Just as I was getting the hang of twin trapezing and looking forward to taking a look at what the big guns were up to and whether I could emulate it, ISAF bans tower trapezing. I ask you, what could possibly be wrong or go wrong with handing the helm to your crew and then climbing onto his or her shoulders to trapeze even further outside the boat?! 

Of course the truth is that when I read the news that this practice was to be banned I barely believed that it was even possible. Sure I can understand that some of the current breed of skinny whippets that sail 49ers and other high performance twin trapeze boats might find themselves a little short of righting moment at times, but the answer is surely to eat more rather than stand on your crew.

That’s certainly the view of my daughter who crews for me in our RS800 and sent me this video making it clear what was NOT going to happen in our training session this coming weekend.

Fortunately for her, as an extra-medium build with the restricted movements of middle age I’d have trouble climbing out there to start with. But Danish Olympic sailor Allan Norregaard and Anders Thomsen demonstrate in this video how useful a former life in the travelling circus has proved to be for 49er sailing and how to improve your righting moment by 20 percent without putting on weight.