Introducing myself. New to laser sailing.

M

markg

New Member
Hello. Well the section title said to introduce yourself, so here i am.
I think most of you guys are in America?
I am English, but moved to Phuket, Thailand about 3 years ago to work as a teacher. Anyway, i have always hankered after living the dream and sailing off into the sunset on my own boat. Never quite got round to that, but a bit of recreational sailing gave me the bug. Did a bit of regatta sailing on 30 and 40 foot boats in Phuket. Then a local dinghy club had an open day, i went and tried out solo sailing and liked it. A few months later, a club member left and i bought his laser. I am out on it as much as possible, - at least once a week. We re lucky that of course we dont have cold water or weather here ever, so we sail in swim shorts all year round.

I have lots of questions to ask but dont want to get flamed for being so naive, nor bogged down with too many technicalities early on in my sailing career.

One question i would like to ask is, how do you hold YOUR tiller? I noticed that some club members have it kinda across their knees, and others have it kinda under their arm. The first one is great because i can hold the main sheet rope with my tiller hand whilst pulling it tighter with my free hand, but when i m hiking, i find it very hard to steer esp. into the wind. The under arm method is good for hiking but i cant control the main sheet rope so well.

Oh, we sail in the Indian Ocean. During the two monsoons, it can get very windy. I was out for 7 hours yesterday. I can still feel the boat under me now nearly 24 hours later!!

Well, thats all about me. Hope to have some good discussions on here.
Mark
 
I'm pretty sure the correct way to hold a Laser tiller extension is infront of you, what would look like on your knees as you said. That way you can sheet in easily using an hand and a few spare fingers from the other. As you said about steering, I figured out after a few times out on my laser. You shouldn't need to put any major strength into steering. Try letting out your sail a little to fall off the wind and sheet in while heading up. If you're fully sheeted in and trying to turn to downwind, your laser will be wanting to head up into the wind, making it almost impossible to steer downwind.

As for getting "flamed" for asking naive questions on the forum... It won't happen. Since I've joined, people have been very nice to any and all questions.

Good luck,
-Mark Hamlin
 
Hold it like a microphone. That position is the most natural and keeps the profile of the extension low to deck height, thus usually clear of interfering with the boom, mainsheet, etc. In steady wind 10ish or more, I find that holding it like a mic across my chest while I am hiked out is the best way to feel connected to the boat. It also keeps my tiller hand close enough to my sheet hand so I can use the tiller hand easily to assist with sheeting when needed.
And, dude, you're going to love the TLF as a learning space. I can't imagine learning without it.
 
Thank you for making me feel welcome guys.
Intersting post from Odinsvitskjaldr - hold it like a microphone. I will try that on saturday when i go out again.
I will try falling off the wind a bit and sheeting in too.
Thanks for your tips so far and looking forwards to joining in as much as possible with this forum.
Happy sailing!
Mark G
 
welcome to the laser forum and you wont have to worry about flaming cause little of that goes on here, but just like he said hold it like a microphone and have a light grip on it near the end of it. and how you use it to help with the mainsheet is great and is how you should do it.
 
How long your tiller extension is will effect your grip. If you have a short extension (like from an older boat) you might find it hard to hold it properly (with an overhand grip/like a microphone) when you're hiking.

I think the standard length now is about 46-48 inches long (~117 - 122cm) and some people use even longer ones. But older boats came with a 42 inch (107cm) extension and REALLY old boats had extensions that were something like 2-3 feet (61-93cm) long. On a full hike your hand would end up by your knees with an extension that short. So if you have an extension that is too short you should replace it with a longer one. You might find it a little awkward at first until you get used to it (especially in light air when you're sitting in and not hiking) but it's worth it when the wind comes up.

Most of your steering action should come from small wrist movements. Rotate your wrist with your thumb towards you to head up; and rotate your thumb away to fall off.

-Steve
 
Thanks for the advice Steve. I m not sure how long the extension is.
I'm clearly doing something wrong though. I dont feel like i can steer using small wrist actions! Sometimes i feel like i'm putting quite a bit of effort into steering.
I'm here to learn though, so i'll give everyones advice a go on Saturday when i next go out.
 
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