say any) people warming up before sailing -- perhaps in a professional level they are more common, I don't know. Are...

Recently I've seen a purchase system in the traveller: no blocks, just making a knot in the traveller cleat, then sending back the line to pull from the traveller Y and finally once again to the cleat. You can apply much more force in this way. I was planning to use it, but someone has also...

Hi all, in my last and unfortunate race, I bent my upper mast section, capsized and lost a pair of battens. I read somewhere that a possible reason for the bent could be not releasing the vang after the windward mark. That was exactly what happened to me: I use an old vang, I added an extra...

Really simple: I will try and compare to other boats. Thanks a lot!

Lately, my performance is begin really horrible and I'm not sure of how much the bad state of my boat may be affecting. For instance, during the last regata I discovered that my bailer is broken, so the cockpit was continuously full of water. Besides, I don't know exactly how but my battens...

Funny! I've always had it on, but due to a bad experience (actually, in a different boat) I was just considering this morning to do as Old Geezer says, but wasn't sure whether this was common or not. Three days ago, I was sailing an Omega Topaz in around 15/20 knots and found very difficult to...

Have a look at: http://www.laserforum.org/showthread.php?t=5159&highlight=windward+heel Although it begins talking about downwind, the discussion also moves to windward heel in light upwind. --- Pedro

Waw! almost everybody is sending me to the gym: do you get any kind of commission for that? Ok, I recognize I'm just a weekend-sportsman. Probably some extra strength from the gym will help a lot. Still, it seems that most of you didn't realize that the upwind course was very long: more...