I was reading this thread concerning whether people use telltales or not. I remembered while watching the DVD entitled, ‘The Catamaran Sailing DVD’, that Ashby commented about looking at his sails while racing A-class catamarans. Well, I was bored so I went and wrote down what he said concerning looking at telltales. For what it is worth, here is what Ashby had to say on that DVD;

“It is very much a professional reflex but I am always looking at the sail to see what it is doing. I think it comes from me being coached at a very young age to look always at the sails and look at the telltales on the sail to see what is happening. I do it without thinking. Yesterday, when we had the camera on the side, it is amazing to see how many times I look at the sail. Particularly, downwind it is important to look at the sail and make sure you are getting the maximum performance out of the sail. It is very easy to be sheeted too hard and stalling the sail, and it is also very easy to be open and be loosing power.”

Anyway, I thought someone might find it interesting what a sailor of Ashby’s caliber concentrates on while sailing.

Cheers
Bob
boatless at present