Fri 18th Oct Dear all It was foggy at Rutland Water this morning and there was clearly indecision in the air as only four LWLers were there by 10am and then a rush of another 6 at about 5 past. We welcomed Vanessa who owns a ‘Swallows and Amazons’ type wooden GP14 and Anita (first time in a boat!) However it was a good day for sailing – the fog lifted slowly and though it was grey, there was a good sort of easterly Force 2 so Tony, who was in charge, felt we should do three things today: a) a bit of follow my leader in the fog b) tacking and gybing on his whistle and then c) some practice starts to do the speeding up and slowing down thing that we all love so much. And his top tip today - which applies to sailing in light winds particularly - was ‘trim affects speed.’ Jo and Angie took Smoke out for an airing so we had a real mix of boats as well as the usual Lasers with Hilary trying out the school laser in advance of hers arriving in a week or so. So off we went trying to be a gaggle of ducklings behind the rib, and then did lots of tacking and gybing practice in nice safe conditions unlike last week though rumour had it Smoke nearly ditched due to over enthusiastic roll tacking! Then it was time to race! There was some good jostling along the start line with each race seeing improvements to our position even though the early starts were very starboard biased. Time for five races including slightly longer ones to 17,18 and then downwind to IDM. All great fun despite a tiny bump by Val! At the debrief we learnt that a good way of working out the bias of the line is to sit on the line with your boat pointing at the first mark and if the wind comes from the starboard side right of the mark it’s a starboard bias and the same for the port side. Tony reminded us about using the close reach position on the line to hang around ready to accelerate - reaching along the line is not a good idea. See you next week! Hilary P.S All you Laser ladies, don’t forget the annual club Laser championships on November 17th – it would be good to have a LWL championship within a championship if you know what I mean. There is also a Novice handicap competition to recognise those who are newer to Laser sailing.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 21:12:24 +0000
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