Our recent post, Learn to Change Gears, focused on three upwind “gears:” footing, pointing, and max VMG. These gears rely on changing the angle of attack. In this post we address another form of gears: using sail controls, rig tuning…

If Olympic sailors, coaches, and America’s Cup teams take the time to mark control settings, why shouldn’t the rest of us do the same? We don’t need to overdo it – just a few key marks will help us get…

Struggling with boat speed? Want to sail more by feel? Understanding and managing helm balance will help. In this post we’ll discuss the factors affecting upwind helm balance and give examples of how to apply them. We’ll cover downwind helm…

The MC Scow class is growing rapidly. Some of the sailors joining the class don’t have much sailing experience, so we decided to develop an MC Scow user guide to help them learn the basics quickly. There are also plenty…

Boats with only a mainsail (no jib), sometimes called cat-rigged boats, sail upwind with their boom further out than boats with jibs. Most of these main-only boats use “boom over the corner” as an initial trim reference. (The corner refers…

On a windless day at the 2020 Train Wreck regatta, the organizers put together a discussion of MC Scow sail trim. Bill Draheim from Quantum Sails and Mike Considine from UK Sailmakers answered questions from the fleet. SailZing captured the…