Single handed sailing techniques revealed

Gerald New reviews Steve Cockrill's Rooster CD of advanced racing skills

The Rooster Single Handed Technique CD produced by Steve Cockerill has been around for a while and the latest version, which was available at the London Boat Show, has been updated to incorporate the Laser rule changes on fittings.

Aimed at single handed sailors, with the emphasis in both the text and the video clips on the Laser, Europe and RS300, the techniques and explanations would be valuable for most single handed classes and the general boat handling and tactics theories for all sailors.

Steve's background includes championships in Graduate, Europe, Laser, Laser Radial and the RS300, and he has been involved in Olympic campaigns in the 470 and Laser. He is the reigning Laser Radial Masters World Champion and Radial UK Champion. With years of coaching experience both in the UK and abroad he has also developed several innovative pieces of dinghy equipment arising from his hands-on involvement in the sport.

The techniques Steve presents here are the result of hours of sailing and are not aimed at the raw beginner, but rather at the experienced club sailor looking to raise their sailing skills in the racing environment. If you've wondered how the top guys make their boats go so fast than this CD gives you the inside story.

While not the most sophisticated of CD multi-media presentations around, it does come over with the enthusiasm that Steve puts into all his projects and has a much more involved feel than most books trying to put over sailing skills. The CD media helps of course, being able to see the technique demonstrated via a video clip beats a series of photos on the printed page hands down. It is a pity that it is let down by poor editing, with quite a few spelling errors and in one case a complete repeated paragraph - at £25 it really needs to be better.

The disc comprises three technical sections: Boat Preparation, Trim and Technique, and Tactics plus two commercial sections covering sailing clothing and Rooster equipment.

In 'Boat Preparation', Steve covers what to look for when buying a Laser, making simple repairs, rigging a Laser - including the new block systems now allowed - and believe me they may be more effective but fitting them is still the usual Laser knot-fest.

After getting the boat (Laser) rigged comes the Trim and Technique sectio. This covers Adjusting Ropes (actually getting anything to move on the Laser) Boat Trim, Downwind, Gybing , Hiking Style, Unstayed Rig, Upwind Kinetics, Tacking and also a full index of all the videos on the disc - very handy but would have been better as a stand alone item rather than buried here.

The actual sailing techniques are backed-up with explanations of the forces involved and will help to understand why things are happening and allow you to translate the movements to other classes. There are plenty of explanatory videos, which really help to show just what is required, as Steve kindly points out what to look for and by repeated viewing, with a finger on the pause button, it does sink in.

The final learning section comprises; Tactics; Compass work, Racing Rules, Reaching, Starting. The compass section covers both analogue and digital compasses (TackTick) and how to use them in picking up the shifts. The Starting section expands on compass use at the startline and includes a very full explanation of the various starting options and techniques for gaining and holding your chosen line position.

The Racing Rules section is a full download of the Racing Rules 2001-2004 and does not include any explanation of the rules or how the new rules work in practice.

The final two sections are presentations of clothing and equipment available through the Rooster Chandlery, although why a watch that is described as - clouds up in bright sunlight, buttons fall off, watch chip crashes - is sold by Rooster is a mystery?

All in all an interesting use for your PC and a chance to see some high level techniques dissected via the videos and Steve's explanations, that the average the club sailor would not normally come up against. Nothing beats actually getting on the water but this CD will definitely fill in those long winter evenings and get you afloat with a new sense of adventure.

Available from Rooster Sailing
Email: sales@roostersailing.com