When I was starting out racing on our tiny lake, a mentor told me to look for more wind near the shore in light air. This appeared to be true frequently, but as with many rules of thumb in sailing,…

In this post we discuss Velocity Made Good or VMG. Many newer sailors are not familiar with this important concept, so we’ll discuss the definition and show some examples. Then we’ll discuss how to use the concept of target boat…

A well-organized, two-boat testing program is the best way to make advances in boat speed.  Mark Reynolds in mysailing.com.au While racing, it’s hard to isolate the factors that contribute to differences in boat speed. If you have the time and…

“Sailboat racing becomes a game of chance only when you are not prepared.” Buddy Melges “The good sailors all know how to race very well, but the champions have won the regatta before the racing begins.” Paul Elvstrom If you’re…

Highlights For your SailZing editors, the major highlights of 2019 were our audience growth and the new directions that we are taking. Users are responding positively to our increased video content, including drone video analysis, tutorial presentations, and our Tactical…

Drone video helps us to capture scenarios showing decisions being made and clearly show the result. In this case, we saw a leeward mark rounding that might be helpful to share. We also roughly modeled the scenario with wind tunnel…

Here’s a fun activity for newer Optimist sailors. Use the worksheet to match the parts of the boat to the arrows in the drawing. This is a matching exercise – the worksheet lists the parts. Download the worksheet and answer…

Welcome to our series on upwind mainsail trim. This article covers Angle of Attack, which is Part 1 of a four-part unit on shaping your sails. In this series, we’re presenting a comprehensive review of basic and advanced mainsail trim…