Eleven Crazy Things You Can Do on a Laser

Those Laser sailors are an imaginative group. Over the years they have invented an amazing number of weird things you can do on a Laser. Some of them have practical value; some of them are good training drills; and some of them are just plain silly...


1. Stand in front of the mast facing backwards, hold the mast and rock it from side to side. Laser sailors soon discover that (lacking a paddle) this is the most effective way to propel the boat back home when the wind dies completely. When I attended a Laser seminar run by Gary Bodie in 1995 on Lake Cayuga he had us doing this maneuver as a drill. He claimed it helped light wind boat speed. Either that or he had run out of other things to teach us during a week-long clinic with practically no wind.


2. Tack the boat by running round the mast. Absolutely no practical value as far as I know other than to show off to your friends. And I guess it does avoid the risk of hitting your head on the boom.




3. Sail standing up. Kurt Taulbee used this as a drill both years I attended his Sailfit clinic. He had us sailing upwind standing on the side deck. I guess it teaches balance. I have terrible balance in any sport involving standing up. That's why I sail: so I can sit down most of the time.


4. Sail standing up on one leg. One of my buddies did this last year as we were sailing out to the race course on Buzzard's Bay. I think he does yoga classes. Not sure what use it is other than to show off to people who can barely sail standing up on both legs.


5. Sail upwind with your eyes closed. A great drill for learning to use sound and feel instead of sight to keep the boat in the groove. Do not attempt by yourself in a major shipping channel.


6. Climb up the mast until the boat capsizes. This was a contest that the Laser sailors at my first club liked. Highest climb wins. No practical value except to cool off on a hot day.


7. Do a headstand on the foredeck. This was some kind of rite of initiation for full acceptance into the Laser fleet at my first club. Geeze, I can't even do a headstand on dry land.


8. Sail without a rudder. A classic training drill in two-sail dinghies. I never worked out how to do it in a Laser though I suspect somebody has.


9. Sail without touching the tiller. At this year's Sailfit clinic, Kurt had us doing this as a drill. You leave the rudder down but are not allowed to touch the tiller. For me this was somewhat easier than sailing without a rudder at all. The secret is to move your body weight way forward. I found it easier to sail upwind by holding the boom rather than using the mainsheet. One guy on the clinic said he couldn't tack the boat when sailing like this; I could barely stop the beast from tacking all the time. Go figure! I guess the drill teaches something about using boat trim to steer.


10. Maximum heel drill. Another one of Kurt Taulbee's favorites. Sail downwind heeling the boat to windward as far as you can. If you never capsize you're not really trying. Teaches you how far you can heel to windward without doing a death roll. There was one kid from the Clearwater youth team who joined us for the weekend of the clinic who could heel the boat to about 80 degrees from the vertical in a solid breeze and then not only recover from the death roll but also go straight into a gybe. Amazing!


11. Tack the boat by stepping through the gap between the sail and the boom. Another way to avoid hitting your head on the boom, I suppose, but it does look incredibly silly.



Thanks to Segling till 2Tusen12 for the two videos.

Anyone know any other crazy Laser tricks?

Ask the Audience

Fans of the TV quiz game Who Wants to be a Millionaire? will know that contestants are allowed three "lifelines" to help them when they can't answer a question. One of these is Ask the Audience, in which the host polls the audience for the correct answer. Apparently the audience is right about 95% of the time.

News comes this weekend that Ask the Audience is now available to sailboat racers. The Green Dragon team in the Volvo Ocean Race have decided that they are going to "ask the audience" for help in tactical routing decisions on the current leg of the race.

According to Yachts and Yachting...

Every twelve hours during the leg, the virtual skippers in the Volvo Ocean Race Game will be sent a poll from Green Dragon. It will include a description of the current situation (details on weather conditions, boat condition and the crew) as well as an outlook for the next 24/36/48/72 hours.

