RS Feva HISC Squad 25/26 Weekend 4

It was a great weekend to finish the squad season for the Feva HISC squad with a glorious day out in the bay on the Saturday working on starting and finalising some key skills in boat handling during tacks and gybes, whilst on the Sunday we were dealt a completely different day with high and fast conditions in the morning and unfortunately too much in the afternoon meaning we spent some time working on individual teams 'what next's.

For the Saturday, we were treated with some great conditions which allowed us to spend 5 hours in the bay. It was a steady 12-14 knots from the W-SW with sunshine and about 15 degrees! Summer is definitely around the corner now! The squad worked on:

• Our starting and working as a team getting off the startline

  • The squad continued to practice their trigger pulls following weekend 3 which for many sailors was an introduction in Feva trigger pulling.

  • A key feature was to finish the trigger pull how we want to be sailing upwind in terms on our settings and sitting positions to get the maximum speed off the line and "pop" out.

• Downwind strategy by choosing a direction and when to gybe onto port once rounded the windward mark

  • We have typically seen across the squad and in some Feva sailing that many lacked the knowledge and reasoning on when to gybe initially from starboard to port.

  • Similar to the upwind leg, we need to make a plan earlier on (half way up the beat).

  • Begin to ask "are there any gain features?" and also ask "what is the paying gybe?"

  • Think about what gybe is taking you to the next mark and which one is taking you away from it.

    

• Upwind boat speed analysis

  • It was great conditions to focus on our boat speed as we were working in sailors 100 units range being fully powered up. We were indetifying leech shapes as the leech is much longer and the roach area in much larger than what most sailors are used to meaning we were working with both crews and helms on kicker adjustments as well as jib tensions and playing around with it on the water.

For the Sunday, we had much stronger winds forecasted through the day with the morning averaging in the lower 20s and the afternoon was expected to get above 30. Therefore, we maximised our morning session by working on hiking positions on the upwind, and then high and fast and committing to it on the downwind.

As we were unable to afloat on the Sunday afternoon, we went back over a couple of topics which we have covered over the winter including the below table. Ideally we need each boat to have their own table set up ready for the season ahead at least to know all about their settings in preparation for events. Please feel free to copy this layout or email me at dylan@apexsailing.co.uk and I will send over a print ready version.

Well done everyone and it has been a real pleasure coaching the RS Feva HISC Squad along with Sam. We are looking forward to seeing how everyone does throughout the season at upcoming events. Keep up the good work and keep finding those rig settings as small tunings will help performance throughout.

For questions or extra insight, get in touch at dylan@apexsailing.co.uk or follow @apex_sailing on Instagram and Facebook.