Thanks Martin,

The Tasar Dinghy is derived from the Australian NS14 which I spent most of my early sailing career in. I’ve also spent time with Frank Bethwaite on boatshow stands. Great man and great boat.

He gave me a copy of the Tasar Sailing Manual which was a revelation on fast sailing techniques compared to other texts at the time. Very advanced. Readers can click that link to download the most important parts of the manual.

Google is actually pretty good at translating the French. I was quite surprised how readable it was! Here is the translation of your quote;

FIRST, whatever your heading, you must keep your boat FLAT. SECOND, for all gaits that are sharper than the drop, in the event of strong gusts, release the sheets so as not to heel AND point lower to gain speed. What you lose in course you will gain in speed towards your goal. THIRD, for all gaits exceeding the reach, avoid the backwash gait and opt instead for a more controllable wide open and much faster: as with upwind speed, what you lose in heading you gain in speed towards your goal.

The method I am explaining is slightly different. It is also drawn from Frank Bethwaite’s research in the last decade. Covered very nicely in his book “Fast Handling Techniques”. There are more complicated books with very similar titles.

For going upwind Bethwaite’s more current advice doesn’t suggest bearing away in gusts – at least for boats that won’t start planing easily upwind. Catamarans, trapeze dinghies, Tasars and NS14s definitely can make use of a small bear away techique to hit much higher speeds to cover the extra distance.

The bearaway in gusts method is still the best method for crosswind and downwind sailing and has remained unchanged in Bethwaite’s recent writing. I cover that method exactly in a following section – Sailing for Balance.

The boat was sold with a great deal of documentation at the time, apart of the rigging parts, mainly consisting in “australian” ways of handling lightweight moderately canvassed sailboat: 175 lbs and 125 sqft for the fully rigged fiberglass built Tasar !

One of the main thing I had to do was to dislearn was the luff-in-the-gust technique.

It is easier than we might think because it is pretty much more confortable in a high wind situation (I guess also more secure). At the time, I said that my Tasar was the first dinghy sailboat that I owned that acted as theory predicted… But having such a good feeling for the Tasar dis not confirm any of the Frank Bethwaite theory.

In vacation in an outdoor leisure centre in Quebec, I was able to test this sailing theory of Bethwaite on a 5,3 km long lake.

I and one of the sailing instructor were to go from one end of the lake to the other end and back because we were the only ones having fun to do it in the gusty inland lake conditions (others were sailing closer to the base).

He was a 6 foot guy at 175 pounds and I was a 5 foot 7 inches at 145 pounds at the time (the weight has changed after 35 years ;-)).

So we started on two Lasers and came back with me a good 3 minutes ahead !. Why ? I just applied some principles from the Betwaithe-Tasar book. There is three that I remind for STRONG CHANGING WINDS.

WARNING: Maritime language being so different between English and French, this part is in french my native language (or partly)

PREMIÈREMENT, quelque soit votre cap, il faut maintenir votre embarcation À PLAT.
DEUXIÈMEMENT, pour toutes les allures plus pointues que le largue, en cas de forte risée, relâcher les écoutes pour ne pas gîter ET pointer plus bas pour prendre de la vitesse. Ce que vous perdez en cap vous le gagnerez en vitesse vers votre but.
TROISIÈMEMENT, pour toutes les allures dépassant le largue, évitez l’allure vents-de-dos et optez plutôt pour un grand large plus controlable et beaucoupt plus rapide: comme pour la vitesse au près, ce que vous perdez en cap vous le gagnez en vitesse vers votre but.

That is the theory, but what about the feeling: it is exhilating ! Most of the time you feel going fast and very confortable (in mildly extreme conditons for an inland lake).

That said, at my age (70), I prefer the “secure” part of the theory: even when I go out with my grown grandson or granddaughter…

Cordially,

Martin G

Hi Tim,

If you are already good at sailing upwind in moderate winds – when not getting rid of power – and can keep the boat at the correct angle to the wind consistently – then this is how to extend it into stronger winds.

We used to think you had to luff to reduce the power of the sails and point higher.

But in our size boats it means you just go sideways because of the slower speed from pointing up and the high side forces on the centreboard because the sheet is pulled in tight (and the sail force is more sideways).

It turns out that it is much better to keep your nice pointing angle from the lull.

Then when the gust comes, ease the mainsheet to keep the boat flat. This was my first stage of implementing the method when racing.

I delayed doing the very small angle change because it is a very small additional efficiency and it was hard enough to retrain myself in the beginning.

Plus the feeling that I was “going low” (no steering to luff) but ending up higher than the other boats in the class who were pointing up in the gusts was just so cool.

Experiencing being in the middle of a paradox. But only a paradox because of four decades of assuming a different (wrong) way was better.

As your BETH sailing canoe has a mizzen – I would set the sheet up to be extremely balanced in the lulls between gusts.

Not weather helm, not lee helm and lots of downhaul. Otherwise it may make the boat point up every gust.

If the mizzen doesn’t have a strong effect on direction – no problem. If it makes the boat point up a small amount and you don’t have to fight it with the rudder – then you get that additional small efficiency dividend, but if its effect is too much and you have to fight the weather helm with the rudder … then you will have to experiment as to what is the best way.

Hope this helps.

MIK