Davison / Emmett ILCA Book

ILCA sailing from start to finish
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-912621-88-0
Verlag: Fernhurst Books Limited
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 1, 128 Seiten

Reihe: Start to Finish

The single manufacturer one-design (SMOD) Laser, launched just over 50 years ago, has now been renamed the ILCA and moved to multiple licensed builders. To reflect this change, the leading book on Laser sailing since 1979, The Laser Book, has now changed its name to The ILCA Book and moved from a single to multiple authors. In this latest edition, ILCA guru and multiple champion Jon Emmett has updated Tim Davison's seminal text to make it completely relevant to today's ILCA sailors. All the latest control lines, masts and sails are covered for all 3 rigs. Targeted at the club sailor, The ILCA Book covers the techniques and skills needed to succeed in ILCA sailing, for those starting out through to those striving to win a Club Championship. Whether you are a youngster moving into an ILCA 4 or 6, or a club sailor looking to improve your ILCA 7 results, the expert advice from the authors and contributions from Laser / ILCA gold medallists, world champions and their coaches, will take your ILCA / Laser sailing to the next level. Beginning with setting up the boat, the book takes you through your early sailing experiences and caring for your ILCA. Developing your skills on all points of sailing, you will then be introduced to race tuning and racing itself. Over 350 photographs show you exactly how it's done, and 50 diagrams illustrate key boat parts, the different points of sailing and complex on-the-water scenarios with clarity. Whatever your background, your current level or the extent of your ambition, this book gives you all the tools you need to get out on the water and improve your ILCA sailing.

Tim Davison has owned 20 Lasers over 50 years and medalled at World and European championships. He is author of over 20 sailing books, with The Laser Book being his first and most successful, and the title that launched Fernhurst Books when first published in 1979.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Davison, Tim

Emmett, Jon

Leseproben

SETTING UP THE BOAT

The ILCA is beautifully simple. It has the minimum number of parts, each carefully designed to do a specific job.

When you first get the boat you’ll need to set up the control lines, the toestrap and so on. You only have to do these things once, so it’s worth spending a bit of time on them. There are also a few tricks you can do ashore to make life easier when you finally go afloat.

PAINTER

The painter is used to secure the boat to the trolley, so that a strong gust of wind cannot get under the bow and blow the boat off the trolley. Normally this rope can be left permanently tied to the trolley which may make your trolley easier to identify from a pile of identical ones, but some other distinguishing features may also be useful!

For towing on the water you must tie a bowline around the mast. The bow fitting with two short screws is not strong enough to tow from. The longer the tow rope the safer and more comfortable it is to be towed. Around 15 metres or an old mainsheet work perfectly. Tie the rope around the mast with a quick-release bowline.

SELF-BAILER

Lasers are now supplied with a self-bailer fitted. If yours hasn’t got one you should fit one. It gets rid of water more quickly than the bailing hole; the only thing to remember is to push it up when coming ashore, or it will be broken on the beach.

You normally sail with the bung pulled off and pushed under the grabrail (see below) or in your lifejacket pocket. However, if the wind drops, push the bung back onto the rod. The positioning is critical: slide it on far enough so that it seals the hole when you push the whole lot aft. But don’t slide it back so far that it restricts bailing when you pull the whole lot forward.

GOOSENECK

The gooseneck should be tight so there is no sideways movement. It may need to be tightened when you buy a new mast. After this, tape over the bolts to provide smooth running for the downhaul.

WIND INDICATORS

Many choose to have a burgee (flag) at the top of the mast. The burgee must be balanced properly, or it will give misleading information when the boat heels. To balance a burgee, hold it with the stick horizontal: if the flag itself flops downwards, wind tape around the balance wire to give it more weight. When it is balanced, the burgee will stay level when you hold it horizontally. Put tape around the middle and bottom of the burgee stick. When you push it into the sail sleeve at the front or back of the mast, the tape will stop the burgee sliding around. Alternatively, you may choose a wind indicator.

This can be taped to the bow eye, though this type can get whipped off by someone’s mainsheet. I have come to like the Hawk indicator attached to the mast in front of the boom, which is sensitive and in the helmsman’s line of sight.

