Here are some of my top tips

1. Go to plumbers merchant and invest in a can of silicone spray. Not the WD-40 variety as this is sticking and attracts dirt and dust.
2. If you have hanks on your head sales they need to be de-salted. A hose with freshwater will do the job perfectly adequately.
3. Dry hanks out carefully and then spray with silicone.

I will be the adding some more tips for the keen sailboat racer over the next weeks so keep visiting the website.

The last couple of weekends have been very disappointing for our sailboat racing in Pwllheli. The winds have been light and this has meant one frustrating race after another. So you might say that we’ve been praying for rain to make the best of our sailboat racing season. I was reading recently about kite boards and how amazingly small they can be. However they can carry a grown man at speeds approaching 60 knots. The really keen kite boarders get excited when they look for storm systems and the more dangerous it is the more exciting it becomes. I know there was a bit of controversy a few years ago about calling kite boarding sailing when there was an argument about world speed sailing record. All I know is I’d like to have more wind on Cardigan Bay for our races in the autumn season to be more exciting.

Pwllheli sailing Academy

Latest news on this exciting project that will increase the profile of sailing in Pwllheli and all over North Wales is that construction is due to begin on the sailing Academy in January. As is the case with so many of these projects funded publicly the Pwllheli sailing Academy has to be completed on budget and within a specific timetable. I’ll be blogging a lot more about this as the development begins.

Thanks for coming up with a great design.

I was reading an article this morning about hoe to attract youngsters to sailing and how to keep their interest in sailboat racing when their peers have no interest in sailing. I know when i started to sail I was very lucky as my parents took me to Newquay every summer and I learnt to sail from an early age surrounded by youngsters of a similar age all keen on sailboat racing. And of course we saw sailors in the 20s, 30s,40s and older so sailboat racing became a part of my life.

Olympic sailors

I was really please when we received the recent review by Nigel Cochrane the Candaian Olymic Team coach who said

“The Wot-tac was an invaluable tool for me as a coach at the Olympic Games in London 2012.  It was the most reliable coaching aid I had and it allowed me to quickly analyze the course orientation and which end of the line was favoured.  I would highly recommend this device for any serious coach or keelboat racer or even possibly a dinghy sailor if they were able to keep it close at hand.”

And we also had another review from David Wright of the Canadian Olympic team

“It is a very innovative and simple device that eliminates any doubt in your math to give you the precise geometry quickly and easily”

I’ve always known that the wot-tac should be an indispensable part of every sailboat racers kitbag.

Thank-you for providing me with such a valuable tool.  I was not expecting this device to be so helpful.

Nigel Cochrane

2012 Canadian Olympic Team Coach

Thanks Wot-Tac!

Rob Gibbs

Reading today about the latest reports form the states about the Americas cup – arguably the greatest sailboat racing. It’s great to see that next time the Americas Cup will be spectator sport (almost). The city of San Francisco has turned this sailboat extravaganza into an event. But the sums of money involved are staggering and i wonder what will become of the actual sailing and whether the sailboat racing and spectacle side of the event will take over the whole thing.

Vendee Globe Solo

This is arguably the most challenging sailboat racing event in the world. It is eagerly awaited every four years. Twenty skippers are lining up to take part and participate in this great sailing showcase. There are three Brits competing in this the most brutal of sailboat events and i wish them luck in their campaigns. Alex Thomson, Samantha Davies  and  Mike Golding are up against a dozen French competitors making this sailboat event a race dominated by the French

I’m a US Sailing Small Boat Sailing Instructor and have the great pleasure of introducing many new sailors to the sport.  In class we talk a little about racing but a lot about wind and how the wind affects your course.  Because every student learns differently, I have about 3 ways of explaining almost everything.  The Wot-Tac can suddenly help some students “see” the wind and how changes in the wind change decision making on the race course.  You can really see the light go on when the Wot-Tac has been able to help a new sailor visualize concepts like “wind shift,” “favored tack,” and “favored end.”

Thanks Wot-Tac!

Rob Gibbs

I’ve sailed since I was a young boy and I’ve done lots of different sailing from dinghies to keelboats. It can be frantic on a keelboat doing some serious racing and the wot-tac can be an invaluable guide to helping us predict where the wind will be over the side of the boat. It’s one of the gadgets that’s become invaluable and an indispensable part of the kit bag.

Paul Vernon,Southampton, England

Once I saw the wot-tac I was hooked. Because it’s so easy to use it makes predicting the start line bias very easy. I sail a Cork 1720 in Cardigan Bay and knowing where the bias of start line is crucial and then when I’m on the windward mark I can use the wot-tac to tell me whether a gybe set or bear away set is preferred. So all in all the wot-tac has become a regular part of my kit.

Andrew Brook   Skipton, Yorkshire, England

I bought the wot-tac on the internet as it was such a good price and I thought that it would be a useful tool as I’d come across the Musto Compucourse some time ago. It’s been a fantastic addition to my sailing and my crew find it an invaluable tool when we’re plotting races.

M.Walker   Melbourne Australia

This day in 1983 saw sailboat history being made when Australia 11 won the Americas cup. At the time the Prime Minister of Australia Bob Hake declared that “Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum.” Now that ‘s the sort of attitude I like towards sailing and sailboat racing in particular.

And now with the Americas Cup a very different sort of sailboat challenge to what is in 1983 the sailing fraternity and sailboat racing in particular is tuning up to see what happens in San Francisco.

Australian season

The sailboat racing season is about to start in Australia and we are working with our distributors Ronstan to bring the wot-tac to the attention of as many keen sailboat racers as possible.