Enjoy tuning your boat? Or hate it? Even know what tuning is?!! We talk to some top sailors, including former 505 World Champion and 49er Olympic medallist Ian Barker about how they approach the 'dark art' of boat tune. Of the nine sailors we spoke to, not everyone agrees, but there are still some real gems of wisdom here to help unravel the mystery...
Big sails are not always faster than small sails, even in light to moderate breezes. Why is that? A lot of it is to do with boat balance, which is sometimes more important than raw power...
America's Cup veteran Terry Hutchinson says that opposites may not necessarily attract, but putting different personalities together was still a vital part of creating a Quantum Racing team that was strong enough to dominate the European TP52 circuit in its heyday...
Audio (2 minutes): The 2007 and 2008 Laser World Championships in Portugal and Australia were windy, and Tom Slingsby won both of them. He's also won two Skandia Sail for Gold Regattas in Weymouth in 2009 and 2010. The young Aussie talks about the technique that makes him so devastatingly quick upwind in the breeze...
Professional sailing teams love to measure stuff. If it can be calibrated, it will be calibrated. And so America's Cup teams will go through 200 or more keel bulb designs, and test hundreds if not thousands of hull shapes, sail shapes, mast configurations, deck layouts, and so on. But what about the human element? Do sailing teams invest as much time and effort in perfecting the human technology on board the boat? 
With little more than a couple of weeks before the 33rd America's Cup in Valencia, Andy has just done an in-depth interview with Russell Coutts for top racing magazine, Seahorse International. Justin quizzes Andy about what Russell said, as well as looking back at who won what at the 49er and 14 World Championships....
In the first Sailing Talk podcast of 2010, Justin and Andy already have a lot of sailing to catch up on, including the 49er and International 14 Worlds, as well as the latest on America's Cup shenanigans between Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing....
Peter Lester has just completed two weeks of radio commentary at the Louis Vuitton Cup in Nice. A great sailor in his own right, Lester tells Sailing Talk why he thinks Azzurra won, and why politics shouldn't get in the way of great sailing events taking place...