SIDE CLEATS FOR THE MAINSHEET

These should only be used when you need a free hand for something else. At other times the centre ratchet block will take most of the mainsheet’s load, particularly if you have the kicking strap (vang) tight. You may even decide not to screw on the side cleats. But if you do, align them like this:

• Fore-and-aft: the centre of the jaws in line with the end of the grabrail

• Sideways: the screws should go through the join between the smooth fibreglass and the non-slip surface

RUDDER

The rudder can fall out if the boat turns upside down. It doesn’t float, so make sure that the rudderstop holds it in place. If not, loosen the screws and adjust the rudderstop. A (correctly) tightened traveller is not only fast but stops the rudder falling off if the boat turns upside down.

Having the rudder fully down is absolutely essential to minimise weather helm. Therefore you must use an extremely low stretch rope and purchase system for the rudder downhaul. Some sailors will choose to leave this permanently tied, effectively giving a fixed rudder, and not untying the tiller from the rudder for the duration of a regatta or club series.

TILLER

This corresponds to the steering wheel of your car – no slack is expected! If the fit of the tiller in the rudder head is poor, take the tiller out and squeeze the sides of the head in a vice until the slack disappears. If you have a carbon tiller, file it until it fits snugly in the rudder head.

You may like to shorten the tiller so it doesn’t project into the cockpit – this makes steering easier when you’re sitting back on a broad reach or run. If you have an old rudder, don’t use the retaining pin in the stock – the mainsheet just catches on it.

Ideally have a flat rectangular tiller rather than a round one – it interferes less with the traveller. Also have a metal protecting strip on the tiller to avoid the traveller damaging it. Make sure that the metal protector is well forward so that the traveller is still on the strip when the tiller is pulled to the side.

TILLER EXTENSION

The tiller extension is quite slippery, so wind some sticky tape round it every few centimetres. This makes a series of ridges which stop your hand sliding.

You may find that you need to fit a longer tiller extension: you must be able to steer easily when hiking at full stretch or when sitting forward in light airs.

Tape the tiller extension joint so it doesn’t come undone.

CENTREBOARD

Check that the trailing edge is straight and there are no ‘dings’.

With the board in its case, raise the board 30cm and draw a line. This is the ‘max up’ position, and means that you have about half the board in the water.

If you capsize and the boat turns upside down, the centreboard may fall out. To prevent this rig a length of thick shockcord from the bow eye (attach it with a bowline), through a loop in the (compulsory) mast retaining line, to the centreboard. Make it tight enough to hold the board up when you’re reaching and running, but not so tight that it pulls the board up when you’re beating.

You are allowed to drill holes in the centreboard to rig a rope handle, and many find this useful.

SAIL

Stick pairs of telltales (woolies) to the sail. Either purchase custom-made telltales or use 20cm of wool and pieces of spinnaker repair tape.

If you look at lots of different sails you will see that people have various views on where to place the telltales, but I will suggest common positions. (The relative positions are the same for all 3 rigs.)

The most important telltales are the bottom set, used for adjusting the mainsheet on the beat and the reach and knowing how to point on the beat. Use the leeward telltale here – the windward one will be just lifting. They should be positioned:

• 42cm back from the front point of the sail behind the luff tube

• At the height of the lower batten

• Ensure that the end of a telltail does not touch any sail seam, as it could get stuck

Many also fit a pair of telltales in the same relative position to the middle batten.

Some fit a pair in front of the top batten and use them for kicking strap (vang) tension on the reach: adjusting the vang until both telltales flow. You can also use them on the run to determine which way the flow is going over the sail. Candle wax can be used on the telltales and the area of sail over which they move to ensure they don’t stick in the rain.

TRAVELLER

ILCAs are now supplied with a single block connecting the traveller to the mainsheet. Previously there were two separate blocks which you needed to tape together for rigidity, to avoid them twisting or even separating.

Feed the traveller rope through the traveller block and the fairleads, pull tight and tie a bowline. This knot needs to be well aft of the cleat, so you can (later) pull the traveller tight. Feed the tail through the bowline and then the cleat and tie a handle, so the rope hangs clear of the bailer. Pull...