5 expert tips

CHRIS HOSKING ON UPWIND MAINSAIL TRIM

PRACTICAL

ANDY RICE talks to mainsail trimming expert CHRIS HOSKING on mainsheet tweaks for ultimate performance

Good trimming has always been an art. Increasingly it’s becoming a science too, with the evergrowinguse of technology. These days the instruments on the back of the mast are just the start of it, with all kinds of live feedback and post-race analytics to help exploit those tiny margins of advantage.

For professional mainsail trimmer Chris Hosking, you still need to relate everything back to ‘feel’, to that instinct that you learned in small boats. Hosking started out in the ultra-competitive single-handed junior class of Australia, the Sabot, and was twice national champion.

Those early years of small boat sailing equipped Hosking with a talent for being able to find the feel in any boat.

“Having grown up in dinghies where you don’t have any instruments or anything likethat, as a kid you have a really good feel of what makes a boat go faster without ever really knowing why. Those feelings, those instincts, still help me today, even when I’m surrounded by instruments and all kinds of data.”

For Chris, good mainsail trimming all comes down to the right balance between the art and the science.

“The data is super important, but if you don’t have any natural feel, you should probably look for another job.”

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