RS Tera Northern Squad Training at Derwent Reservoir Sailing Club

A group of 25 young helms had their first taste of winter coaching for 2015 with the start of the RS Tera North squad training held at Derwent Reservoir SC on Saturday 14 November. The North squad is larger than usual this year with high demand from younger sailors for places resulting in additional coaches being brought into the team. It is hoped that this will have the added benefit of driving more coaching skills out to the region and enable us to provide yet more support to the club fleets over the coming year.

The 'front end' of the squad are all well experienced Tera helms, some of whom are moving up to the bigger Pro rig during the winter months, others of whom are continuing with their Sport rigs for another season. It seems inevitable that when coaching is mentioned the weather forecast takes a dip and with 'Abigail' hitting the north of England hard there was every expectation that the sailors would be only having land based activities and Coach Graeme came prepared to really sharpen up fitness with some great team building games. By late morning the wind had died a bit and some very happy (and by now warm) sailors were sent to get changed, grab an early lunch and get out on the water.

Head Coach Brett Cokayne and his team put the fleet through their paces with a mix of exercises which kept everyone mentally and physically active. For some of the younger helms this was the longest period they'd spent on the water without a break, on the biggest water they'd ever sailed on and in the strongest winds they'd experienced and the fact that there were only a couple of capsizes and LOTS of smiling faces afterwards is really encouraging and bodes well for the coaching sessions - which run through to March 2016. Kath's Hot Chocolate Specials went down very well at the end of day briefing! With the forecast for Sunday being 'unsuitable' (some might say unassailable) this session was a 1 day event - the fleet next gather at Leigh and Lowton SC for their next weekend.

RS Tera sailing in the North continues to take off with existing fleets growing, second hand boats exchanging hands quickly and more clubs coming on board to join in the Tera success story. A brilliant programme of open events is in place for 2016, with the class starting their Northern series off with the Northern Championships being hosted by Bassenthwaite SC over the early May Bank Holiday weekend. The class National Championships take place at Plas Heli in August and a good turnout from the North is expected.