Scottish Musto Skiff Training at Largs Sailing Club
by John Reekie 21 Oct 2014 16:38 BST
18-19 October 2014
The sailors arrived early for what was going to be an intense session. With wind forecast in the 20-30+ mph range all weekend. We had 6 Mustos plus the demo boat and a lone RS600 joining the party.
With a course set off the marina to reduce the wave height as much as possible the sailors went out to battle the elements. Jonno Shelley was taking ownership of his new Musto Skiff so elected to take the demo boat out for the beginners so that they could have a shot in challenging conditions for the sailors and help me in the RIB in the morning with Andrew Hooton assisting in the afternoon albeit due to his own poor boat maintenance schedule.
From my perspective in the RIB it was certainly easier to watch people sailing the boat rather than actually sailing the boat and it highlighted a few differences in approach. At the productive end we had Ian Renilson demonstrating technique to result in the highest possible chance of remaining upright.
Example video here: www.facebook.com/video.php?v=364170530417430.
At the youthful optimism end of the scale we had Andrew Hooton send it home into manoeuvres with a do or die spirit much to my admiration. I am sure a example video of this will surface in the near future?
The sailors returned post briefing and lunch for what proved to be a relatively short lived session between boat breakages and fatigue. Our demo boat users consisting of the local Largs 29er sailor Lindsey and Ben of my 420 youth squad generation enjoyed the brief spells they had in the boat. Unfortunately for some of the other Musto sailors Lindsey was to demonstrate how to get it done with more time actually on the race course than some of her more grizzled opposition.
On the Sunday the participants felt that 30+ mph winds and periodic driving rain was not for them and a probably wise decision was taken to look at some videos in the warmth of the club and then head home post packing up. All in all your typical Scottish winter weekend weather.
Thanks go to our volunteers such as Struan driving the safety boat and the club members who assisted me with organising the event.