We were at Sprecks again today - pretty windy, 4.2 weather, no swell much, cross to cross-on. The entire day was spent doing forward loop exercises, in an attempt to drill them into our heads so we can do them completely automatically. Wow. Hard work. A lot of the exercises involve stooging along and then doing the dreaded sideswipe (front hand forward extended, back arm bent up so hand by your ear), and going over the front to land the right way up with the rig in the waterstart position. This I can do...
And finally, after an exhausting build-up, and in a crappy choppy wrong way sea, we got to try it for real. I managed one attempt, nothing got hurt, and I ended up in the right place, but not really a loop. But I will do this...
p.s. for anyone considering this manoeuvre, tips include: "not letting go with the back hand" - then the sail falls away and you miss it; "keep back hand sheeted in and front arm extended" - that way you're at the centre of all the rotation; I didn't keep my front arm extended on one attempt and landed on the mast - ouch!
Now sitting back at the lodge, drinking beer and very tired, pasta for supper tonight, all I did was cut tomatoes, so that's a bonus!
And finally, after an exhausting build-up, and in a crappy choppy wrong way sea, we got to try it for real. I managed one attempt, nothing got hurt, and I ended up in the right place, but not really a loop. But I will do this...
p.s. for anyone considering this manoeuvre, tips include: "not letting go with the back hand" - then the sail falls away and you miss it; "keep back hand sheeted in and front arm extended" - that way you're at the centre of all the rotation; I didn't keep my front arm extended on one attempt and landed on the mast - ouch!
Now sitting back at the lodge, drinking beer and very tired, pasta for supper tonight, all I did was cut tomatoes, so that's a bonus!
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