Comments Thread for Giu's Sailing Videos

[tenuki]

oh man, that Patin looks soo cool.

[therapy23]

I appreciate the video of the backstay but think a longer shot looking at the sail would be in order so one could see the changes. Watching G pull on the backstay does nothing for me. And at the end it seemed to heel even more or is that just me?

[Giulietta]

Originally Posted by therapy23

I appreciate the video of the backstay but think a longer shot looking at the sail would be in order so one could see the changes. Watching G pull on the backstay does nothing for me. And at the end it seemed to heel even more or is that just me?

we say in Portugal:

"if you don't have a dog to hunt with, use your cat"....

I realized that we had not much footage of the mast bellying. actually its a 70 foot mast, you will not see much from down in the cockpit.

That is why I went thru the trouble of drawing the mast rigs and the bellying in red with paintbrush, to depict what we were lacking in footage.

Anyway, I've edited the video to reflect a few comments I recieved, and next time I can do is stay right bellow the mast, filming upwards while someone pulls the backstay. OK?

By the way, pulling the backstay did something for me...lost fat!!!

Now..... its a free amateur video, want a mast bending thing, go to Steven Spielberg

[Faster]

Great job, Giu.... who needs Steven Spielberg!

[camaraderie]

I think he is more like the Michael Moore! You never know when a completely faked photoshop is going to be claimed as fact!! (g)

[Melrna]

Thanks again for the great videos. I learned alot. Now us girls need to start a Alex fan club! What a hunk!

[sailaway21]

Like 'em short and furry, huh Mel?

[Valiente]

Originally Posted by WuWei

Of course, you have to be a very good sailor to do this, but it can be done!

While some boats will self-steer under sail alone better than others, you do NOT have to be a very good sailor to do this. You DO have to practice in different conditions. People talk about the need for windvanes and autopilots, but you can in many cases just lash a jib sheet to the tiller and use some shock cord to provide a countering force...and you are self-steering.

I have an old book: A Manual of Single Handed Sailing, by Tony Meisel, that helped me to understand some of the ideas involved, but if you practise these techniques when you still *have* a rudder, it becomes easy quite quickly. Also, the techniques are transferable from boat to boat...but you soon see that most people oversteer, unless they have an internal appreciation of how the keel, the sails and the rudder are three forms of the same principle!

[Valiente]

Alex, I'm glad you added that bit about slacking off the backstay when going downwind. I would suggest that a companion video to this would be the proper use of the outhaul and vang (if there is a vang) in achieving similar, but not identical, effects.

It's been my experience that teaching people about center of effort, moving the draft, and the three or four possible sail controls that govern this is among the most difficult of concepts to convey. "Twist" and the role of mainsheet tension versus traveller position seem hard to teach, as well. Even club-level racers don't always understand these ideas, although people who have come up via dinghy sailing invariably grasp the ideas.

[Giulietta]

Originally Posted by Valiente

Alex, I'm glad you added that bit about slacking off the backstay when going downwind. I would suggest that a companion video to this would be the proper use of the outhaul and vang (if there is a vang) in achieving similar, but not identical, effects.

It's been my experience that teaching people about center of effort, moving the draft, and the three or four possible sail controls that govern this is among the most difficult of concepts to convey. "Twist" and the role of mainsheet tension versus traveller position seem hard to teach, as well. Even club-level racers don't always understand these ideas, although people who have come up via dinghy sailing invariably grasp the ideas.

Val, lets take it slowly, I have work to do as I told you.

I intend on making several videos, but don't want to promise nothing because we never know the future. And maybe someone here will come and ask "who are you to make videos to teach us" ...so I go slowly.

I plan on doing several videos, that once together will cover a lot, and improve one's sailing techniques if you already know or introduce, if you know nothing about it..

I plan on doing:

Outhaul,
Boom jack,
Main traveller effect in light strong and moderate winds,
Halyard and Cunningham operationa and effects,
Tacking,
gybing,
Hove to
explain sail twist
winds aloft
rig tuning etc.
etc.

For some I have footage on my boat, for others I will do with my "wonderfull" skills at paintbrush and make drawings.

But we have to go slowly, it take me a good 5 hours to do it. Just for the voice things you hear me talk I make 20 or 30 takes until I can talk without getting an English word wrong...and even then, I get my tongue tangled.

I do this for my own pleasure, the way I want how I can and want...if I will suddenly feel pressure, it spoild the fun form me, ao I do it as a hobby while I am where you know I am.

It may come to the surprize or a curiosity for many why I showed up here suddenly in October last year (altough I have been with sailnet since 2002, but forgot the password and that was with the old sailnet, and the Americans were very rude and racist to me then, when I posted, not now...now people here are OK), and suddenly started posting a lot and show a lot of me, the boat and my family...about a year ago, I felt the need (due to personal things in my life, I don't want to discuss) to show and tell everything I know and share all I have. That's what I am doing...just passing things I have in my head.

Anyway, I think the videos are more usefull than my stupid clownish photoshoping.