Cold weather, sailing anyway!

.




Thanks to Coaches John Jackson and Russ Robinson, the sailing class sailed large keelboats this week.

Here is half the sailing class sailing the Jackson's Tartan 34 Georgie Girl. This involved the basic skills they've learned, but also some new things like handling winches.







.






Unfortunately, we don't have photos of the other part of the class sailing the Robinson's Tartan 37 Rampant Lion. But here's a view of the cold wind across the river as Georgie Girl heels just like a smaller boat in the breeze.

Most of the class is advanced sailors, and we can work on navigation and radio communications while we sail.




Thanks to Head Coach Jerry Rezab for the photos.


.

Autumn Sailing

.



We've had some weather setbacks, but we have also done some sailing.

Here are two of the advanced sailors, headed out from the dock. They have the boat moving relatively well in light wind.










.










Here's one of our advanced skipper, sailing close-hauled in light air. You can see all the tell-tale (ribbons on the sail) are showing good air flow, and although it doesn't look as exciting as heavy-wind sailing, this requires a high level of skill.













.





This is the same boat but now we have one of our beginners taking the role of skipper.

It takes a bit of practice to handle the mainsheet and the tiller at the same time. Here we see the newly-minted skipper beginning a TACK (tiller towards sail).








.







Light wind can still be fun.

We were lucky to have a warm autumn day, the calm weather was good for beginners to gain confidence.

The sun was already setting and the wind died, so our sailors paddled back to the dock and put away the boats and all gear, "squared away."



 ..... posted by Assistant Sailing Coach Douglas King


.