Hi! It’s Coach Dae again, here to let you know about everyone’s day.
Today, the Mercury Mentors spent some time in the morning going over parts of the boat. They even had an on-the-water boat quiz! Each sailor is owed one piece of candy.;) We perfected our knowledge on wind direction and appropriate sail trim, also including the points of sail. Make sure on Friday, you know your boat parts, proper sail trim, and points of sail.
Beginner Opti’s did windward-leeward courses to further improve their upwind sailing and their angles to the wind. They have been doing this a long time because it takes a ton of practice to get perfect at this. Having good upwind and downwind angles is super hard, yet extremely crucial. This is key to racing, which hopefully they all will be doing Friday night!
In the A.M., Green Fleet had a huge review on all the parts of the sail (all the spars, the control lines, indicator, etc.). Then, Coach Sophia completely derigged a sail so that it was separated from all the lines and all spars. The kids had to work together to put the sail back together using all the correct parts and correct knots. It was a race against the clock. When they come back on Friday, they will be quizzed first thing in the morning with an actual written test! the kids are in very good shape and got every question right on the review. Coach Sophia was super happy with them today. In the Afternoon, because of lack of wind and exceptional behavior, the kids got to go to the sandbar.
The 420’s did racing starts to also prep for Friday Night Fun Racing. They also did windward-leeward courses in the morning and in the afternoon, as well as refining the rules of racing sailboats and the concept of right of way. They learned that the starboard boat has right of way over port, and leeward has right of way over port. This was practiced during the race starts, when it is most chaotic and the rule of right of way is the key to a successful start.
Arthur focused his lesson today on the tactics and strategy breakdown from the races yesterday. He did this by evaluating videos of the sailors racing. During the storms, they watched Opti videos from around the wold. Then they did a knot tying relay race with a square knot, figure eight knot, and a bowline. Later in the afternoon, they did silent starts and practiced races followed by USA vs GBR team race battle royal!
Thankfully, today, the big storm that came right next to us did not affect us very much. The sailors were still able to get tons of sailing in. We all had a great and productive day. See you guys on Friday!
HAVE A HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!!!!
