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My sailing weekend by Mackenzie Wills and HYC Junior Sailor

posted Nov 13, 2016, 12:58 PM by Admin hycnz

Friday 28th October 2016 – Junior sailing


On Friday we had junior sailing. When we got down it was quite windy and I was a little bit scared. We got down there and there was a new person that was an adult called Hunter. When we got down to the water I got launched off the ramp and then I tried to pull the mainsheet in and it was stiff so I went back into the ramp. Then they launched me back out. I got too scared so I came back in. Hunter was out on the Sunburst with Gill and then they came back in and Gill asked me if I wanted to go out, I had a little look at the wind and it had died down a little bit so I said yes. It was still scary when I got out though. Then we came back in I had a shower and a sausage then we had the debriefing. We hung around at the yacht club for a while when Trevor asked me if I wanted to go out for a race on Eye Spy on Saturday. I said yes. It would be my 6th time on that boat. I was very excited!    


Saturday 29th October 2016 Golden Rivet Race 1

 Saturday was the race day but not for junior sailing. It was for the older people but I still got to go on a boat. I got to go on Eye Spy which I've been on quite a few times. It seemed quite nice weather when we first got down there so I was happy. We hopped on the little dinghy to get out to the boat which was moored out on the harbour. When we were in the middle of the ride there the motor on the dinghy started going funny and making weird sounds. Trevor said we might be out of fuel. And sure enough the motor stopped. Trevor kept pulling the red lever until the motor finally started going. We reached the side of the boat and dad reached out and grabbed the side of the boat. He pulled us around to the back of the boat so we could climb on. Once we got on the boat we motored up and when we started to see more boats that were in the race we started to put the sail up. As soon as we did that we went on a sudden lean. I was a little bit scared. People on the boat kept looking at the time on Trevor’s boat to make sure of the time when we started. Then Trevor told us that he hadn't changed the clock from daylight saving. Then we ended up starting the race 1 minute late. When we started the race I was still a bit scared of the lean but then I got more and more confident. Just as I got confident though the boat started leaning even more and there was water coming in from the sides. I was really frightened. I was still scared coming back from the race until we put the motor on it was better. After we got back I had a drink and some cookies on the boat. We got picked up by Denise from Nona (As Trevor's was out of fuel) and went back had a sausage and came home. When I got home I decided I did enjoy it just I wouldn't have thought it on the boat. 
 



Sunday 30th October 2016 – Junior sailing Dingy race 1

On Sunday I had the first junior sailing Sunday race. When we arrived we started to rig the boats. I seemed confident about the wind but after we started putting the mast up the wind started to get up but I wasn't as scared as the week before. When we got to the ramp Eoghian decided he wanted to come out with me because it was quite windy. I was on the tiller and we started to sail out to get to the buoys. We started going round in circles so they decided to take us back in. When we got back in they decided to take us off the water and just have rides in the 2 Sunbursts. Then custard slice came in because the people in the boat were too scared as well. So now we had around 12 kids going in a boat that had 1 person (Hunter) that knew what he was doing so he had to stay in the whole time and he could only take 2 people at a time and the safety boat could only take 4 people at a time. The sunburst nearly tipped and It got heaps of water in It so the sunburst had ask the safety boat  to go and grab a bailer for the boat. Then I hopped In. it was quite scary but I managed ok. They started taking the catamarans out later on. I was allowed to go on one if I wanted. I would normally but it was just too rough and windy. After that we went home and that was my sailing weekend.  

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