8,30 am Sunday Juniors ;
With as you guessed a perfect Sunday morning weather wise with the sun shining water temp improving and perfect learner winds but only a small group of sailors we soon had the boats set up and everyone inside for a briefing . Normally we always discuss the wind direction so we can work out the no sail zone but that was a bit of a problem as the wind ( about 1.5 knots ) was moving from west to north so anyone who mentioned either one of those directions got the nod . Once everyone launched you guessed it it went n/e but did pick up a bit allowing everyone to at least get a bit of sailing in well at least until someone suggested capsize which stated a series of capsizing manouveres whit even after some struggling we managed to get Athenia capsizing like the rest even Eddy jumped in and helped out . Athenia was the funniest I have to admit as we were all laughing at her efforts jumping side to side trying not to capsize but with a bit of help from the safety boat she finally went in then kept repeating the process .
10.30 am Sunday Juniors ;
With quite a few new sailors progressing from beginners again this group is really starting to grow so we had a lot of slightly nervous but keen sailors lined up to take their next sailing challenge . The wind had changed from 8.30 class right around to a e/s/e wind variable to 3 knots so it was definitely a challenge . I took off with Teegan in her opti to work on upwind sailing and then Addy joined in with the target being the green channel mark which really tested their upwind skills . Addy wanted whistle gybes which means that whenever I blew the whistle they had to gybe then resume their course . A few of the others wanted to join in ( Eddy , Alex , Tain ) so we ended up with five boats gybing in unison and it actually looked really good . A special thanks to Mason for giving up a solo sail to crew for Mary who has been away for a while and was a bit nervous OK he did jump out at one stage just to show off but Mary just sailed on and picked him up on the next lap , good to see you back Mary.
1.30 pm Open Racing;
With the sun shining brightly and the winds out of the E/S//E at around 6 knots even if a bit flukey we set a start line down near the canal with an upwind well almost at unwind to A mark down east of Runners then a top mark half way up Soverign so the course was basically close reaches broad reaches and a bit of running so a fun sail as we thought the wind would drop . With sixteen boats lined up including Addy and Ollie in Bics plus Teegan in her Opti who were to do two laps in our channel it was a very busy start line especially with Teegan showing the way up front mixing it with the lasers . Teegan actually nearly pulled off a blinder by beating all the boats to the line just missing out by a boat lenght too early but hey a great try Teegan .Amongst the rest Greg was uncatchable and throughout the race just kept extending his lead and everyone else said they just couldn't catch him must be why he had that big smile as he crossed the finish line . Our junior sailors raced well with Ollie and Addy having a great battle but Ollie just powered home on the reach back to the finish with Addy hot on his heels then Teegan who struggled a bit upwind and no we didn't call her back for being a bit early because it was such a good start .
Upcoming ; Pan Pacific Masters Games ; 2/11 November our next major event
CU on the water
John Murphy