East Anglia Optimist Training at Ardleigh Sailing Club
by Anthony Gifford 10 Feb 2016 09:34 GMT
6-7 February 2016
A series of three open winter training weekends for Optimist sailors in East Anglia concluded at Ardleigh Sailing Club this weekend. A total of 44 different sailors participated in at least a day of the series and all the training was expertly run by head coach Georgia Grice and her team.
Ardleigh Sailing Club, and their Commodore Jonathan Rubin in particular, were most welcoming and kept us all fed and watered as well as playing host and providing their facilities to us all.
From beginners to National squad sailors the range of ability was wide but all came ashore happy. It was especially clear that the less experienced sailors that had been regular attendees had made enormous progress and coped with some very windy conditions.
The final weekend was especially windy. Strangely it was two of the RYA Zone Squad, Gabby Clifton and Rory Gifford, that seemed to have most trouble keeping their spars in the air. Perhaps they were trying too hard...