Michael Blackburn won the Laser World Championships in his mid-30s. He also coached Tom Slingsby and Tom Burton to gold at London 2012 and Rio 2016 respectively, as well as winning an Olympic bronze of his own. The Australian, who sailed his Laser more than a hundred miles across the treacherous Bass Strait, knows a thing or two about fitness for sailing...
Watching Team Nika win - and dominate - the RC44 World Championship 2017 in Sweden was a lesson in strong, conservative tactics. No surprise when you learn that owner Vladimir Prosikhin had Terry Hutchinson as his tactician. Just as Torben Grael was known for going off on a flyer into the corner of the course (doing a ‘Torben’), doing a ‘Terry’ is about keeping the game tight in the centre of the course. As Terry himself says, “It’s a game of feet and inches.”
Reigning Phantom National Champion Andy Couch wins the opening event of the GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series, becoming the first double victor of the Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash. It was a light airs contest, but with 13 different types of boat filling the top 13 places...
If you can hike it, Steve Cockerill has probably sailed it. And he’s probably won in it too. His cabinet is stuffed with victories from a long and illustrious career in singlehanded dinghies, and a few doublehanders too. Steve has analysed what it takes to make a small boat go fast, and there are quite a few things that will surprise you, but then make immediate sense once you hear Steve explain it all...
When racing on windward-leeward courses with leeward mark gates, Dave Ullman explains the process in deciding which mark to round… "It is blowing 15 knots and the wind recently shifted 5 degrees. What are you doing and looking for now?"
You've heard it time and time again: practice makes perfect. And Quantum Sails' pros couldn't agree more. Here, Quantum's Dave Flynn talks about his tips for practising and how to get the most out of it.
Seven boats, seven hungry teams and one clear goal, to win the Volvo Ocean Race. Having trawled through team biogs, walked the boards and tapped into the dockside gossip, its time to set out the World Sailing Show form guide to the 45,000 mile race.
Tom Burnham talks about the importance to applying a tactician's brain to your job, even if like him you're at the front end of the boat doing the muscle work. Tom did the pit on board World Championship winning TP52 Quantum Racing, and talks about the stuff that he wants to know from the brain's trust at the back of the boat...
Geoff Becker has been riding the J/70 wave since the class got launched, teaming with Tim Healy as they won the 2014 Worlds and finishing third in 2015. Here Geoff comments on how team function impacts performance…
Double Olympian and a dominant force in the Extreme Sailing Series, Leigh McMillan talks through the balancing act of getting a cat downhill in the windy stuff without pitchpoling. "When it’s getting too hairy, we let the windward hull skim the wave tops just to provide that extra safety margin. But the more you drop the windward hull in the water, the slower you go and the more you lose the apparent wind that you’d generated. It's about how close to the edge you are...."
Getting the bow down and going fast upwind...with Olympic gold medal winning coach and Radial Masters World Champion Jon Emmett. Although Jon is sailing a Laser Radial in the clip, the same principles apply to almost any dinghy...
Seven boats, seven hungry teams and one clear goal, to win the Volvo Ocean Race. Having trawled through team biogs, walked the boards and tapped into the dockside gossip, its time to set out the World Sailing Show form guide to the 45,000 mile race.
