Happy Wednesday morning everyone! This morning was great breeze for sailing. In the afternoon everyone also went for a sail before the ‘City Storm’ moved close to the Sailing Center. A ‘City Storm’ forms in tropical climates when the concrete from a city heats the air up in the Troposphere creating Cumulus Nimbus clouds. These puffy white clouds look pretty and harmless at first, but once the warm air rises to a level where it actually condenses into water then ice crystals, the cloud literally can’t hold itself up anymore. This is when the ice crystals start to fall and rub together. As they rub together they form good old static electricity and BOOM! Lightening! When you see the top of a could flattened out like an anvil, get ready for the rain and thunder. Those rain drops that refresh the earth but annoy us at some point were ice crystals that caused lightening! This happens almost every summer day right over greater Fort Lauderdale. The question always is…will it come towards us to stay where we want it to?
Now that I’ve nerded out on you, let’s get back to Coach Calli’s update…and it’s time for Mercury Mentors!
Mercury Mentors had an awesome morning today. All of the kids practiced steering and tacking. Tacking a boat employs many different tasks at once. The sailor has to steer properly by pushing the tiller away from them gently, switch hands with the tiller and mainsheet while crossing the boat, then straightening the rudder to the proper exit angle. Yes, it’s more difficult to do than to write about! It takes years and years of practice and the better you believe you are at it, a coach will always correct your form! There was a little more wind then normal in the morning so the kids loved how fast the boat went when they were sailing around in front the club.
Beginner Optis has a great morning. Everyone worked as a team this morning! The took the boats out of the rack and to the dock and rigged in record time! The great teamwork gave them the opportunity to get out there quick and spend more time on the water. The Coaches set up an upwind course for the kids to work on their upwind angles while sailing. They also learned about laylines, which are the imaginary lines extending from the upwind mark at the highest possible angle that the boat can sail to just clear the windward (top) mark. It is important to get the layline right when racing. If you overshoot the layline you’ve sailed too much distance. If you undershoot the layline you have to make another tack or two which means it will take longer to get around the mark.
The 420’s practiced racing around a course. The Coaches taught them on land what a starting sequence is and how it works. We use a 3 minute starting sequence during the Friday Night Fun Racing. If they learn today they’ll have plenty of time to master the trade before Friday, even though just like tacking even the best screw up! They were also taught about line sights while on the starting line. A line sight is used so they get a good placement on the starting line and are not over. The kids had a great time and loved competing against each other to see who would finish first.
Green Fleet in the morning with Coach Stephen did mystery starts with a race up to the mark and back down to his coach boat. A mystery start is a good way to practice being ready and set to go at any time. In the afternoon Coach Sophia and Coach Dae took them on an adventure sail up the intercoastal. This long upwind sail gives the coaches the opportunity to come up behind the kids and help them with proper sail trim and angle of the boat. Also having the long downwind back to the club let’s the coaches help the kids with the right weight placement and to talk to them about looking behind them now and then to look for puffs.
We are looking forward to more learning for the next two days in preparation for Sailing Director JC’s racecourse on Friday!
