Fionnlagh and Kate go to Sailing Camp

In spite of a general lack of sleep in the last two nights, I awoke early to the sound of rain. A brief venture outside revealed a total lack of wind. Still, I drove down to the Royal Victoria Yacht Club to meet up with the others and see what the plan for the day would be. When I arrived, people were busy rigging boats. The wind was picking up we were told. And so it was.

When the rain stopped, it was clear that Royal Vic is a beautiful place to sail. A view to the Haro Straight with snow covered mountains in the background. Coach Steve tells us the water temperature is 7C, which is probably quite a bit warmer than Glenmore most of the summer. Not that I was planning on testing the water.

We began with windward/leeward tacking/gybing practice. I felt rusty and the wind was picking up. Hiking required most of the time. I'm more confident gybing now than I was before Hastings. Roll tacks are terrible again but that is likely due to fear of the new waters.

Next drill was starts. Two minute countdown with the expectation that we would sit on the line and sheet in with 10 seconds to go. Later variation of this drill was two minute countdown with the start anytime in the last 30 seconds. This forced us to sit near the line early. I'm still having trouble with getting to the line at the right time. Too late, too early and over before the start. I also need to work on accelerating quickly from a stop. The coaches said no vang when sitting, a little vang just before the start. Sheet in, allow the boat to heel and balance it for acceleration. Then go all out on the vang and block to block on the main. It sounds so simple but I'm not executing quickly and smoothly.

The next drill was about improving boat speed. All on starboard tack we reached out of the bay. We were then divided into groups: Bytes, Lasers, and Radials. Three Radials. We pulled even with each other and took off when the coaches said go. I fell behind quite quickly. It was comfortable full hiking conditions with gusts above that level. My difficulty is in handling the gusts and keeping the boat level. The coaches were asking us to steer the gusts to keep the boat level instead of dumping the sail. This was not the whole story as I found out back on land. The idea is to punch the rudder quickly to level the boat and then return to even helm. I was luffing to wind which also levels the boat, but it's slow. The other piece that I didn't know was that dumping the sail is okay to avoid stalling in a gust, provided the dump is short and I sheet in again within a few seconds. When tired and scared, the tendency is to leave the sheet out, then I end up steering to the sail trim which puts me on a close reach instead of close hauled as I should be. Way off course.

I think we were on the water for a bit over 2 hours in the morning and another hour in the afternoon. Following the afternoon session, we joined the Royal Vic team for a tactics talk. I learned a lot about the effects of the wind shadow. Most surprising was that tacking past the transom of another boat should give a lift- making ducking more attractive in certain circumstances. We also talked about lee-bow effect and how it is important to tack out of that situation. If covered on a tack, it can be best to foot away to clear air.

Okay, that's enough techie talk for now.. or is it? All that close hauled sailing was answered with an equal distance of fast reaching. I learned a lot there too. Sit further back in the boat, keep shoulders square to the boom, position feet so that I can shift forward or aft as needed. The big difference was holding the tiller extension at the U-joint with the extension vertical for better control. So much easier on the arms and Peter said I have stopped stearing like a drunk! The gusts were fantastic and several times I thought the boat would take flight. Super fast planing is awesome and I am managing to keep the fear under control and smile a bit more on the water.

4 more days of camp to go.