Hi All,

We’ve just finished with the second practice of the winter season and things are moving along well. The Columbia greeted us this morning with temps in the 30s and about 6-8 kts of wind out of the SE. The sailors rigged up quick and we were out on the water before 11 and the sun started to peak through the clouds. In the morning session I really wanted to focus on getting the kids out on the wire and feeling more comfortable with the boat, we had marginal trapeze conditions for the most part requiring the skippers to sit on the low side of the boat to balance out the crew. The wind started to lighten up as the sun came out more and more so we turned around after making it about a mile up river and launched the spinnakers.

After a quick snack break back on shore we decided to focus on spinnaker handling and speeding up maneuvers. So I set a short windward leeward course with the goal of being able to launch the spinnaker and completing a gybe before passing the leeward mark. The wind had built to 10-12 kts from the east while we were on shore and that coupled with the current made the down winds very short so the sailors really had to step their game up to complete the drill. After a few rough passes the sailors started to get a hang of it, gybing the 420 with a spinnaker is a lot different then the big roll gybe that we teach during the high school season as the skipper and crew really need to focus on keeping the spinnaker full and under control to maintain full speed down wind. With the wind dying down and the rain starting to pick up we headed for shore around 1:30 and hand a quick debrief of the day before heading for home.

See you all next week for some more fun in the cold water!

Check out our most recent blogs!

Week 3