It was an ideal day for the Juniors to go out sailing with warm sunshine, a steady 10 knots of breeze. Eight youngsters turned up with Niall and Lyndsay sailing in the Omega and Sunburst respectively, to give the less confident children a free ride. This unfortunately left Connor as the only one taking an Optimist out on his own. He did a great job sailing upwind against an ever increasing tide. When Corin took over the wind dropped and it became impossible to make against the tide. Then the wind dropped even more and the Sunburst struggled to get back to the slipway, having to hug the shallow shore by the club, to sneak out of the tide. He became so keen to reduce his draught, he actually lost his centerboard over the side, and ended up needing a tow from the Safety Boat, with the Omega retrieving the the recalcitrant board! A very diverse few hours on the water, and many thanks to Denise who kept things under control on the shore, and Andy Harness for manning the Safety Boat with such patience despite dinghies scattering in all directions due to the strong tide and failing wind. The next Junior Sailing will be on Friday 27th Nov at 1700 hours (not the 28th as the original Programme) due to the Match Racing now planned for the 28th. Any confident and more experienced Juniors are welcome to come as crew for the Match Racing, and need to contact me ASAP to get in a crew. Places are filling up fast! Cheers, Gill |
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