Until recently, we were convinced the holding the tiller extension with a “microphone” grip is always best. Then we talked to some very good sailors that often use the “frying pan” grip. We also read that Ben Anslie uses the…

We’ve written several posts about various aspects of upwind boat speed, but many readers like content summarized. In this post we present an upwind boat speed checklist, collected from previous SailZing.com content. These skills require practice to execute them more…

Can’t point without pinching and losing speed? For this article, we collected everything we could find on how to solve common pointing problems. The experts are quite consistent, and what they say matches our experience. Here are five tips, in…

“Get your head out of the boat” and “Sail by Feel” are both great pieces of advice for racing sailors, especially in small boats with limited (or zero) crew resources. This comes harder for sailors that didn’t grow up with…

Top sailors tell us that angle of heel is everything. Are you having trouble maintaining constant angle of heel in breeze? A good sailor once told me that it’s simply a matter of choice – do what it takes to…

The skipper winning the most races inevitably is going to be the one with the best touch. I call touch the simultaneous coordination of steering and sail trim with wind and sea conditions. Sailing upwind is really a never-ending series…