Each of these polls will include at least three options for the route the team should sail. The poll will be posted on the game website for an hour, and the game players will have an opportunity to vote on the preferred route. The results of that vote will be communicated to the entire fleet, including Green Dragon, by the Duty Officer at Volvo Ocean Race headquarters.

Green Dragon may then, at the discretion of the skipper and navigator, follow the guidance of the online community. If the team decides not to take the advice, they will send an explanation for their reasoning.

Hmmm. That's novel. Two thoughts spring to mind...

1. How could I use this technique in Laser racing?
   
   
2. Who is going to ask Green Dragon, "Is that your final answer?"
   
   

Lots More Sailing Lists

Wow. Our group writing project on Lists has inspired some major blogging activity over the last couple of days...

Mal of Team Gherkin seems to have had some bad experiences when he was learning to sail and recounts 8 Things To Think About Whilst Learning To Sail.

Bonnie of frogma is still educating us on kayak safety with 10 Things I Won't Leave My Urban Dock Without Having In My Sea Kayak.

And Pat's latest list also has a safety theme. He has 13 Lucky Charms for when the park ranger pulls alongside your boat.

It seems that Greg of Love and Coconuts still hasn't been forgiven for a somewhat disastrous sailing outing last year and tells the sad tale of Two people who won't sail with me right now.

While Yarg of Apparent Wind is trying to remember all the things not to do when starting a sailboat race including 12 Ways to Sabotage Your Start.

The Puffin is getting nostalgic about some old gear with Three Pieces of Windsurfing Gear I've Owned More Than Ten Years.

And Tweezerman of Earwigoagin tells us Four Surefire Ways to Look like a Dork when Sailing.



Meanwhile poor old Captain JP seems to be positively schizophrenic with 6 Reasons why Yachts are better than Dinghies and 6 Reasons why Dinghies are better than Yachts.

Plenty of time left for you to participate in this group writing project. Full details at Lists.

Moran Sighting

3 Speedlinks for Saturday

Here are three posts that caught my attention for various reasons this week. Enjoy...

1. The author of The Good Old Boat Redwing has been attending the US Sailing Small Boat Instructor Course and his account reminded me of my own experience of doing that a few years back. And shock horror! He actually has to go Laser sailing. Small boat Instructor, day 1. Laser sailing!
   
   
2. I suppose that many of you, like me, struggle with a lack of discipline in sticking to a physical training program, or motivating themselves to go out and practice their sailing when the weather is less than perfect. I came across a different approach to this problem on zenhabits. Among other things the author believes that "discipline is just an illusion." 6 Small Things You Can Do When You Lack Discipline.
   
   
3. I've written before about the challenges of parents sailing with their kids, the stresses on the relationship and the dangers of turning the kid off sailing - or at least some aspects of it. Ant, the author of Soulsailor, confesses his own struggles with this issue in I am the Worst, I am a Non-Soulsailor.

Sometimes I am a bit odd

First Six Lists About Sailing

First out of the starting blocks on this month's group writing project Lists was Sam Chapin with 18 Advantages of the Laser Sailboat. Honest. I didn't make this up. He really was first. Sam seems to be even more of a Laser zealot than myself. He even has a blog titled How to Sail the Laser which is now proudly featured in my blogroll.

Then Bonnie at frogma gives us a safety lesson in 5 Things a Sea Kayaker Needs to Pass a CG Auxiliary Safety Inspection.

Debra Brown may not be the most experienced sailor in the world but she has "been on a boat" and tells us about 8 Things I Learned While Boating.

Meanwhile Pat from Desert Sea - New Mexico Sailing has been blogging up a storm with three list posts already...

A Dozen Places to Sail Before You Die in the Desert and Mountain Southwest

Fifteen things that bugged me during last Saturday's single-hand race

Six things that went right during the Joshua Slocum race

Plenty of time left for you to participate in this group writing project. Where are my usual writing buddies this week? Full details at Lists.

How to Roll Tack a Laser 2

Lists

It feels about time for another group writing project. This one is easy. All you have to do is write me a "list post" about sailing.

