Sailors get back on water

A bright and sunny morning last Sunday drew an enthusiastic group of adults to learn the ropes with Broome Sailing Club.

Seven of the eight adult learners who enrolled in the year’s Adult Learn To Sail lessons arrived and were ready to go.

After introductions and background, the participants got down to business and spent an hour of learning how to rig three Pacer yachts.

At about 10.45am everyone hit the water. The three Pacers quickly hit their strides and scooted about giving the newbies a quick heads up on what to do and what not to do in the puffy breeze.

It was a perfect day to demonstrate balance, variations in the strength of the wind, and how to move about the boats in such conditions.

Next time they will take part in a capsize drill and get a better feel for sailing by doing more themselves.

Nevertheless, after the de-rigging of the boats and a debrief, one of the new sailors actually stayed and crewed on one of the big cats in the afternoon, which was great to see. Then the afternoon saw a mixed bag of racing.

Participants sailed in a moderate to puffy eastnorth- east breeze still with a short course set between the orange buoy, BSC no.4 and the cardinal mark off Cable Beach.

The first race was an off-thebeach- start-go behind the RIB and away to the course.

Confusion about the second mark and the RIB attending a new boat-capsize saw the fleet divided and going to the wrong weather mark.

Eventually all boats were recalled, before restarting at the leeward end for a second start at the first race.

However, there was little success here also. After completing the first triangle correctly the cats went to the wrong mark on the next lap.

There was the single hulled Flying Dutchman of Phil Hagren who was the only boat to sail the correct course.

As it was obvious that Hagren was going to win the race we shortened the course so as not to prolong the agony, but as it turned out the cats were so far ahead that as Hagren was finishing, the cats were on their third lap which by default enabled them to complete the shortened course and get a result.

Hagren, in the Sea Goon vessel, retired after missing a bung in his starboard hull in the first race.

The third try went well and after a shocker of a start, BSC commander Miranda Dibdin blitzed them.

The start-line was short and competitors struggled for space on the line, but they all managed to cross the wing and then swung to the east, making the course considerably quicker.

Dibdin went from last to first in the first leg and then romped away from there, followed home by Stan Bet.

Back at the beach, crews enjoyed homemade burgers and beer on ice.

So, we enjoyed our usual session of socialising before the packup and haul-home of all the club gear to prepare again for the same activities next week.

Results:

Race 3 1st Flying Dutcman Sail no 342 35min 05 sec Phil Hagren2nd Nacra Cat Sail no 1724 41 min 09 sec Alex and Sarah3rd Narca Cat Sail no 41 min 23 sec Stan Best4th Hobbie 16 Sail no 109807 42min 11 sec. Miranda Dibdin Race 41st Hobie 16 Sail no 109807 37min 17 sec Miranda Dibdin2nd Nacra Sail No 1715 37min 56 sec Stan Best3rd Nacra Sail no 1724 42 min 38 sec Alex and Sarah4th Fyling Dutchman Sail no 342 48min 39sec Phil Hagren