Hi All,

I have just returned from the Columbia Outpost and we had a great first session. This season really represents a turning point for the program, six of the eight sailors are underclassmen and pretty much everyone has marginal experience with the trapeze and spinnaker so all the sailors are on the same playing field. There was a bit of trepidation at first about being on a larger, colder body of water but luckily the wind was easy on us today. I have practice split into two sessions, a morning and an afternoon with a short snack break and meeting in between the two. This morning was completely dead with barely a ripple on the water which turned out to actually be beneficial as it gave us time to do on land walk through’s of trapeze technique and familiarize everyone with the extra control lines on the boat.

After a quick snack break and safety brief the wind filled into a nice six to eight knots out of the southwest so we launched the boats and started to run drills. We mainly focused on launching and gybing the spinnaker and coordinating teamwork between the skipper and crew. Things started off a bit rough with a lot of runaway spinnakers but the sailors got a hang of it quickly and things started to smooth out. We are still a ways off from the goal of having the pole and kite set within seven seconds but I am confident by our third practice everyone should be there. After an hour and a half of sailing the wind started to die down so we let the current cary us back to McCuddy’s where the sailors did their cold water test of jumping into the water to see how quickly the cold water can affect them

This winter I also have John Ped and Riley Read helping me as assistant coaches both of whom are alums of the program which has really added a sense of community with the experienced sailors coming back to teach the younger sailors who are going to be taking their places.

Remember to fill out your journals I will be collecting them at the end of our third practice before winter break to read over them!

-Peter

Check out our most recent blogs!
Week 2
Week 3