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Speed Secrets from Oz - How We Did It – Part 2 of 2

This article is reprinted from the March 1997 edition of Tasar Australia, compliments of editor and Tasar World Council Past President Rob Gilpin. Rob interviewed four of the top finishers at the Australian National Championships held in December 1996 at Hervey Bay, Queensland, who generously revealed their secrets for making a Tasar go fast on all points of sail. Two of those interviews are reprinted here.

2nd Place: Glenn & Vanessa Collings

As a lead up to this regatta, Glenn and Vanessa had to find babysitters for about four weekends in November and December so they could come and race with the Tasar fleets at Chelsea and Rye. Even with an old borrowed mainsail, they soon found that their speed was as good as the best of those fleets and improving. Thanks to Vanessa’s father, Geoff Dawson, and friends Lynda and Natalie Katers, they were assured of baby sitting resources to be able to compete in Hervey Bay. (answers by Vanessa Collings)

Upwind

Most important things done by the skipper?
- skipper needs to determine the settings of the outhaul, main-sheet etc
- keeping the boat “in the groove” and as flat as possible at all times
- Glenn plays the mainsheet all the time (especially in heavy air) and keeps his head “out of the boat” to look for pressure
Most important things done by the crew?
- keeping hiking until the toes go numb, then hike some more
- constantly check the compass, fleet movements
- play the vang and jib sheet, and to a lesser extent, the outhaul and cunningham
Rig Tension?
- in heavy air, the rig is set so that with both shrouds forward, it is easy to get the forestay onto the furler.
Diamond Tension?
- we use loose diamonds. It is possible for them both to touch the mast just above the gooseneck. (Note: our all up weight is 143 kg and we are vertically challenged.)
Gust Response?
- generally, was to play the mainsheet and vang and hike really hard.
Other Comments?
- during the regatta, we weren’t pointing high but we had good speed. We felt that we need to develop better pointing ability, especially for short course racing.

Reaching

- we had good speed on shy reaches, using our normal settings
(which have been described in many previous Tasar articles).
(Vanessa only gets half marks for this, I reckon she’s fudging-
Ed)
- in heavy conditions, very few adjustments were made - adjustments were restricted to rotation lever, centreboard, vang and jib fairleads.
- we noted that “Didjabringabir” were VERY fast on broad reaches and we’d like to hear from them!!

Running

Do you prefer to go deep or wider?
- we usually try to sail as deep as possible but are constantly looking for pressure and adjusting sailing angles for this.
Settings?
- the rotation lever usually over rotated
- centreboard up about 2 feet
- rig forward except when Glenn was sitting on the stern

Overall
- after a 4 year break from sailing, we found that our starting ability and tactics were very rusty but they improved during the series. Our fitness and reaching speeds needed some work -especially in the heavy winds (the sports massage was great!!). We seemed to be able to set the boat up for heavy air beating quickly and were fast in this mode. 

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