Thames Sailing Club
Training Corse descriptions 2007
Difficult Conditions for Summer Trainees
Light westerlies prevailed throughout the late August training week forcing the trainees to get to grips with the constant wind shifts that we all know and love. The start of the week saw an end to the relentless rain and the training week remained warm and dry and even occasionally sunny! The improvers benefitted from the use of a fleet of Laser Pico demonstrators loaned to us by Adrian Hart of Performance Sailcraft .
A new element for the course was a day of 'parent training'. On the Saturday, the parents of the young beginners were encouraged to spend the day at the club to familarise themselves with the equipment used by their children. Unusually the task of training the parents was given to their off-spring, with the training staff on-hand to fill-in any gaps!
The traditional end of course races consisted of 2 races; the first was for serious sailing, the second was 'anything goes'.
Race one was won by an Oppie helmed by the seriously relaxed Jay Staite. Race 2 was won by Alex who eschewed paddling, barging and all other forms of cheating as he realised he could win by good sailing.
After the presentation ceremony, the pirates began to gather. There was some walking of the plank but mostly there was a lot of falling off the plank. Meanwhile Alex took advantage of the distraction of the plank to collect every single piece of hidden treasure. Somewhat surprisingly for a Pirate he magnamimously shared his booty with his shipmates.
Congratulations to: -
Adult Beginners - Start Sailing Level 1&2
Richard Cook
Rob Darbyshire
Suzanne Garoghan
Young Improvers
Beth Dunn - Start Racing
Jack Cooper - Start Racing
Noura Rasik - Start Racing
Becca Muller - Start Racing
Gemma Muller - TSC Certificate
Katie Stuart - TSC Certificate
Miranda Butler - TSC Certificate
Tim Strezelecki - Level 1 & 2
Young Beginners Level 1
Alex Marshall
Nick Marshall
James McPhereson
Thomas Munday
Jay Staite
Jo Dunn
Jake Roberts
Young Beginners Level 1 & 2
Emily Parfitt
Amber Munday
Lucy McPhereson
Fair Weather for The Spring Training Course
The learning went extremely well this time, which we think is down to a series of factors
- Condensing the five days into three weekends helped with student progress
- The wind enabled us to understand the consequence of actions more immediately!
- We were assisted by a huge swathe of club member volunteers who helped overcome the many little things which can hold up courses, get failure, misplaced items, waiting for equipment etc. Not only did we have fabulous food and refreshments throughout the course courtesy of Jill Cryer, Negla and Sheena, but we were able to run a parallel Assistant \Instructor course for six of our members.
I should like to record my personal thanks to the AI team of Justin Dunn, Bob Woolley, Susie Scotcher, Ian Pratt, Negla Salem and Robert Jukes. In addition, of course, our club teaching staff of Alexis Villiers and Roger Stafford, and club helpers Brian Hepburn, Todd Wells and Nick Hoskins, who got the powerboats together for us.
Socially things gelled well too, due to a combination of great weather, food, hospitality and events, culminating in the Pirates of the Caribbean evening, and it felt almost as if we were in Barbados that night!
Congratulations to: -
Adult Beginners - Start Sailing Level 1&2
Khalid Ibrahim
Audrey Weir
Debbie Bartram
Tim Nelms
Christa Illingworth
Adult Improvers- Seamanship and Start Racing
Mel Hardman
Craig Garlington
Andre Bajaria
(Britain Houchin missed some course time and will hopefully qualify this spring too)
Young Beginners Level 1
Christina St John
Miranda Butler
Young Beginners Level 1 & 2
Gemma Muller
Anastasia St John
Jamie Bowers Clarke
Patrick Johnstone
Cadets Level 3 and 4
Beth Dunn
Noura Razik,
Natalie Kingsley
Rebecca Muller
Well done to all, and do keep coming to the club sailing days to improve!!!
David Lowrie
Page last updated: 16/02/2008 11:22:02
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