IOCA South Pre Zone Winter Training 4 at Spinnaker Sailing Club

IOCA South Pre Zone Winter Training 4 at Spinnaker © Jane Saunders

Ten young sailors arrived at Spinnaker SC on 8th February for the penultimate session of the IOCA South Pre Zone winter training programme.

Grey skies soon gave way to sunshine and warm force two winds. The morning was spent learning to sail backwards with Chay and sailing around a course with a number of constraints including tethered tillers, steering with feet and taking the mainsheet from the boom with Andy.

Andy claimed it was good for sailing skills, Rory thinks Andy is annoying but did it anyway! Apparently Alex may be better at sailing with his feet than his hands.

The calm of the morning was replaced with a more blustery afternoon, heralding the imminent arrival of Storm Ciara. While the older sailors were happy to embrace the wind and charge around chasing tennis balls, the younger sailors were understandably more cautious. Staying close to shore and practising launching and landing was deemed more acceptable.

All demonstrated some great planning and the ability to get out of and into tight spots. Hannah especially demonstrated perfect speed control when returning to the pontoon. Well done to all the sailors for some great sailing and adapting well to the conditions.