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Here is a photo from Bob Bravier's book "Keys to Racing Success" (1981). It shows something that I always thought was a great idea: using guidelines painted or taped onto the deck to help when tacking, and also a "mast abeam helmsman" line across the cockpit. You can also see two stopwatches on his wrist, a course plotter of some sort, and a calculator. Down where I sail on the Gulf Coast, nobody seems to use such things on Sunfish, BUT back when I did a lot of bigger boat racing a few years ago it was not uncommon to paint guidelines on your deck to show how tight to trim the jib, where optimum mainsheet trim was achieved and so forth. And we all used course calculators, plotting boards and stopwatches.
So.... here's my question: Do you think lines like that would be helpful on a Sunfish? Obviously it worked for the guy in the picture, since he was one of the more successful racers in the 1970's. One of my friends thinks it would be "operator overload" to use it, and believes "flying by the seat of your pants" is better. I'm not so sure. What do you think?
Dave
speed. pure speed.What is that series of arrows under the tiller represent?
What is that series of arrows under the tiller represent?
That is Carl Knight, one of the best. You have a good eye, my friend.
As far as the "mast abeam" line goes, I know that it's no longer applicable by the rules...... but I'm not so sure that the 90 degree deck line doesn't have some uses, especially when figuring a lay-line to a windward mark. It would seem to be helpful in determining the right time to make the lay-line tack.
I think the chevrons are GREAT.
Championship chevrons. The ones with the 'T' underneath designate winning a team championship.
A blast from the past. We can guess that the sheer number were too much to be pasting to his sail, so he went with a deck mode instead. These days that might come across as a bit pretentious, though the gold sunfish logo (at least one on a Ponce world sail) can be kind of cool, when you see it.