8.30 am Sunday Juniors ;
Well the morning started with rain and squalls so we didnt expect many numbers but by 7.30 things were starting to look good weather wise with the winds dropping back to around 6/8 knots s/e so we pulled out enough boats for around 15 sailors and set a easy reaching course . As usual we had a few first time sailors in the group so with declan / Torin piloting lasers with the beginners we set off for a morning sailing of course only after our morning briefing where we discussed wind direction , no sail zone and capsize drill . TJ decided to try steering again as Daniel normally steers their boat but there are still a few bugs in his technique ! if you can call it that actually I think his biggest problem is just laughing too much which seems to affect the steering way to much causing some wild manouveres and of course capsize but it all turned out well when Dan took over about half way through , still a lot of laughing but straighter lines . The most impressive effort was from our littiliest sailor who ok with Declans help was on main sheet duties just cruising around in the laser well until her hands got tired but still a great effort especially in front of one very proud grandmother.
10.30 Sunday Training :
With the conditions stable at around 6/8 knots we first sat down in the briefing to discuss the set course and especially gybes and centreboard position for unwind and reaching after gybing which even had the assistant instructors thinking hard in question time . We had a mix of lasers , bics and teras out there with addy and alex in bics tom , Aithen and ebony in teras and abbs , ben and eddy in 4.7 lasers . As expected abby and addy just cruised the course especially with their broad reaches with mainly letting the sail out more and very good tacks and gybes . Alex , Aithen and ebony struggled early with a combination of minor errors with things like letting to much sail out on the broad reach especially Alex and Ebony who had multiple capsizes and Aithen just overpowering himself causing a loss of control . So with the tide on the way out I set about pulling each one asside at the inner turning buoy and showed each one how to rectify the mistakes , Alex and Ebony were easy the just werent pulling the sail on enough causing their boats to high side capsize but they did get it and off they went Aithen was doing the age old mistake where he was holding the main when tacking and not the steering but again after some work around the buoy he was off as well . Finally we had Ben whos general sailing is improving everytime he hits the water now all we have to do is get him to look before tacking right Eddy ?
1.30 pm Open Race ;
By tthe time we went out to set the race course the winds had come up to around 12/15 knots e/s/e so we set a start line near the canal with a upwind to A mark and the a long broadreach to reach up to nearly the top of soverign for two laps the a return to A the back to the start buoy and back to a before returning to the finish .
At the start Tom got a blinder of a start and was gone before anyone else realised he had gone and was never headed at one stage pulling out a healthy lead . Greg did slowly close down Toms lead and at the finish line he was only 18 seconds behind with Michelle holding third in a radial for the whole race . Steve and Casey had a great tussle after they both started a bit slow and Simone struggled a bit with the broad reach section but hopefully we have fixed that with a few after race tips about vang tension and body position in her laser in smooth water conditions ( it all helps ) Trish was back from Sydney and had a good sail with Stewart who wasnt an official entry but came out fro a practice race keeping each other company around the course . Where was Charlie ? well apparently soccer is a dangerous game especially went someone does a slide tackle into your right ankle or was it the left ?
Upcoming :
First Race of the new Junior Series is on this weekend finally with conditions looking good for the first series race starting at 1.30 pm in line with the open club race .
P.P.S.C. MID WINTER CUP 29TH AND 30TH OF JUNE
YOUTH WEEK 5/9 JULY
CU on the water
J Murphy