8.30 am Sunday Juniors :
With the cooler weather now here minus the rain and strong winds the conditions are perfect for this early class to get out and practice not only tacking but gybing also . Laya who was the only girl on the day was keen to practice more gybing and from what I say she is starting to really nail it and her general sailing is getting smoother each week . Leon was again out on the laser sitting further forward so gaining more boat speed in the light conditions so well done mate and the gybes werent bad either . With Ross,s guidance the rest of the boys were working on either technique or tacks and gybes and in general doing well and yes Ross is still doing an on shore session back at the beach helping everyone refine especially their tacking techniques and always has a good crowd of interested sailors watching on.
So all in all a good session!
10.30 Youth Training :
With the wind slowly building from the n/w we firstly had a briefing as Charlie wanted to work with Daniel on preferred courses as in lay lines or tacking to a mark ( which is faster ) and I thought everyone would hopefully benefit from the discussion as we have a few regattas coming up over the next couple of months . There were lots of good questions on the topic which we were hopeful would stick in the memory bank ? We hit the water a bit late but at least the wind had come up to around 8 knots with the odd 12 knot gust from basically the west so it was important to keep an eye on the water colour to pick out the gusty bits . Everyone did really well considering the shifty winds and changing wind strength and I dont believe there were even any capsizes even from Ross who still has a tendency to over roll his tacks and gybes !
1.30 pm Open Race :
With the wind conditions starting to turn more north I set the days course using the north course from the notice board but not including navigation marks . It set a reasonable length course thinking in the current conditions ( 8/15 knots ) that it should take about 1 hour for the first boats to finish . We set the start at runners creating a good upwind to A mark up near the top of soverign and with everyone really keen to start we soon had everyone lined up and ready to take off . The best start was from Ross who really nailed the start and was early keeping the full rigs and radials at bay in his 4.7 and also getting a good start were the Open Bic,s who were both up there in the line as the starters horn blew . Early in the race Tom Greg and Nick slowly got ahead with everyone else hot on their heels but Nick again soon broke away and just sailed away and Greg and Tom had no answer ? although the did ask me afterwards why he got so far ahead and I told them his sail shape is much better as the use the newer type of full sail and Nick uses the original laser manufactured sail which honestly has a better shape upwind especially when the wind comes up . In the radials matt did well again with Steve also going well while our youth sailors seemed to forget everything they had been told at 10.30 briefing ???
We have decided next time we have a briefing we are going to supply single ear plugs so that everything that goes in one ear doesnt dribble out the other ear right guys !!!.
Upcoming Event
2022 Youth Midwinter Cup 25/26 June
Winter sailing camps ; 27th-28th June ? 4th-5th july bookings being taken now
CU on the water
J Murphy