The satisfaction of pushing the boat on a reach in fresh breeze is demonstrated by John Terry (photo right, at Bassenthwaite) whipping along under easy control.   The windward telltales are streaming smoothly. They need a frequent check, sheeting in when the windward telltale stalls, and out when the leeward one stalls.--- in stronger winds it is more important to keep the windward ones flat than to get the leeward set streaming flat as well, as long as not carried to extremes.  Below: Lake sailing gives shifts and lulls--in  lighter breeze, watching the telltales and quick sail adjustments grab the chances.   In light to moderate breezes, a gust will produce a big speed difference--and then a big shift in the apparent wind, so quick and continuing adjustment is needed to take full advantage.  At Bala, Gareth ahead in 521 is responding to a puff and is away, sheeting in and leaning back-----you can feel Alex behind telling the breeze to arrive, so he can follow, but Gareth will be 20 yards on before Alex sets off, and 40yds if Alex is slow to readjust.

Gareth, left, never cleats the mainsheet, to be able to adjust as quickly as possible, so on the reach he is making constant adjustments to keep the telltales streaming.  (It has also let him to avoid any capsize over the years!)

Right:  More light-wnd reaching at Bala   In lighter breeze, getting both sets of telltales streaming will help keep any  burst of speed going. (Reaching, the differences in speed during puffs will be much greater than beating or running before the wind.)    The boats behind the bunch (right) will be delighted that they have bunched up like this---some of them at least must be getting poor breeze, they will be distracted from adjusting for best boat speed, and it is likely that they will push each other up to windward of the proper course to the next mark, having to bear away and go slower as they get near it.

Back to top         Reaching in a breeze       Index for sailing        Sailing Programme       Results and Reports