Dont forget that this saturday we are having the sail GP people at the club to discuss their class of sailing and give free coaching tips using the club pacers , it is specially designed for our young sailors to help with their sailing future and is free to everyone who attends so its well worth coming along and having a look and best of all its free !!! The club is also putting on a sausage sizzle plus the canteen will be open . Start time is 11.00am and it goes for approximately 2 hours and by the sound of it it should be a lot of fun .
We will also this weekend be starting our Youth Racing Series with the first race of the 16 race calendar starting at 1.30 pm in front of the club pontoon and it should be a great spectacle with a very keen bunch of young sailors itching to get out there and compete against their friends so good luck to everyone on the day.
8.30 am Sunday Juniors
Well with perfect sailing conditions we soon had a dozen sailors rigged and ready for the 8.30 session and with winds at around 4-6 knots from the s/s/e it was perfect for our beginners reaching course and with Jason and Guy in sarah cooper setting the buoys then watching over the fleet while they practiced tacking and even some gybing . . Great form was shown by Lana and sofia as they just cruised around the course , even the boys on the club laser were doing well just cruising between the buoys . The big challenge was between wetsuit one and two ( Leila & Halle ) as Leila has now taken up the Bic Skiff as well as her sister and actually had a good go at mastering its tricky thanks mainly to Daniel who coached her through the session slowly reducing the amount of capsizes that she started out with so well done everyone . I have to make one special mention and that is the great job Tristan did in front of the class , he had come to me earlier and asked if he could have a go and of course I said yes and truly he was very good for a first time effort with a good strong voice and interacting with the students you should have some very proud parents there Tristan you did an awesome job with more teaching to come Iam sure .Finally I know I am focusing on Tristan but not only did he do a great job in the classroom but he got into difficulties as the wind came up at 10.30 training but he persevered and finally after several capsizes still sailed his boat ashore , Charlie and I were very proud of his efforts at not giving in as it showed real determination to return to shore unaided , just dont forget you gloves next time ?
10.30 am Youth Training
With this group,s Racing Series starting on the 12th of feb we decided to practice sailing around a triangle and with some gusts coming through at 12 knots it was a bit testing for everyone , Zack tried to say he had the most capsizes but we told him that he could not count more than one capsize at a time as he was adding the extra capsizes he did after the innitial one so his total was reduced by half ! Harvey and Reece were rocketing around the course while Gemma is starting to show more speed with better control of her sail sets while xavier is showing better reaching and running speed he just has to work on the upwind . Torsen was absolutely flying on the broad reach but fair enough he was ijn a Tera but hopefully we can get him in a Bic soon . In the Bics the fastest boat by far was Harvey who really made it look easy followed by Reece and then Tristan well when he sat back further in the boat to keep the nose up in the gusts he was quick . It actually looked like a fun sail just the start to their racing careers.
1.30 pm OPEN RACING
With only a small fleet of four boats it was a pretty relaxed start to the 2023 series . It was great to see Russell back after all his drama with the floods when all his sailing gear got washed away ( he lives in tumbulgum ) yep right on the river and although he didnt last long ( broken Gear ) he certainly looked happy being out on the water again. The other returning sailor was Casey who is going to try and do more racing this year , she sailed well but in hindsight should have run a radial as the 4.7 was too slow and greg and Tom just sailed away especially on the runs which were great to watch in winds around 15 knots with the occasional gust . Greg got in front early and Tom admitted he couldnt catch him which was unusual as he normally can when it gets a bit blowy but greg made no mistakes and just cruised over the line and yes he had a big grin on his face as well !
Upcoming
Sail GP saturday 11/2/23 11am dont forget its FREE!!!
Race one Youth Series sunday 12th February starting at 1.30pm
CU on the water
J Murphy