Thursdays are for Sailing!

Day 4 of summer camp was a fun one! Unfortunately due to no wind in the morning, we couldn’t go sailing although we tried! We played fun games on land including drip drip drop, sharks and minnows and captain’s coming! Thankfully the wind filled in nicely for the afternoon!

The beginner opti sailors learned how to steer the boat with a sail in it for the first time! They went around a Hot Dog Course to practice steering, tacking and gybing. A Hot Dog Course is two marks with the sailors going around each mark the same direction. It can be upwind and downwind or perpendicular to the wind which is called ‘reaching.’ The course today was ‘reaching.’ Everyone did super well and started to get the hang of sailing around the course by the end of the day!

The green fleet group practiced starting today! We reviewed the sequence of a 3 minute start and how to be on the line at GO! We practiced multiple starts until everyone had a good one! Starting is the most important part of sailboat racing because it will set you up to be successful for the rest of the race! The sailors are doing an awesome job and working hard!

The 420 sailors worked on upwind angle and sail trim for both the main and the jib! A very important part of upwind speed is knowing what to do when the sail starts to luff (flap). The sailors worked on looking at their sail and correcting their steering angle if the sail started to luff! You just need to pull the tiller slightly towards you!

Hopefully tomorrow morning we will get some breeze! See everyone tomorrow for another fun day of sailing!!