Junior Regatta 5 July 2014

Published 11:05 on 7 Jul 2014

An excellently attended Open Day; a good number of new members and high attendance at both 'Brilliant Boats' and 'fun sailing' on recent Fridays were all good omens for a successful Junior Regatta this year. Less encouraging was the weather forecast in the run up to Saturday: very high winds and heavy rain showers.

Mercifully, the rain mostly came through on Friday night, and although still high, the winds were manageable (albeit with reefed sails on the Omegas).

The day started with rigging and a familiarisation run to gauge conditions and then the juniors were treated to a thorough explanation of racing starts and the starting sequence thanks to Sel Shah and Ben Marshall. This then set up some close racing between two Omegas and two Picos over a lengthy race of nearly 50 minutes.

Lunchtime arrived and nicely coincided with one of the showers of the day. All were treated to a welcome warming feast of pizza and garlic bread, before digesting and preparing for the afternoon ahead.

By this time, a plethora of our newer members had arrived and we decided to organise some fun events; where sailors and non-sailors could compete alongside each other. First up was the ever-popular 'floating ball grab' game, where competitors needed to sail in close quarters to capture as many balls as possible. This saw a huge fleet of 14 juniors entered across six boats: two Picos, two Toppers and two paddled 'rafts'! Some excellent fine boat control was on display, with all the balls being captured far too quickly leading to an immediate rematch.

Next, all the juniors bar four were captured by evil pirates and taken over to the dangerous and uncharted territory of the far side of the river bank. After much screaming for help, the four remaining juniors were able to ferry their teammates safely back to the clubhouse in a closely fought relay race during a brief, but heavy downpour.

After drying out and refuelling on cake and sweets, the last event was another race, although this time with a huge fleet of three Omegas, two Picos and three Toppers. Although attempts at serious racing were hampered by ever-lightening winds and a glut of river traffic, much fun was had by all participants including those for whom this was either their first ride in a sailing dinghy or first attempt at racing solo.

'Much fun' was the theme for the day and it was great to see sailors of all ages and experience levels gaining more confidence in their sailing and having fun at the same time. Well done to all participants looking forward to seeing you carrying on your sailing over the summer season.

Many thanks to all the adult helpers on the day: Ben Marshall and Sel for running races, safety boats and teaching sessions; Matt Kyte and Ben May for safety boating; Bryan for keeping the safety boats going; Katie Howe, Emma Greenwood and Jim for helping out with lunch (and to Jim Drewett for the many excellent photos) and David Dixson and Nick Fribbens for the BBQ (which I had to miss, but it smelled excellent as I was leaving).

You can see Jim's pictures here on our website and larger versions are available in the Members area.

Ash