Fri 20th Sept Just five of us today, comprising Kate ,Jo, Joy and Louise who was being ultra keen by being on the water before we even boiled the little for coffee. Poor Jo was gnashing teeth having had to pull out of the new splinter group of Ladies Who Cruise (LWC), who were away sailing in a cruiser off Hampshire for the weekend. We wondered how you were all getting on with your skipper! However, our new skipper at LWL, Tony, had another top tip “Keep your boat flat for speed except….” (going downwind in a Laser, sailing in light winds, rounding marks ….) so in a steady NW force 3 breeze and partly sunny quite warm conditions, we set off to do a triangular course from CS to 20 and 17 in 2 Laser 2000s and two Laser 1’s to practise sailing flat and fast. Tony sailed with Joy so had some quality instruction time. The course was big enough for two spinnaker legs for the 2000s on a beam reach and broad reach before a beat back from 20 to CS. The Laser 1’s ability to sail closer to the wind meant that I could get ahead of the Joy and Tony going upwind but three sails versus one on the downwind leg was more than enough competition so I started thinking about tactics - -what I should have done was try to push the Laser 2000 away from the mark within the three boat length zone so the spinnaker could function and the boat would stall! Working out how close to the wind to sail with a spinnaker up in the Laser 2000 was also something Jo and Kate were wrestling with – the jib can tell you quite a bit about that so watch that closely and if it’s the tell tales drop and you have to pull it in too much you’re probably on the edge. We finished with a quick race round the course – Louise was off the starting line like a greyhound and sailed such a great course no one caught up with her and we all agreed that she is exponentially improving. We await the return of LWC next week with photos and tales of ocean sailing – until then! Hilary
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 12:55:26 +0000