I get most of the questions that come up on the forum from listers I talk to or from personal emails. Over the many years on the forum I've discussed just about everything I know about sail trim and I'm almost tapped out of subjects so questions from beginners, which is what the sail trim forum is about, turns out to be a great source - if one person has a question other might also.
Unfortunately, sailing has a lot of terms that I have no idea where they came from and really don't have a connection with anything sailing. This is confusing to beginners - at least it was for me - and we just casually throw the terms around because that's the way it goes with funny names in anything. For example, a Cunnigham is named after Briggs Cunningham who invented it and a Barberhauler is named after the Barber brothers, who raced against Dennis Conner in San Diego. Who thought up the name traveler or fairlead?
Who came up with the term pointing - I can understand pinching? A lister from Fort Myers asked me today to define FOOTING so if he has that questions other beginners out there in sail trim land might also. Footing is the opposite of pointing (sorry about that but that's what it's called). Footing is when you're going from sailling closehauled (where did that come from?) to a close reach. When would you want to "foot off"? Boats really don't like to sail in less than 5 or 6 knots of wind. It is hard to point in light air but not if they use the art of FOOTING.
Say you're struggling along in light air and going nowhere. Fall off to a close reach and build up speed. Once you've built up speed come back to closehauled. When you speed starts to drop off repeat the procedure and keep doing it until you get to your destination.
Next time you're out on the water in light wind conditions give it a try and see if it works for you.
Unfortunately, sailing has a lot of terms that I have no idea where they came from and really don't have a connection with anything sailing. This is confusing to beginners - at least it was for me - and we just casually throw the terms around because that's the way it goes with funny names in anything. For example, a Cunnigham is named after Briggs Cunningham who invented it and a Barberhauler is named after the Barber brothers, who raced against Dennis Conner in San Diego. Who thought up the name traveler or fairlead?
Who came up with the term pointing - I can understand pinching? A lister from Fort Myers asked me today to define FOOTING so if he has that questions other beginners out there in sail trim land might also. Footing is the opposite of pointing (sorry about that but that's what it's called). Footing is when you're going from sailling closehauled (where did that come from?) to a close reach. When would you want to "foot off"? Boats really don't like to sail in less than 5 or 6 knots of wind. It is hard to point in light air but not if they use the art of FOOTING.
Say you're struggling along in light air and going nowhere. Fall off to a close reach and build up speed. Once you've built up speed come back to closehauled. When you speed starts to drop off repeat the procedure and keep doing it until you get to your destination.
Next time you're out on the water in light wind conditions give it a try and see if it works for you.