Pwllheli Sailing Club
The second ISORA race from Pwllheli to Wicklow was a great success. There were 13 boats in total and despite the forecast for poor weather the race was a great success and there was a great welcome for all the racers at the club in Wicklow. It’s great to see the tradition of racing in the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association restarting. The Wicklow ISORA race was won by ‘Raging Bull’ the old Pwllheli sailing Club boat ‘Corwynt’ a Sigma 400 with local boat helmed and owned by Stephen Tudor came second. I well remember the races that I sailed on Canterbury many years ago and they all provided fantastic racing, really exciting and I hope that this long tradition continues.
International wot-tac
The sailing fraternity throughout the world continues to be interested in the wot-tac. There are more dinghy sailors and keelboat sailors and indeed cruiser sailors using wot-tac than ever before. We recently sold a wot-tac to Spain and we have appointed dealer in Slovenia so best of luck to all the sailors and their racing community.
Tips
One of the secrets of sailing is knowing where the wind will be and when the best time is to raise to set the right sails. Knowing how to handle a particular situation on board the boat is very important. I was reminded when I watched the television news cast of FIFA president when he seemed to be denying that there was any crisis in world football. I think he should have wot-tac so that he can judge properly which way the wind is blowing. I know there are some sailing teams in the professional sailing world that large budgets enabling them to compete in the prestigious races but the money involved in professional racing is phenomenal. And on the topic of professional football everybody Pwllheli and Wales was excited that Swansea have earned promotion to the premiership. This is the most watched and most successful football competition in the world and is watched by millions. They also happens to be some good sailing Swansea. There is arena and a lot of money has been spent on developing the old dock areas. With Cardiff having just missed out on promotion it is Wales’s second city that is now grabbing the headlines.
We have been asked a number of times why the wot-tac has anti-clockwise markings on the dial. I know that this has confused a couple of people when they’ve been using wot-tac on the water trying to predict whether wind will be when they’re sailing an Olympic or trapezoidal course or simply sailing round the cans. It is the anti-clockwise markings on the dial to make the wot-tac so special. When you’re sailing being able to predict the wind over the side of the boat and knowing which sails will give you the best result to win the race is crucial to understanding how racing either a dinghy or keelboat can be improved by using wot-tac. The wot-tac depends on the reverse angles to enable the sailor to predict whether wind will be for any given leg of a course. I have been told that the mathematical explanation is that reciprocal wind angles enable the wot-tac to predict wind angles over the side of the boat either a keelboat or a dinghy.
