Trapeze Technique(!)

From the SA front page: (read whole article here: http://www.sailinganarchy.com/index_page1.php )

Danish 2012 Bronze medallist Allan Norregaard with new crew Anders Thomsen have been testing a rather unconventional form of crewing which landed them in the jury room a few nights ago. Ruled legal by the Int. Jury, Norregaard and Thomsen talked about the theoretical ‘ultimate trapezing’ technique that has been unleashed on the fleet this week on Lake Garda during the SEIKO 49er European Championship.

While sailing upwind, Norregaard passes the tiller to Thomsen, and then climbs up him until he’s standing on his shoulders. Norregaard commented that “it works in stable conditions; 15-20 knots and Lake Garda is the perfect place.”

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Cool move Dough... compliments to a thinking person.

 

I love it. will not take much to have one or both crew go for swim.

 

Fun stuff. Also done by Mitch Booth in 1978, IIRC.

 

and any competitor that happens to wander by will tack on them just to see the result

 

Heh, heh. Yep they sure would. So if they are on port they'll need to pay close attention to nearby jokesters. On the other hand if they are far enough ahead of the fleet, by virtue of their increased power, there'll be no threat.

Clever idea for sufficiently athletic types.

 

Tower Trapezing Outlawed

See here: http://49er.org/latest-news/296-tower-trapezing-outlawed

 

Yep, it was prohibited back in the mid-1980's for the Wabbit fleet in SF-Bay. Too many people getting hurt. The real problem was stuffing it and sending the crew around the forestay or masthead. The real advantage is not the extra righting moment per se, it was getting the weight further aft and the bow up when running.