Ripon Sailing Club's One Big Day Start of Season Event
by Jamie Kerslake 1 Apr 2019 06:42 BST
23 March 2019
Ripon Sailing Club members across all generations enjoying the launch © Ripon SC
Ripon Sailing Club marked the start of their main season on Saturday 23 March with One Big Day of events and activities.
The training team ran an information and introduction session for all the new Dinghy Instructors who have qualified in the last year to go through rigging the club boats, the day also included CPD for the more experienced instructors; other members who are interested in helping at training courses also joined in and the group had a great time sailing the variety of boats the club owns; the highlight being club training principal Mark Fowler taking his annual trip out in an Optimist! Meanwhile, during the morning, the coaching team finished their winter training sessions with a morning of start practice for members who had attended advanced race training over the winter. Beginner and intermediate race training starts in late April and runs every Sunday morning parallel to the main club racing series.
After lunch, the club christened the new Fusion boat fleet, bought to supplement and refresh the existing club fleet with a ginger beer toast. 30 Club members then teamed up to participate in a fun team racing session using the new Fusion fleet where newer, less experienced members were paired up with more experienced sailors. Amid massive grins, much laughter, explanation of the rules, sharing of sailing tips and the start of new friendships, team 1 eventually triumphed over team 4, followed by team 2 and 3 in 3rd and 4th places respectively.
Members who learnt to sail recently enjoyed learning the basics of racing and the experienced sailors had a lot of fun sharing their joy of racing and sailing with the newer members. The youngest members participating (age 6 & 7) ensured their helm learnt lots of new songs and the Pre-Sailors (3-7 year olds) also got involved by helping on the judge boats by holding up the penalty flags. The race team on the Committee boat consisted of youth members and some less youthful members!
The younger members of the radio controlled DF65 fleet also took to the water and held series of races for a bag of Maltesers!
Many members also took the opportunity to bring their boats back to the club after the winter and go for a sail in the light winds and yet more members took the chance to join the training team for an afternoon of fun sailing in the club fleet so the club was buzzing with activity. Experienced sailors were also present as part of the club's new buddy system to provide a friendly face for our newer members who have just bought their own boats and are learning to sail/race. After the team racing prize giving, a social contribution buffet meal was enjoyed by all. Commodore Jamie Kerslake commented at the prize giving that "it was great to see so many members out sailing so early in the season and getting to know other members". A really great day to mark the start of the season.
The club would like to thank all the members who helped organise and run the event and looks forward to another successful season of racing, training and leisure sailing.