For some reason, list posts are very popular. At least that's been my experience. Posts like Ten Reasons Why Sunfish Are Better Than Lasers and 7 Reasons Why a DoG Fight Will Be Good for the America's Cup have been among the most popular items on Proper Course. Seven Reasons to Hate Laser Sailors even has its own Facebook group.

I guess readers like lists because they are well structured, easy to read, and usually prevent the blogger from rambling on too much. The good news is that they are easy to write too.

So that's the assignment for this month. Write a list post about sailing. It could be on any aspect of the sport or your experience with it. Examples that some of my favorite bloggers might write could be...

• 5 Sexiest Mustaches Worn by San Francisco Bay Sailors
  
• 6 Best Places to Watch Boats in New York Harbor
• 31 Reasons Why Trimarans Are Awesome
• 7 Men I Would Like to Kiss on my Boat
  
• 3 Least Understood Racing Rules

Your list can be long or short, serious or funny. But please follow these rules...

• Your post must be about sailing (or close)
• The items on the list must be numbered
• The number of items must be in the title

So here is how to participate...

1. Write a list post about sailing on your blog. Please publish the post before Sunday May 24.

2. Once you've posted your list, let me know about it by sending an email to tillermeister@gmail.com including a link to your post. If you don't have a blog just email me your list and I will post it here.

3. I will post here two links to your list. Every day or so I will write a post listing any new entries in the project. Then at the end of the project I will publish the ultimate, definitive, official, all-time "List of Sailing Lists" post. I wonder how many we will have? 99 Lists About Sailing sounds like a good title to me.

Look forward to hearing from you...

Dilemma

I need your help with a dilemma that I am facing...

From time to time I review sailing products on this blog. Sometimes they are of products or services I have bought; other times the manufacturer sends me a sample of his product and asks me to review it on Proper Course. My question is whether it is ethical for me to accept such a "sample" and write a review of it. I ask because perhaps there is a risk that I may write a more favorable review because I was given a sailing goodie for free, or at least my readers might perceive that my opinion is biased because of accepting such a gift from the maker.

A few days ago I received an email from a vendor who recognizes how tricky this situation is. He would like me to try out a new product he is launching and if I "think it is good" to write about it on my blog. (Hmmm. What if I think it's crap?) But he is worried that if he just sends me the product for free that I "may feel obliged to write good stuff." (True. That's the dilemma.) At the same time he feels that he cannot ask me to buy the product at full price and then enjoy the benefit of a favorable review. He suggests the Solomonic solution of a 50% discount... or perhaps a larger credit against one of his other offerings. But I'm not sure that either of those really solves the problem.

To complicate the issue somewhat, the sender of the email is someone I already know through sailing... not a bosom friend but a sailing buddy at least. (That's true of some of the other products I have reviewed here in the past too.) Does that influence me to write favorably about his products? Maybe.

So what do you think?

• Is it OK for me to accept free products and services and then review them here? Would you believe such reviews?
  
  
• Does it solve the problem if I disclose the fact that I have received the item under review for free and/or the manufacturer is someone I know personally?
  
  
• Or should I never accept such free "samples"? I suppose I could pay for them in full, send them back after testing them (if practical), or donate them to other sailors.
  
  
• Does the value of the product make any difference? For example, would it be OK to accept gifts up to a value of $100 say, but not anything worth more than that?
  
  
• Or do you think I am making too much of this? Most of the reviews of stuff you read in the mainstream media is given to the review writers by the manufacturers, so why should bloggers be held to a different standard? (I've no idea if the first part of that last sentence is true, by the way.)
  
  
• Or do you think it's a non-issue because you never believe anything you read here anyway. You think that most of what I write is utter nonsense, or the opposite of what I really think, so you never give any credence to my reviews.
  
  
• Or perhaps you don't want me to write reviews here at all. You just want more stories about Tillerman making a fool of himself on the race course.
  

Seriously, I would like to know what you think. Comments please.