Practice makes perfect

I will have to keep this short as it's late and I am totally exhausted. Spent another fantastic day on Forfar Loch, learning to sail a wayfarer. Although today the wind had picked up, just a wee bit. Force 5 with gusts of force 8. Now that's pretty exciting for only our second day on the water.

The day started with rigging up the boats. This had already been done for us yesterday. So it was rather interesting doing this for the first time and in such windy conditions. Then it was a case of unrig the sail and back to the classroom for the all important capsize recovery demo on a good old fashioned blackboard... just in case we needed it! I hasten to add we didn't capsize, although a someone out in a laser managed it 10 minutes into their time on the water.

Teams consisted of 1 trainer and two students. My team mate and I basically took it in turns every 20 minutws or so to take the tiller whilst the other acted as crew. As it was so windy today we didn't rig the jib, and the main sail we used was for a smaller boat just because it would have been too much for us newbie's.

It was simple, the day was broken up by 3x 1-2 hour sails supported by theory back in the classroom.

The photo is a makeshift tiller the guys at the club have cobbled together to help students figure out the complex mechanics of steering a dinghy. The trainers were simply fantastic. They were all patient, knowledgeable and willing to share a great day on the water with their class of 4. Thank you.

Interestingly the capsize recovery we were meant to practice in the afternoon didn't take place as it was too windy! It would have been difficult to right the boat again so if we didn't have to then, well we just didn't.

Although the class have been invited back to practice next weekend! Ummm I think I might be washing my hair or something that day!