What a great turnout on Saturday! A grey, breezy day wasn’t the most enticing, but we had loads of cadets at the club, some good sailing and great food for the cadet laying-up buffet thanks to Tina and Sam!
Well done to everyone who’s joined sail training this year, it’s been a really enjoyable year and you’ve all been brilliant to go sailing with. We’ve had a bit of everything, from fully-reefed windy days to calm drifters, and from wonderful planing reaches to spectacular broaches. But most of all I’ve been hugely impressed by the positive attitude everyone has shown, as well as the level of control shown by all the sailors – every time the groups have stuck together and tackled the challenges positively and effectively. And it’s been a real delight to see everyone crossing the start line in a group as the hooter goes! (Above all, we’ve seen more deliberate backward sailing than accidental!)
Oppi Club has been great for the little ‘uns, with games in the Cadet Hut and then some excellent sailing in the shallows in the Oppis. Thank you Fi, it’s been fantastic!
Of course nothing can happen without our many helpers driving and crewing RIBs, allocating boats and counting them back in… and running the galley! So thank you to all of you! And a special thanks to Bryan for all his advice and for taking one of the groups out each session to help them develop their skills, as well as to Dave for all the behind-the-scenes work keeping the club boats on the water and upgrading them.
On Saturday it was lovely to be able to recognise several achievements over the season: thanks to Dinghy Rope and the RYA for some fantastic prizes! As well as thanking those who supported sail training really well and recognising those who made some great progress, we celebrated a few new things this year: six of our cadets deservedly gained their RYA Start Racing certificates, and we congratulated the winners of the inaugural ‘sail training race series’.
And so to the future… we’ll be reviewing this year’s sail training and making plans for the future over the winter, and I’d be really pleased to hear any suggestions. Then with a bit of luck we’ll get a chance to do some team racing at RHS over the winter. I’m sure there’ll be a cadet social in the early spring to kick-off the 2016 season and we’ll be back on the water probably in April (when, of course, it will be warm and sunny, and the tide will be perfect).
Have an excellent winter!
John Nickalls
Cadet Co-ordinator
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