Watching this video had me thinking, wish my crew was that handy with the spinnaker (oh crap, i sail uni), and are there others that stand up on the boat as much and get out on the trap from standing?

Do all you Tornado guys have your spin. halyard set up so your crew has to pull up from down low? My back hurts just watching this guy raise the spin and it doesn't look very fast either. It looks like they are using the separate tack line system.

What about spin halyards I see mounted to the mast so you can pull straight down, using your weight to help, and a longer pull stroke, instead of bending over and using a shorter pull as in this video?

Timbo: In all my years of crewing, I MUCH prefer the spin cleat location on the front beam, with a turning block on the tramp so you're pulling from your feet up. For me, I always would fall on my butt on the tramp when I pulled to a cleat on the mast.

When you're pulling up, you get a lot of stability in big waves.

OK, this stand up tack thing the skipper does is new to me. Have I been slacking all these years? Do all of you folks tack wire to wire without sitting in?

The skipper repeatedly goes from wire to standing (how?), tacks under and ducks across, stands and drops onto the wire (from standing) Totally cool! Watch the skipper at 4:10 to 4:25.

This I MUST try...imagine a roll tack while standing! I wonder if he is using a hook and ring or ball and slot?

That is one of the things Robbie told me I need to do as a skipper. As crew I do the standing wire to wire thing and it's actually easier. If you wait until the tack begins you get a bit of a power assist to the standing position. You don't get the same assist on the back of the boat because it's just not moving as much.

YES

note that in many cases, raising the trap handle on the wire is required to do this.

Are these the guys that won the gold in Qingdao?
Source of Youtube video

Ksurfer knows how entertaining my transitions are in the crew postion:

- wait too late until boat starts spinning

- swing in from trapeeze and clobber hull near front beam

- (in heavy air), slide over trampoline and kiss gooseneck with face. The good news is that this helps switch the battens over

- roll around entangling myself in all sorts of control lines like an epileptic on methamphetamines

- swing out on new side while hopelessly entangled and miss the trapeeze hoop with my harness hook (or ball)

- slide rapidly astern and knock off skipper poking myself in the forehead with tiller extension, all while dropping the "F"-bomb several times at disturbingly loud volumes

- EVENTUALLY get sorted out up front just about 5 seconds before the next layline

And THAT my friends, is why I usually sail Uni!

What, and miss out on my stellar crew work? I know that chicks dig it...

Some slick work, lots that can be learnt from it.

i reckon that the skipper has some skiff/49er background trapezeing like that.

the only criticism that I have is that they don't seem to change their techniques as the wind builds, to the point where they nearly stick it in the drink a couple of times and loose the kite over the front before the hoist

Note to self... don't ask waterbug_wpb to crew for me in a race

It's hard to say because you never really see them close up, but based on the sail number and their ability, I would guess that it is Fernando Eschivarri and Anton Paz (the Beijing gold medal winners).

When I was on the RC for the 2007 Tornado NAs in Miami, we watched them come into the leeward gate - they went from ripping downwind to upwind without ever letting the windward hull touch the water. It was an amazing feat of boat handling that left everyone on the committee boat agape.

Really nice guys, too. Fernando is now driving Telefonica Black in the VOR and Anton is the media crewperson on the same boat.

Sail number in the video is ESP 23, does that help ID them?

Mike

It is not the gold winners from China but their sparring partners: http://www.tonirivas.com/trm/profile.html

It's not Fernando Echarvi and Anton Paz, i belive it's thier training partners.

The helm has a very skiff like technique at the end, pulling your self up to standing from the wire is not uncommon. It seems like a good technique, but it looks like he cleats the main coming out of the Tack which can have it's dangers.
It's all really about personal prefrence. Due to the people ive sailed with i now never use the handle coming out of tack, i come out, sit on the hull hook on while sticking my feet in the tramp's toe straps, and just slide out like im hiking and push the rest of the way out on my feet. This means i have full control over the main nearly the whole time.
When im crewing i sometimes use the standing up method, which if you rember to stand up works well crewing as you can just flop onto the wire.

In the way of having the halyard on the tramp, its as easy as on the mast, its all about technique, big armfuls. On the new infusions the mast cleat has got really low, just a few inches above the goosneck, which is still as easy.

Now that is SICK! Super crew! and bad butt skipper.

Yup, that's the preferred method...though there are still top teams "jumping" the halyard with downward pulls at the mast.

What we see in this viddy is the end result of many years with 200-300 days per year spent training as a team. Looks effortless for a reason.


To get started practising this trap method, I recommend performing it on the dolly ashore. After a good 30-60 min of doing nothing but coming off the wire, scrambling to opposite side, then getting back out, you will develop a rythm and it will start to become ingrained in your nervous system.

My one day with a coach had my learning to come off the wire on my knees to be quicker through the tack. I got reasonable at it but have since lost my touch/nerve after not performing it regularly (when not racing) and not sailing for a few months at a time. Tried it last w/e at Catfight and totally botched it in a race...went sliding across tramp and crew ate the boom. Gotta practise ashore before using in race.