This past weekend marked the second half of our Laser sailing lessons. Janelle and I returned to the boat club sporting our bruised shins, scrapped elbows and sore hands from the previous weekend and the big winds we had. Our hope was that the winds would be a little calmer this time around and arriving at the beach we were happy to see no waves. We found out that the winds the previous weekend were between 10 to 15 knots, much higher than the 2 to 5 knots we had this weekend.
The gentle winds allowed for a much more relaxing day out sailing and gave you time to make the odd mistake when tacking or gybing and not capsize. By the end of the first day both Janelle and I were getting quite comfortable sailing and actually enjoying the whole experience now that we weren't white knuckled the entire time. In fact, after a point it got hot enough that it would have been nice to tip over and get a little wet (something one of the instructors did to cool off).
Our last day of lessons we got into racing and anyone who knows Janelle and I knows how competitive we both are so it didn't take much to get us going. The morning session our instructors set up a small triangular course and let us work on our starts. The start is definitely one of the hardest components as you're given a 5 minute, 4 minute, 2 minute and 1 minute warning. The key is timing your approach to the start line so you cross as close as possible without going over. There are ways to slow down your boat but there are no brakes so timing is really important. We got to do 5 fun races in the morning between the 10 boats and Janelle and I each won 2 (one photo finish between the 2 of us). The afternoon the club held their regular bi-weekly Laser races and everything got a lot more serious. The official boat came out with the flags that indicate timing for start and the course was made bigger (still the triangle). Along with the 10 beginner boats about 10 more seasoned sailors came out including 3 of our instructors. We did 3 races, 2 B2s (triangle - sausage) and a B3 race (triangle, sausage, triangle). The triangle and sausage refers to the route you take around the buoys each lap. It was amazing how fast the other boats were when you know what you're doing, especially at the start and around the buoys. Janelle and I didn't win but didn't finish last either coming in ahead of most of the beginners but behind most of the experienced sailors. We're both looking forward to sailing some more!
 |
| Janelle helming the Laser 2000 |
 |
| Adam watching the telltales on the Laser 1 |
No comments:
Post a Comment