Cadet Sailing Weekend
Published 13:29 on 30 Jul 2024
Three days focussing on sailing this year really paid dividends. The improvement that the 24 cadets showed was unbelievable. The conditions on Friday and Saturday were great. With moderate southerly/south westerly winds there was quite a swell but all coped well and the amazing beach crew of parents and helpers made the launch & retrieval look easy! The start racing group, with Ben in charge, grew in confidence, less experienced crews gaining a lot from sailing with more experienced helms. By Sunday they were all flying gennakers and there was even a bit of trapezing. We look forward to seeing them join the Sunday morning racing.
The Taz/Topaz group led by Elliot and Lucas, were complete novices or had very little experience - you honestly would not have known! Top instruction and guidance got them all sailing confidently in no time, with Cameron jumping into various boats to support those who needed on board guidance.
With tricky swell on the beach, the Oppi group sailed on the River where they had some fantastic instruction from Jim on Friday and Lucas on Saturday. All grew in confidence and two progressed to sailing Taz's on Saturday. Eliza provided fantastic support, acting as crew in a Taz and even managed to drape herself over an Oppi!
On Sunday a trip to Beer for ice cream had been planned but with very light winds it would have just taken too long. So Plan B was some light winds sailing for the racing group and games/obstacle courses for the rest. There was some extra tuition from Jim for the River group in the Argo. Even the most timid managed to complete the obstacle course, some with added support from a parent who jumped in from the support boat to do it with them!
With an appearance from the RNLI on Saturday morning and a delicious Mexican meal cooked by Maddie, Scott and Lorraine on Saturday evening, the weekend was complete!
Thanks must go to all the parents and helpers who got stuck in providing support where-ever it was needed. The families who are new to the Club soon settled into the routine and were hopefully made to feel welcome as well as useful! Greg and his team of support boat helms/crews did a fantastic job.