ACF Sailing – Update 17-18th Nov 2018

20 Nov 2018 by Matt Grier

ACF Sailing – Update 17-18th Nov 2018

We can’t help but still be excited about the atmosphere here on our weekends sailing. Getting back to that feeling of being a kid again, sailing with friends and more people contacting all the time to get involved through the winter creating a nice gentle growth. Read below for the account on last weekend.

17th Nov – Learning by playing, keeping things calm and slow, just a little too slow ha.

We took out one Sonar on the Saturday and a RIB to practice playing with the spinnaker. At the point of the first hoist it just felt a little on the top end of the breeze for the newbie ability, but we made the most of it and practiced with just the pole and gybing it without the kite up. Then on the second leg the breeze dropped and had to put the kite up. All went well and great feeling for the guys with the boat flying along. Then we had to gybe, sadly with the wave height increasing and little experience on the boat we got a twist around the forestay but a great experience for the team and no damage done.

18th Nov
Second day we didn’t worry about the kites with the breeze and spreading out of the newbie sailors but we did have more experienced team come to help out for the day. The boat can be sailed really well with little experience on boat just under 2 sails. This also keeps it calmer for people learning and with Saturday they know the progression aim.

So we set as last week with 4 up in each boat with a few homemade rules to keep some tight racing running 8×20 minute approx short course races off of the front of Cowes. Making up some of our own rules like the starting process, how far ahead you can be, random penalties for not keeping to them. All created great banter, competition and fun. Also keeping people moving keeps them warm and focused increasing the learning curve as they have to focus on what is next.

The photos show it all and we can’t wait to do it all again and with growing numbers means more boats on the water soon.

Also to our surprise we accidentally hit the male/female equality by accident! We had;
- Sonar Dolphin – 3 girl and 1 boy
- Sonar Spare Part – 3 boy and 1 girl
- Coach Boat – 1 girl and 1 boy
Disabaled sailors this weekend – 4 impaired (1 off 50/50 in the boats)

Feeling proud of what we have achieved so far.

Messages for;
- Sailors and Volunteers – please don’t forget to RSVP on the event dates so we can manage numbers – Also use the maybe button if you’re trying to come and not sure as last minute makes it hard. It really does help and appreciated. Also if you can’t make it but want to putting a no helps too as shows your interested.
- Non-members or non-attendees reading this – Able or disabled! – Your missing out, get in touch to come and play via either www.acfsailing.org or email info@acfsailing.org

Thank you to all the ACF volunteers, CCYC team and members for helping to make this happen – Loving the atmosphere and what a little team work can do.

Yours sincerely,

The ACF Sailing Team



Location

Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club

Comments --

Loading...