HIKING Another technique which I have found a challenge to transfer to the Solo is the straight leg hiking technique that evolved many years ago in the ILCA class. Up until then Solo sailors principally ‘drop hiked’ as they also did in other classes such as the Finn and OKs etc. The straight leg hiking technique I find harder to do and you need to be ‘ sailing fit ‘ to do it but I know it’s more e ff ective and you only need to watch our recent Champions such as Charlie Cumbley, Ollie Davenport, Ben Flower and others to see firstly how to do it properly and also how e ff ective it is to help keeping their boats as flat as possible more of the time and therefore faster upwind.
2023 National Champion Ben Flower Straight leg hiking = Max Leverage
VANG \KICKER The final thing I would like to mention as being relatively light now at 81 kilos I try when racing a Solo in a strong and steady breeze to use even more vang/ kicker than perhaps the norm and like we use racing in ILCAs so as to ‘ blade out’ the sail and therefore de-power the rig. This technique needs to be used cautiously in a really gusty strong breeze as the very tight leech it causes makes bearing away and tacking more challenging. Although unlike the ILCA the Solo control lines are so much better it’s relatively simple to ease and then tighten the Vang before and after tacking. PHYSICAL The second aspect I have been asked to comment on is the physical conditioning element that can help general performance. About fifteen years ago finding I had a little more time I decided to try and focus on improving my performance on the water One of the areas I felt I could provide a possible incremental performance gain was improving my physical condition. With this in mind I knew there are no short cuts and I would have to commit to a program that was obviously e ff ective but importantly sustainable. I.e. don’t give up !
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