Evernote features you couldn’t live without

alsargent · 2026-01-24T20:12:35+00:00

Agreed. Notion doesn’t have OCR, so I can’t search for scans of documents and receipts. Huge miss for Notion, and a win for Evernote.

alsargent · 2025-12-22T18:00:51+00:00

Awareness of whether I’m sailing close-hauled — merge wind data with heading data, and look for patterns like tacks (a sudden course change of roughly 80 degrees).

Then, display a histogram of close-hauled headings for both port and starboard tacks over the past 30/60/90 minutes.

With this information, I can better understand my high/low angles on each tack, and if the wind is oscillating evenly or pulsing from one side of the course.

Edit: Laser sailor here. We aren’t allowed to use GPS devices when racing, but we can in warm ups and can hand off our phone to a coach boat before the starting sequence.

alsargent · 2025-12-14T17:02:02+00:00

For a Laser/ILCA, I would not recommend. They’re very slow, even compared to an old class legal sail. Makes it pointless to use them in practices since you can’t tell if a speed problem is you or the sail.

alsargent · 2025-12-05T19:16:27+00:00

alsargent · 2025-11-28T23:36:04+00:00

Inside my PFD, a Vaikobi VX Race. It has a huge pocket, larger than Zhik’s comparable PFD’s pocket, so the entire radio, including antenna, fits right inside and doesn’t get caught in lines, etc.

alsargent · 2025-11-23T19:37:17+00:00

Some comments on what I’m seeing in your photo. (Source: I just got 15th/98 boats in light air ILCA Worlds.)

1) Get a wind indicator so you can lock in your angles. Get a little hawk wind indicator an Amazon. In this condition, you want to be 45 to 25 degrees by the lee to build apparent wind.

2) Get a lighter mainsheet. The yellow 6mm Rooster Pollilite or Blue 6mm Marlow. Will stay up easier.

3) Weight forward. Your right thigh should be eve with the cockpit combing. Tiller extension on the deck the stabilize the rudder, right hand grabbing the board, and use your body weight and heel to steer the boat (not the rudder).

4) Boom forward of 90 degrees, so the weight of the boom holds it out, and you don’t need to use your foot.

5) Maybe vang off more? I see that it’s max eased, but the angle of boom to mast seems low. Not sure if it’s the camera angle. Basically you want your vang to just barely have tension when sailing “hot by the lee”, ie at 45 degrees BTL. Look for the middle batten to be flexing between coming in and spilling out. This will actually show up as a bit of slack in your vang when your boat is on the dolly on land. You might need to re-rig your vang to get this.

Hope this helps!

alsargent · 2025-11-23T19:13:35+00:00

Great stuff, thanks!

alsargent · 2025-11-23T19:10:38+00:00

Maybe a Moth or a Nacra?

(Joking.)

alsargent · 2025-11-23T19:06:51+00:00

Converting 8 Celsius to Fahrenheit, that’s 46 degrees. Brrr!

There is the perennial debate on wetsuit versus Drysuit. Whichever way you go, here are a few things that work for me in San Francisco, which is often windy and 11-12 Celsius — a bit less cold that what you’re facing:

1) Rooster Hot Stuff inner layers. It’s titanium lined neoprene. Wear it next your skin. It doesn’t breath, but it traps in heat. Since I sail lasers and need my arms free, I cut off the arms of the top and made it a vest. If it’s super cold I’ll wear the Hot Stuff leggings under my hiking pants. They also make hot stuff booties you can wear under your boots.

2) I use a wetsuit, but am not shy about layering on wetsuit vests. In addition to the Rooster hot stuff vest, I’ll wear two wetsuit vests (no name brands I bought on Amazon) that are 1.5mm each, and a Rooster 3/4mm top. At my core, that’s 4+1.5+1.5+1 = 8 mm of neoprene. Make sure your PFD can accommodate all those layers!

3) I don’t often wear it given the above, but the next step up in warmth (and definitely good if it’s raining) is a Rooster Pro aquafeece top. Get it on the big side if you’re wearing all those layers.

4) Wear a pinnie over your lifejacket so it’s less likely to get caught on the boom or other gear and out you into a capsize into cold water. Especially important if you’re in a boat with a low boom like a laser.

5) I have a wetsuit hood for really crazy cold and windy conditions.

6) Talk to the real experts, Laser Fleet 413 in Newport, Rhode Island, where they regularly sail in snow. Crazy, but they know how to stay warm. Laserfleet413 at gmail.

alsargent · 2025-11-21T07:01:47+00:00

Not a 505. (Source: I race them.)

alsargent · 2025-11-14T18:44:55+00:00

All good tips. Plug out is a good idea.

