Hi there! This is Coach Dae, here to let you know about your little sailors’ first Wednesday of the session.
In the morning, Coach Sophia and I took out the Mercury Mentors out in two separate Mercuries. We went over parts of the boat and how to tell wind direction. On the water, each sailor got a chance to steer the boat! Each grabbed a hold of the tiller and steered us around for a few laps right outside of the club. I was VERY impressed with how quickly each of them caught on. We have lots of future professionals in our group!
In the morning, Coach John talked about the wind with the Beginner Optis. They practiced their first time sailing on a sausage course to help them learn how to steer while they are actually sailing. Coach John also went over how and where to sit in the boat. Remember sailors, you must sit as far forward as you can so that you do not block the tiller. The coaches then taught the sailors the proper way to hold and handle the tiller. In the afternoon, the Beginner Optis went to the cove and did the sausage course again. The cove has less wind when it’s windy, making it an easier place to learn to sail when conditions are a little more than perfect to get the hang of sailing.
420s practiced sailing upwind and reading the shifts on a course by doing split tracks to warm up. After the warm up, they did match races that had a longer upwind so that the sailors could experience a wind shift or two. The sailors gained more of an understanding on what to do with a shift and a header and how to maintain boat speed through them. Coach Chase even got in the boat with some sailors to give some one-on-one instructing.
In the morning, Green Fleet Coaches Sam and Joey went over upwind speed and perfecting their tacks. It is important, yet difficult, to maintain speed through tacks. It is also vital to coming out of a tack with more speed than the boat entered the tack with. The sailors practiced the cone drill to work on the tacks and speed. Later in the afternoon, the sailors went for a long sail all the way to the cove and sailed around on a sausage course with the Beginner Optis.
For the Red White and Blue clinic, Arthur took his sailors out to for a beautiful day on the ocean. The wind was 12 knots by the end of the day so the sailors were hiking out and surfing waves. One day the beginner sailors can head to the ocean as well, if they decide to keep sailing at LYC!
