8.30 am Sunday Juniors
Sunday started with the usual bright blue skies and surprisingly warm water but yes the slight breeze was a bit cool . We had our usual first time sailors who went with Torin and Declan on lasers with everyone else in Teras and bics . The briefing was done by Edwina and she did a great job talking about the course and conditions so yes here comes another assistant Instructor in the making . Charlie set a kind of a reach in the basically westerly winds well I say winds but probably should say zephyrs . It was a credit to everyone to at least give it a try and as usual Jade seemed to relish in the conditions as did Jack ( minus Dean ) yep jack is sailing solo and is really enjoying himself as is dean sailing with different crew . Being so light both Torin and Deco were able to get the first timers to even have a go at steering well lets face it not much can happen with an average wind speed of half a knot . Finally did anybody capsize at the end ? well the answer is yes of course they did , I think it was the most enjoyable part of the session.
10.30 am Sunday Training
By the time we started to look at this session you guessed it the shies had gone grey and the rain started falling and the slight winds we had for the early class just disappeared so with the Midwinter cup only two weeks away I decided to see how long I could hold everyones attention with the theory of how to start a race . I know I had set myself a challenge as for thr younger generation the are more interested in speed but knowledge equalls speed anyway. I was actually surprised with the level of attention as I did go fairly in depth with crowded start lines , best start line positions , wind angles and tactics and I believe despite a few people getting and going for a walk everyone actually did take this theory on board and yes the proof will be hopefully seen on the water .
1.30 pm Open Racing
Conditions hadn’t changed much over the morning but everyone was keen to have a sail well except for Casey and Charlie so with my trusty crew we set off in Sarah Cooper to check what was on offer and you guessed it not much was out there so with my experience I managed to set a triangle course just below the canal with an upwind towards the club . It was decided also that we would change it from a championship race to non championship which we would transfer to next Sunday . So that meant that people like Case could go up in sail size from 4.7 to radial . With a basically light westerly breeze we set everyone off in what was basically a two knot breeze so it was perfect for all the light weights . Kate broke away and just took off around the course and surprisingly at one stage the wind speed went up to around three knots but you guessed ity on the last lap heading for the finish it dropped out again so basically everyone just ghosted over the line well except for Simone who was right there but not exactly over the finish line and despite her pleas to the finisher ( Charlie ) she wasnt ticked as finished until he was certain she was over now thats one tough finish line scribe . We decided that we would hold a second race if anyone was keen and a few were and just for the fun of it we put addy on Caseys boat and Casey had a go on Gregs new machine . With Addy weighing 20 kilos she was right up there with everyone else but as the rounded the top mark the lightning appeared in the north so racing was abandoned . All in all though it was fun just cruising .
Upcoming
2019 John Murphy Invitational Mid winter cup 29th and 30th June
Youth week at RQ 5TH TO 9TH July
Pleas note that Club Membership is up for renewal as from the 1st of July and can be renewed either on line our at the sailing office .
CU on the water
John Murphy