Let me first start by telling everybody a little story.

Last year I thought I knew a thing or two about sailing a beach catamaran. Sure enough I wasn't a great sailor, but had no issues controlling a boat.

Then the DCC came along and Daniel van Kerckhof proposed to do a trim/tune/sail clinic on a day that was unsuited to make a long distance sail away. I was stressed out beyond believe, for other reasons, but in hintsight this was the most valuable day of 2004. We had eatern (off shore) wind which were fully thermal, overhere that means it contains massive gusts and serious shifts while the seastate is rather flat. Boat control in these conditions is everything. So here I am with a national champ on my boat as crew and we score what thought was good speed, although the gusts were hitting us like canonballs. Boat went from flat on the water to raising its luff hull to the vertical in 2 seconds. Had to dump the main many times to save the boat. Then Daniel gets on board with me, and my crew jumps [censored] to sail with Daniels girlfriend. He says to me pull the mainsail tight, what I do or at least I think I do. Boat is jumpy and hard to control. He says to me :"pull it really tight !" So with the help of my pride I manage to pull another little bit out. Boat feels really powered-up I think we are doing well but my mind is really with the next gust that will make our lives very interesting. Daniel says give me the sheet, what I do, and he pulls out another 2 feet out of the mainsheet. The boat settles down and accellerates. But apparently not enough to Daniels tast as he hands back the sheet and starts to tighten the outhaul (which was very difficult to do with the system I was using then), the downhaul and he brings in the mastrotation in more. He gets out again and I hand him the mainsheet. And to my amazement were doing 150 % of the speed we're doing before, at least it felt that way, with the boat much calmer then before. Sure enough we get hit by a few gusts and shifts and when I was quick enough to head-up we kept up speed. When I wasn't, then Daniel only sheeted the main out a little bit just enough to give me time to react. This was all when going upwind, but it opened my eyes. The remainder of the DCC event I kept asking questions of everyone (also Greg Goodall who was there as well) and I tried to learn as much as I could about how to handle this rig.

Like I said for me it was a really entlighting time and it taught me to see the mainsheet and downhaul really as a combo that need to be handled simultaniously. Considering my prebend was waaay off back then and that my rudders were wrongly alighned it will be no surprise that over the last months I found new and even better settings.

Maybe the single thing that I was taught at the DCC was that you mustn't allow yourself to think that you have reached the maximum a Taipan can do. It sure helped that both Daniel and Anna-liese wooped out behinds with such margins that we fully realized how many years and years of fine-tuning and building up skill we have to do to get to their level of speed.

Actually this all made me remember a thing I once said to friend when a Dutch Formula 1 driver hit the gravel again. He said that this guy was not racing to his potential because the car was inferiour to the others, I said that all the best drivers grew through the ranks because they could make an inferiour car excell beyond itself. That at this level it was rather a question of having the right driver over having the right car and that this Dutch driver just wasn't good enough and his frequent spins were proving that. Never suspected that I would be subjected to the same critisism and that it would help me personally so much.




Please note that I'm personally not there yet myself. I fully expect to spend a few more seasons to get really down with it. So I will tell what I think is right at this current time, or at least what works for me. However everybody should investigate themselfs whether it will work for them. And I would love to hear alternative ways of doing things, certain there are a few methodes that are better still.





This is the biggest "new thing" I had to get my head around too, but It has been nothing but discoveries and thrills for me. Please forgive, me but I really do love this mastsection.




can't comment on that.

Good luck sailing Jerry,

Wouter