RS Tera Squad Training at Bough Beech Sailing Club
by Tristan Bracegirdle (aged 11) 26 Nov 2009 14:07 GMT
21-22 November 2009
RS Tera training at Bough Beech © Paul Handley
On 21 and 22 November, we had the first RS Tera Squad training weekend at Bough Beech Sailing Club. At the beginning of the weekend, our coach, Jonathan Lewis, divided the RS Tera National Squad into two parts – the Pro sail squad and the Sports sail squad. I am in the Pro squad. The Pro sail is the bigger sail. My brother Yann, who is 9, is in the Sports Sail squad. There was also an RS Tera Open training event for Bough Beech Sailing Club and my little brother, Ossian, who is 7, joined in.
On the first day we learnt about sailing by the lee and “reverse flow” which is where wind enters the sail via the leech and the tell tales fly backwards. This makes the boat go faster because the sail is generating power as the wind flows around it rather than just pushing you down wind. This made us all go surprisingly faster down wind.
We also had a look at making the kicker and the outhaul have more purchase and run more smoothly. I learnt that when you are going down wind if you pull in your mainsheet when you are doing reverse flow you will heel to leeward which can save you from a death roll and that if you let the main out you will heel to windward. At the next training event, we will be looking at the down haul in more detail.
On Sunday, Jonathan began by going over our boats to see how we could make improvements. We talked about general heavy weather sailing in detail in preparation for going out.
The wind then began to build and soon it was howling. The windsurfers on the reservoir could not stay up and it was difficult to see from one side to the bank on the other. We were told to go inside the club house to have an early lunch and thought the event might be cancelled. I was really disappointed.
However, our coach, Jonathan, decided that we should go sailing. He said that if we went out in these conditions, when normally racing would never take place, it would build our confidence. He said we would be sailing at our limits and we would never encounter anything worse in a race so we should cope easily. The biggest boys went out first. I struggled quite a lot to begin with as I had only just changed over to using the Pro sail. I managed to do a death roll but this was the only time I capsized and it was right at the beginning. After that, I really enjoyed the experience. It was unbelievably exhilarating, screeching along downwind and with the wind on the beam.
My brothers Yann and Ossian said they really enjoyed it too. They both capsized once.
Thank you to everyone at Bough Beech Sailing Club for hosting our first Squad weekend.