Will crewing help my laser sailing?

N

Nicko

New Member
This may be a no brainer but here goes anyway.
I have been offered to crew for the winter handicap series at our club.
My initial thoughts were

'no way! I didn't just go buy a laser to spend the winter pulling someone elses jib sheet'

But then I found out the guy is an ex- national and inland Albacore champion and has competed in several worlds, and he is now a coach assessor for the RYA.He has just bought a RS200 to sail for the winter and needs a crew.
I have been sailing dinghies(wayfarers and enterprises single handed mainly) for about 8 years now but have never raced until this summer. I have had my laser radial for about three weeks. I have told him I haven't much experience but he said he will teach me everything as we go along.

My opinion is that I will probably gain valuable racing experience, which, come the spring I will be able to put into practice for myself.
My fear is that I will learn bad habits that won't be any use on a laser.

Any advice most welcome!

Nicko
 
race with this guy, sounds like he knows alot

listen to him, don't give him crap, and he can probably hook you up with other people and get you far

take all the racing positions you can get, on all the boats you can get on, and learn everything, do all the big boat sailing you can

but remember, if you have a big race of your own, sometimes you gotta do that
 
Do what you think is best. Bear in mind the boats you came out of, and now want to sail in, are stayed rigs. I sailed stayed rigs and it took me a long time to understand how the unstayed rig of a laser behaved. Maybe get a parallel campaign going? There is no way around having to put in time on the water in your radial, regardless of what you pick up from sailing in the other bloke's boat. But yes, I imagine you will learn tricks that the average beginner would not know, you'll meet the guys who will line your path moving forward, and your mistakes will be 50% less embarrasing. Worst case you can sell your radial later and move into two handed sailing. WiN/Win situation.
 
There are several aspects to doing well. Important aspect include strategy and tactics. From what you say about this person it sounds like it might be an ideal opportunity to learn this from him.


Ian
 
-If you have no racing experience , sailing with someone who does will help you to build your racing skills.

-To get better in laser racing you need to combine both boat handling / technique with general racing skills ... so while crewing might help the other ingredient is also fundamental

-Go for it, but also find time to spend hours with your laser.

Good luck !
 
I won't help you a bit with boat-handling on a Laser, but it will give you great experience with tactics and strategy.

Do it.
 
Pretty much ever second spent on any boat, be it power, sail, or even self propelled, while attempting to soak up knowledge will somehow help your performance in every boat.

Yes, sitting on an oil tanker and observing how slowly a turn programmed into the steering system impacts the direction of the vessel, can give insight related to steering your Laser through waves.

if you believe the pile of crap you just read, teh benefits of sitting next to a wizard while he plays any sort of small boat sailing game, must have great use in your version of small boat racing.

PLus...The next time he is accepting a trophy, you can tell the hot chic next to you, "I taught him everything he knows."
 
gouvernail said:
PLus...The next time he is accepting a trophy, you can tell the hot chic next to you, "I taught him everything he knows."
Click to expand...

But my wife will know this not to be true.;)


He has asked for me to go for a sail with him on Sunday to see if we get on. I am going.

If he is OK I reckon I shall do it. If it turns out to be a waste of time I can always tell him so and pull out during the series. He expects me to ask questions so that is how I am entering into the thing. I shall try and extract as much out of him as possible during those cold Sunday afternoons.
At 36 I don't want to spend too much time teaching myself strategy and tactics, and with him being a coach assessor, he should have the communcation skills to teach me. I'll then spend the spring and summer in my radial, and hopefully be competing against him the following winter.
Sound like a good plan?
 
personally i dont like any boat that isnt fast but gouvernail is rite boat experience= boat success so if you sail you will get better no matter how often you can use it in a laser.
 
Id give it ago, you'll certainly learn loads if he's the kind of helm who always talks about what he's doing, most top guys talk with their crews anyway. On the other hand, the 200 is immensley boring to crew, did the nationals this year and hopefully will never have to crew one again!
 
Went out yesterday with him and did a couple of races.
A very steep learning curve! Never flown a spinnaker before, or roll tacked or roll gibed,he got me straight in there.
Blew the spinnaker out on the first race so had to go in for the spare.
I missed a roll gibe on the second and filled the boat with water slowing us. Finished first in the third race.
The guy is a bit old school, but obviously knows a hell of a lot, and was talking to me the whole time.Telling me where the headers and lifts were, and what other boats had done wrong, and what we had done wrong, and right. He seemed totally wind,boat and position aware and took the the boat prep. very seriously. He thought I would pick it up in time so I am crewing him for the next series.
I think it may be quite an intense 9 weeks over the frostbite, and I am looking forward to applying what I learn on my radial.
I now have five weeks before I sail on the rs200 again, so shall try and squeeze a good few hours on the radial in.
 
Nicko said:
... and what we had done wrong ...
Click to expand...

Probably a very good sign. sometimes you get people who cannot be self critical - anything goes wrong it's somebody else's fault. Being aware of one's own mistakes is very important and sounds like this guy is happy to acknowledge where he has made an error.


Ian
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top