RYA South West Topper Zone Squad training camp at Castle Cove

a Weekend at "Wey-biza"

We only live an hour away from Castle Cove so I didn’t get any time off school for travelling :(  

Saturday got off to an interesting start, we arrived at Castle Cove and realised the trailer keys were still at home.  Dad and a lump hammer soon solved that problem!

Saturday’s weather conditions proved challenging with many of us using 4.2 sails in an attempt to stay upright in the 25 – 30 knots.  Launching was a team effort with a couple of parents in wet suits to help us launch and head in the right direction, boats smashing against the rocks would not have made a good start to training.  Swimming in the sea in January wasn’t quite what the dads  had in mind when they set out with their sailors that morning!

As it was so gusty we focused on upwind and downwind sailing in heavy winds and waves. We spent about 3 and a half hours on the water doing our best to stay upright and learning how to sail up & down the waves and make good progress with the conditions in hand.  I forgot my SeaBands which was a bad move.  Time on the water proved fast and fun but very tiring, with lots of effort required to hike out and keep our boats flat. 

The highlight of the Saturday’s theory session was when Duncan tried to demonstrate how to surf a wave by using a chair. Apologies to the sailing club for the chair that now needs mending. Photos made it straight onto FaceBook thanks to Lynn our other coach J

Sunday proved that weather conditions can offer a weekend of opposites, today the wind dropped right off to 5 – 11 knots and the sun was shining.  Sails were swapped to 5.3’s and the 4 hours on the water were spent learning a lot about light wind sailing.  My tacks and gybes improved as the day went on, reducing steering in my gybe being one of the aims for today.

Thank you to everyone at Castle Cove Sailing Club and Duncan and Lynn for a great weekend. 

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Feva perspective from the Bloody Mary - the biggest UK pursuit race

I left home with my mum and dad on the Friday after I finished school to get to our hotel. When we got there I rang my helm (Dan) to check everything was ok for Saturday, then I watched the silent briefing and went to bed ready for a long day ahead.

On Saturday morning we got to the club just before the big rush of cars and boats arrive.!  Dan’s dad had booked a club Feva for us and after setting up the spinnaker, jib and had the mainsail ready to go we attached the boat to the pontoon ready to get to the start line. 

We were one of the first Fevas released so we sailed the first bit of the course and tested our spinnaker. Half an hour later, the Toppers had launched and it was time for us to get ready for our start.

After the first mark the Fevas spread out among the fleet and we were racing the biggest pursuit race in the UK. 

After 2 and a half hours of racing we came in 249th out of 320+ boats and Dan and I were very chuffed for finishing - and we came in ahead of the Moths. 

It was great to see so many of our friends do well and we finished one place behind Mike (Coco’s dad)  AND Coco had beaten him !!! After everyone had said their goodbyes and thankyou’s we went back to Coco’s house for a celebratory dinner.

On Sunday morning Rachel helped me with some extra kit before the long trip home and I was asleep in 5 minutes on the motorway.

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