49er sailor Simon Hiscocks must be doing something right. With two Olympic Medals a Silver from the Sydney Olympic Games and a Bronze from Athens Hiscocks has been competing in the 49er since 1998 and consequently makes it look easy.

However, Hiscocks vessel of choice, is far from easy to sail and with a huge sail area (consisting of mainsail, jib and asymmetric spinnaker), twin trapezes and an ultra light hull it can reach up to 30 knots in speed requiring concentration, discipline, technique and above all practice to sail well.

In the hope that some of Simon s top tips might help out those of us who hit the water attached to a wire, we asked the Weymouth sailor to spill his trade secrets on one of the essentials of skiff sailing Trapezing.

In part one of this three part series, Simon talks us through how to choose the best kit and the basics of trapezing, in part two we look at sailing with a trapeze and in part three we focus on looking the part and improving your game.

Simon Hiscocks: Techniques for the trapezing crew

Part One - The Kit

Most important for the trapeze sailor is a good harness; I like a good fit so tend to favour a harness with some adjustment. Too tight a fit reduces your ability to twist around, which will have an effect on how much you can see. If the harness is too baggy the hook becomes unstable and won t be easy to find when hooking on and may result in becoming unintentionally unhooked, leaving you in the water.

Similarly avoid baggy and excessive clothing. Wearing a rash vest over your sailing kit keeps the flappy bits tucked away, which is particularly important when after a good day sailing these bits get quite moist. Tucking away loose ties can also help to reduce windage.

Inevitably, with trapezing, you will spend a fair amount of time standing on your feet, so good footwear is essential. Grip is the most important criteria especially when sailing boats that involve standing up. Look for boots with good ankle support and a soft sole to give you a good feel of the surface you re standing on. Lastly, a pair of super gloves will dramatically reduce how hard you need to grip ropes, saving a massive amount of energy and possibly increasing the length of time you can spend on the water.

The Basics

The trapeze is a very powerful tool on a small sailboat. It is used to create leverage to counteract the heeling force from the wind in the sails.

It is fairly important to understand the effect how the trapeze and the way it is used can effect boat speed. Trapeze height is very important. The lower the trapeze height the more leverage is created, the higher the height the less leverage. Later we are going to look at this in terms of modes throughout the wind range. Think of the wind range in terms of power and how the trapeze is used to convert that power into boat speed.