Although there was a bit of confusion as to whether it was on or not, so some just turned up for the coffee - Emma and Ruth. Their excuse was that they wanted to find the best spot for coffee at the all new, brand spanking, totz amazing clubhouse that Parkstone Yacht Club now has.
Anyway, back to the sailors.
Sun, water and a light, very light breeze. To go on the water or not? Well we had been out in less, the wind thingy on the platform in the middle of the harbour was showing five knots and if we lived in the middle of a city in the middle of the country and had just driven down to Poole, would we have got out of our cars and said “Nah, let’s get back in the car and drive home again”. No we wouldn’t, and that is sometimes the problem of living by the water, we often wait for the perfect day and so miss out on near perfection.
So four Fusions were rigged but only three taken out as Jill (a light wind specialist) had hurt her back racing on Wednesday evening so she joined us on the RIB with Sue who was responsible for the chocolates. There were a lot of chocolates for just the three sailors, an injured sailor and Sue, but then there is me so maybe just the right amount. Sue did suggest that I checked the sell by date on the chocolates. Yes they needed eating, quickly.
Back to the sailing. Flippin’ gorgeous is all I can say. Teaching Points? Push and wait ladies, push and wait.
No, not a new birthing technique (for all I can remember from the events of 20 years and 14 years ago it could be an existing one - there was an event 17 years ago but I missed that one.....) it is what you do when you tack.
There is a tendency when you tack you push the tiller away from you and move into the middle. You don’t, well you shouldn’t.
You should wait. Wait until the boom starts to move and then move. That wait could be milli seconds or longer, but wait you must.
This makes sure that you are in the middle of the boat at the same time as the boom and keeps the boat flat.We then had some races (Well Liz and Yvonne were two of the three so that was a gimme) and Laura won her first race after going round the mark (there was only one!) the wrong way but we were feeling kind and gave it to her and then she won the last race, totz legit!
They were short upwind/downwind races lasting about five minutes so I felt that we could keep going for a while to give Liz a chance to get her first victory of the season. But No. It wasn’t to happen. To be fair she did cross the finish line first in one race but she was, sadly, OCS (On Course Side AKA over the line at the start) and flatly refused to go back and start again so she’s DSQ (Disqualified) but they were just fun races. Weren’t they…….?
Then we practised roll tacks where the wait after the push is a lot longer.
Did I say near perfection earlier on? I correct myself, it was perfection.
Cue video...
