Coaching day at Aldenham Sailing club

First sail of the season!
Jo and I trailed the boat to Aldenham near London to take part in a coaching day with Mike Macnamara. The day was great fun , it was good to be reminded of some key points and I came away with some things to work on. The weather was good, warm for the time of year, with a good breaze that freshened in the afternoon which made for some very gusty conditions.

So what did I learn? here are some of the key things:
Rudder movement: 3" of tiller deflection creates the same amount of drag as sticking an arm over the side. I really need to use less rudder.

kicker tension:
To get max power, let it out until the top telltale streams.
To point high, increase until the top telltale is streaming only 20% of the time.

Sail trim, general principle:
If in doubt: let it out!

Starting:
I was useless at this! I need to improve my slow speeds boat handeling to be able to get my positioning and timing better.

These are just a few of the key points that I have chosen to focus my attention upon, others were good too but it is better to get a few sorted at a time and then pick up others.

The last thing is a realisation that I need to lose wieght and get fit! probably the biggest challange!