Class Training

Photo C Peter Barton

Class training was held at Queen Mary Sailing Club, with excellent coaching from Pete Barton Saturday dawned bright and mild with 6 boats attending ( Ronin, E Numbers, E J, Yosagi, Shiney and Eleanor). The breeze was just about twin wireable, on the whole a perfect day for it. We started with a briefing on tacking and gybing as most participants recognised corners as a weakness in cherub sailing. Pete was keen to point out that you need to practise where to place your feet as you cross the boat, this then becomes your default when the conditions become more trying.

We then headed on to the water with a short windward/leeward course to tacking on the whistle. It showed very quickly that Stu and Nick had been practising as their boat handling was well ahead of the rest of the fleet, it was also very apparent that Eleanor is far from just a pretty face, with a good turn of speed inspite of a very rusty crew. In the morning session Andy and Jill had their small rig on and due to the lightish winds were convinced to change at lunchtime, possibly the wrong move as the wind filled in after lunch and we all had a few (or more) swims.

Dave Dobrijevic ( Dynamic Sails ) was in the rib with Pete and had some interesting points at the debrief with regards to rigs/sails and where we could all improve, thanks for that Dave this is an area we all benifitted from greatly ( although you couldn't say anything was wrong with Eleanors sails!!) Stu's highlight of the the day was Pete crawling across Eleanors cockpit on hands and knees after his speech about where to place your feet.

All in all another incredible days sailing ending with a few beers and a curry, I'm sure that all who attended had their best moments, I hope that Jason enjoyed his first cherub experiance evan if Ro forgot to mention how to drop the kite when heading towards the wall. I just need to say thankyou to Pete for his patience and teabagging,to QMSC for hosting us and to Andy and Jill for their excellent hospitality

Written by Simon Jones