Sunday 15th saw the start of our Level 1 training. We welcomed four new families to the club and the return of one family where Mum had originally done the course 7 years ago. They were joined on the course by two members who joined last year and by Meg (so she can now tell Jason what he's doing wrong).
It was a windy day for a first sail so several people will not be needing the optional capsize practice next week! In the picture, Anna is demostrating how to rescue one Topper with another. To reassure anyone who may be concerned, the crew had already been rescued in more orthodox fashion.
The star of the theory session was Max, the youngest participant on the course. Despite being unsure about actually going out in a boat, he was able to list and explain all five methods of steering much to the surprise of his mother!
it was lovely to see so many boats on the water and people about - new members, instructors and existing members all sailing together.
Easter Monday saw our annual competition for chocolate. We built on last year's card game theme by turning the first race into a game of pontoon. Each sailor had to sail to the rescue boat, collect a card, return to the jetty then run (or walk in most cases) up the hill to the clubhouse. They then had to repeat this. On returning with the second card, they were allowed to look at both cards and decide whether to go again. The competitor with the closest total to 21 won one of the eggs. David was this year's winner with exactly 21 from 3 cards. We then did two standard races to decide the winners of the other eggs. Jason and Meg won both races with Jake second (by a very small amount in the second race) and Chris third.
Despite (or perhaps because of) being April Fools Day, this year's open day was a success. We had blue skys, a good barbecue and lots of enthusiastic visitors (some of whom could probably be heard screaming from several miles away!).
As in previous years, Bradford RNLI came to join us for the day. This year the club made a donation to them which will go towards new life jackets for the crew at one of the Yorkshire stations.
This was a lovely day making a mockery of the series name as it saw people in shorts and t-shirt! We arrived to a flat calm and it looked as though sailing might not be possible but the wind picked up as the day went on turning it into another perfect day.
Three boats took part in the first race with Alan winning, Anne 2nd and Ray 3rd. In the second race we were joined by Richard. Anne won it with Alan 2nd, Ray 3rd and Richard 4th. We were also joined on the water by Barbara giving a first sailing lesson to her two granddaughters.
Meg (pictured) was the day's assistant duty officer. She can be seen here chasing off the frogs so they didn't get squashed when we put the boats on the water.
As mentioned, this was the last day of the hypo series. It has been a very succesful series with around 15 people taking part and at least five doing enough races to qualify.
Yesterday was a perfect day for sailing with a steady but gentle breeze and consistent sunshine. There were not many sailors but we managed two races with Alan winning both and Steve H second in both. The new safety boat spent both races safely moored to the jetty.
This was our first proper weekend of Saturday sailing and the first weekend with three races on a Sunday. I believe it was also the first time that Jason beat Peter (although apparently only by three tenths of a second!) This was in Saturday afternoon's race.
Dan was joined by Anna as his assistant for Sunday's duty - possibly giving her Mother the present of having the house to herself?
Ray made a late entrance to the first race gaining himself a 4th place behind Tony, Peter and Alan.
The second race was also won by Tony with Peter 2nd, Alan 3rd, Anne 4th and Richard 5th (on his second sail of the season). Gary joined us to potter around.
Tony packed away before the third race leaving Peter to win it with Alan 2nd, Anne 3rd and Richard 4th. This one was a much closer race with Richard almost making it to the front at one point.
Another good day in the hypo series with seven people arriving to race. In the end, six of us did while Steve did the duty. Another win each for Peter and Tony with each of them coming second when they didn't win. Jason says he has now developed the habit of coming third, again achieved in both races this week. The other results were also the same for both races: Anne 4th, Alan 5th (sailing his own boat for the first time this year) and Mike 6th.
Alan started off the day by rearranging the buoys so we now have almost the whole lake to use again. While he was doing that, the rest of were rigging so we almost started on time for once! See rigging pictures below. Six boats sailed today and another six people came out at lunch time to watch and catch up. The first race was won by Peter with Steve sailing very well to come 2nd (and breaking his boat in the process), Jason 3rd, Mike 4th, Anne 5th and Chris 6th. In the second race, Anne took over the duty to make up for last week and Alan sailed her boat - I'm not sure he enjoyed getting his feet wet! Peter was 1st again with Alan 2nd, Jason 3rd, Steve 4th, Mike 5th and Chris 6th.
After some time spent contemplating, clearing snow and rearranging the walkways, this Sunday saw six people out on the water for the first sail of the year.
The results probably could have been predicted before we started - Tony won the first race with Peter 2nd, Anne 3rd, Jason 4th and Steve 5th (and Alan doing the duty even though it was officially Anne's). For the second race, Tony did the duty with Alan sailing Tony's boat. Despite some confusion when the course was changed part way through, the results were similar: Alan 1st, Peter 2nd, Jason 3rd, me 4th and Steve 6th (after retiring).
Thank you to everyone who struggled through the snow to make it to the dinner last Saturday (and to all those who set off but then sensibly decided to turn back). Particular thanks to Barbara, Alan and Hazel who had to carry the prizes up the hill to somewhere accessible by car. Thank you also to Tony and Ronwen for organising all the prizes before abandoning us for sunnier cliFor those of you who didn't make it, look out for a full list of prizewinners in the newsletter (and if you are one of them, your prize is with either me or Barbara).
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