Hi everyone! This is Coach Calli here filling you in on the great day we had! There was a great breeze all day today and no threats of storms.
The Mercury Mentors sail out front of the club practicing their tacks! Every sailor got the opportunity to do a couple tacks on the upwind. While one sailor was steering the other was handling the mainsheet. They also went over parts of the boat such as, centerboard, rudder, and tiller. By the end of this week they will know all the parts of the boat!
Green Fleet in the morning worked on wide and tight mark roundings and did the “never ending race.” All of the sailors improved a lot on their trimming quickness and mechanics. At the end of the morning they finished with working on kiting technique downwind. During the afternoon they worked on holding their position in the boat on the line by using slow boat maneuvers.
The Beginner Opti’s, had a great morning with lots of sailing. We did a couple windward/leewards and follow the leader to help with the upwind sailing. All of the sailors are doing great and improving so much. We sailed all around the sandbar and then back up to the dock for lunch. In the afternoon they went to the “cove.” The cove is a great place for when it gets a little bit too windy because the buildings will block some of the wind to make it easier to sail.
Today, the 420’s were introduced to starts and the starting sequence. The starting sequence is 3 minutes long. They then put that to the test during their windward/leeward races. During the afternoon they covered the basic rules of sailing and did a distance race around the front of the club.
Red/White/Blue Clinic #2: sailing and… adjusting the sprit, outhaul, or checking for weeds. They ran two trapezoid races to practice the red/white/blue course that are usually the main races done during regattas. Adjusting the sprit downwind is a pretty tricky thing to learn since you have to scoot up the boat and pull off some sprit while steering and holding the mainsail. It is a great thing to learn about checking for seaweed also, when you are sailing upwind. If you have seaweed stuck on your centerboard then it slows you down.
