I had an interesting conversation with a Phoenix, AZ trailer sailor this morning concerning sail trim practice and how he does it. He explianed he was getting nowhere. After a few minutes it became obvious that he had no real practice plan. If I fed a monkey enough bananas I'll bet I could train him to to sail a boat. He would not be very good at it because he would have no idea WHY he was doing anything but the boat would go through the water. Bobby Jones, the great golfer, said it best "there are any number of people who have devoted enough thought, time and effort to the game (sailing)to become reasonably good if they had only started out with an accurate conception of what to do". The same applies to shooting baskets, hitting a baseball, kicking a soccer ball or most importantly (for me) hitting a golf ball - I know all about the problems of hitting a golf ball. My problem there is I have not mastered the basics but I will. Unless you understand the basic and have them down pat you will never be good at most things. Additionally, you have to do things in an orderly manner. There are a number of steps you have to go through to trim your main and jib and you can't start at step 6, go to step 4 and then to step 1 and have the trim come out properly. You might say well that's great Don but where do I find these steps. Simple - I've outlined them for you on my SAIL TRIM CHART and in my book THE SAIL TRIM USERS GUIDE. My guarante is the same as I gave the Phoenix sailor this morning. I promised him that if he followed my procedures he would have the best trimmed boat on lake Pleasant or his money back!! Anyone got any questions about practice? I know most of you East coast guys can only do it in your head but soon your boats will be in the water again. In the meantime, why not curl up by the fire with a good book on sail trim. You'll be a high intermediate in no time.
I have reread your book already this winter, and again thank you for putting it so simply to understand. Scott PS: Having additional telltails installed on sails befor spring launch...Thanks again.