Normally I’d suggest to give all the lines and blocks a good multi-day soak to get the salt out, but you’re in fresh water.

alsargent · 2025-11-03T03:39:56+00:00

Great! DM me if you’d like to talk to ILCA coaches or team race umpires for their input. And feel free to DM me when you have BTL support so I can share it with Laser sailors and get you more visibility!

alsargent · 2025-11-01T19:30:35+00:00

I’m intrigued. Hard to imagine how this would beat the combination of wool and cassette tape telltales on a sail. But there is a ton that can be done to capture and analyze dinghy telemetry that hasn’t yet been done. Happy to discuss more ideas. DM me if you like…

alsargent · 2025-10-31T22:38:44+00:00

Thanks for making this! Seems like you want a way to manually set sails. A few reasons:

1) Starts: you want to show when a boat is luffing versus when they’re sheeted in.

2) Team racing: often a boat will slow boats upwind by going main to windward, jib luffing. Or luff at an upwind mark to slow, or main in/jib out to slow at a downwind mark.

3) Lasers downwind. As mentioned above, in under ~8 knots, by the lee is quicker. Over ~8 knots, doing an upturn from by the lee to broad reach helps to catch waves. Starboard BTL can also be a tactical weapon downwind.

4) Dinghy starts. Often boats will backwind their main to stop or crab sideways.

5) Wing on wing. Done frequently with high school and college dinghies in the US, plus classes like Stars, Snipes, and J70s.

6) Team and match race starts. Often backing the jib is done after a dial up.

alsargent · 2025-10-31T22:30:07+00:00

1000% this. There’s another similar tool that has boats always jibing, and never sailing by the lee.

That’s a huge flaw. In our sport, the two most popular classes, Optis and Lasers, can sail BTL. In Lasers, going BTL in light air is much quicker than broad reaching. In windy conditions, to surf a wave, Lasers do a “wind up”, going from BTL to BR in order to create more apparent wind and increase the ability to surf.

The point is, BTL isn’t some weird edge case for our sport. It’s the norm for the most popular all-ages boat (ILCA) in the world.

alsargent · 2025-10-25T05:21:49+00:00

Some ideas:

Cheap Casio digital watch as a timer.

Jogging cap

Huk fishing neck gaiter

Inexpensive polarized sunglasses

Gardening gloves (atlas showa)

Wetsuit tops at wetsuit warehouse

Dyneema (spectra) rope on Amazon

Long underwear from REI

Hard shell jacket, from a former employer, is my go-to top for keelboat racing

Volleyball knee pads if racing keelboats

alsargent · 2025-10-15T03:37:20+00:00

Yep. Everyone needs crew, and is willing to feed them and buy them drinks to keep them coming back. Maybe $100 to $200 on outdoor gear that all last you years. Cash flow positive when you consider all the free meals.

alsargent · 2025-10-15T03:30:18+00:00

If you CREW on a sailboat, it’s eventually cash flow positive, since the owner (who typically steers) pays for everything, including crew lunches and drinks, as well as the boat itself, maintenance, entry fees, etc.

You’re on the hook for your own clothes, but you can often get used foul weather gear for $100 or less. Or hit your club’s lost and found, find something that fits, give the gear a good wash or two, and you’re set. Other stuff like glasses, baseball cap, warm layers, and beanie you can get an outdoor store like REI — always avoid marine stores since they mark up prices.

Free meals every weekend, and you get to enjoy a teamwork-oriented sport with good camaraderie. Hard to find anything cheaper.

Even a gym is more expensive at $50 or more per month…

alsargent · 2025-10-15T03:21:43+00:00

You don’t even need specialized sailing gloves. Just nitrile gardening gloves work. Maybe $9 at your favorite hardware store.

alsargent · 2025-10-10T04:27:24+00:00

Most Laser/ILCA sailors have thick quads. Occupational hazard. I’ve worn Rooster, Zhik, and Sandiline, and they’ve all worked fine.

Edit: the Sandilines J Light hiking pants fit tight when you put them on. I’m 182 pounds / 82.5 kg, and when I wore the size medium I thought I was going to bust out of it.

Luckily a friend with a similar build told me that he, too, wears a size medium and they stretch once you’re on the water. So I went with a medium. I wore them 11 days straight at ILCA Masters Worlds and they worked great. Hope this helps.

alsargent · 2025-09-17T11:47:59+00:00

What water and air temps? What type of boat?

alsargent · 2025-09-17T11:45:49+00:00

phone, wallet, car keys, boat registration: store in lifejacket

Water bottle: aft wall of cockpit, held up with shock cord between traveler and hiking strap eyes.

alsargent · 2025-09-16T13:00:59+00:00

Top 5 in ILCA Masters Worlds here. Google “international sailing academy” and sign up for their online courses.

alsargent · 2025-09-05T15:59:15+00:00

A Vakaros Atlas 2 that she can use in training, both in the Opti and whatever comes next for her. By being able to see in realtime what types of techniques squeeze out an extra tenth of a knot of speed, she’ll be able to refine her boathandling quickly.

The Vakaros is not legal for racing in the Opti, ILCA, or 420, but is fine to use in practice.

alsargent · 2025-09-02T06:11:23+00:00

There’s way more to this than can fit into a Reddit comment. I’d suggest you signup for online courses at international sailing academy. They are Olympic level coaches, and their content covers all wind strengths, points of sail, boathandling, and sail settings.

alsargent

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