Peter and his Ladies - And in true Sports Day style, it rained!

And in true Sports Day style it rained!

Really rained, even though the weather apps said that there would be an 8% chance of rain. 8%!! Sue, Angie and myself, huddled in the RIB, thinking to ourselves “What are we doing out here?”. Possibly the same thoughts from the 12 sailors as well to be honest.

But with an 8% chance of rain, you know that if it is raining there is a 92% chance that it is going to stop and stop it did.

Coach Peter v Coach Angie

The starts at the beginning left a bit to be desired, but as the rain cleared the starts improved. I think that the sailing improved perhaps due to Coach Angie encouraging some of the group to ignore everything that I said and to just do their own thing… I think that if Coach Angie had done any RYA Coaching courses she would know that there should only be one voice from a coach boat…….

I will not name and shame those that phoned in “ill”, possibly from a beach somewhere in the Med – where better for the whole family to recuperate from a sudden illness that hit the whole family at the same time - but we had our end of summer term regatta with four races and a medal race. This was complicated by having Lasers and Fusions out so we gave the Fusions a one minute head start per race which seemed as scientific as we needed to be.

We had people missing out the start (Lis G), missing out marks (Karina), barging in at the start (Yvonne), leading and then forgetting that there were 2 laps (Sarah), attempting to hit every boat in 5 seconds (Mel), starting early, very early (Pip), scaring me into letting them go early (Jo S) and general magnificent sailing from all.

Cue the video....

I’ve put up most of the videos to show how close the racing was, how good the sailing was and how much fun everyone had.

And the winner is......

Of course it was Yvonne in a Fusion followed by Karina in a Laser. Last podium place went to Jo S in a Laser then a Fusion sailed by Pip came in 4th. So, the handicap system seems to have worked out well.

There was a bit of latitude at the start as, well it was the end of term and well, Jo S scares me….

Having just gone through all the videos, it reminded how much fun the days sailing was. It really was like an end of term examination but without the exam bit. Putting everything together for some really close and exciting racing with nearly everyone being at the front of the pack at some stage with some great starts, great mark rounding’s and a lot of laughing. So, nothing like an end of term examination then……

That was it for the summer break and we all meet up again in September......