Hi All,

Week 5 has just wrapped up and this winter weather is proving to be very frustrating! Saturday was completely dead so we were not able to sail but we were able to practice trapeze technique and got a lot of work done on the 29ers, we made sure to rig every boat and go over every detail as Sundays forecast was for 8-12 out of the east and I wanted to spend as much time on the water as possible. Unfortunately when we showed up Sunday morning instead of 8-12 we had 0 and the kids were growing restless. I thought to myself “Aeolus, Boreas, Zephyrus, one of you wind gods is gonna have to show up for us!” With it looking like it was going to be another skunked day I decided we might as well go out and goof around on the 29ers and do some boat yoga as we get swept towards Astoria. After some protesting from the sailors and some arm twisting from myself we launched to see if we could salvage the day. As if by a miracle the second we cleared the harbor the wind started to build. It wasn’t enough to get out on the wire at first but the boats were able to move and the kids were staying upright, We walked through some light wind tacks and dialed in the sail controls for the conditions and decided to throw up the kites to get some more power in the boats and get everyone fully out on the trap.

It was great to see everyone so willing to start blasting around and willing to risk a capsize. I was surprised by how quickly the sailors were picking up the new boat considering the less than optimal weather at the past few practices. The sailors were able to keep the boat upright through most of the gybes which is probably the hardest maneuver on the 29er as you need to keep the boat moving fast but cannot just whip it around like in a 420 or Opti. We wont be having practice this weekend due to Mitchell and I heading down to US Sailings National Sailing Program Symposium in Austin for some professional development and inspiration for continuing to grow and improve the programs at WSC, see you all in a two weeks!.