Just a month to go to the Minisail training session at Whitefriars SC, run in conjunction with the Classic and Vintage Racing Dinghy Association and the British Moths.
I thought this blog might be a good place to look at what we want to achieve for Minisail sailors and their boats on the weekend, in conjunction with the forum.
I have 2 main aims for the weekend, both pretty basic. Firstly, I want to make sure that everyone who owns a Minisail is rigging it correctly. They are a very simple boat, but very easy to rig in strange ways, some of which make the boat a really horrible sailing experience, rather than a fun little go cart.
So we will be looking at all the boats, making changes where neccessary, and making suggestions for longer term changes that may involve buying the odd fitting or 2 - but not that we go all out for Harken race rigging - that would cost 3 times what most of us paid for our boats!
Secondly, I'd like to see everybody get more confident in their boat handling, reading of the wind and use of controls. This in turn will lead to sailing becoming more enjoyable and less worrying, and then to the boat going faster through the water!
Looking at it in this way, it doesn't matter whether you are a sailing beginner or an experienced racer - you'll be adding to your knowledge whatever your starting point, and the whole Minisail fleet will see a boost in speed, which in turn will raise our profile and encourage others to come and join us!
The cost of the weekend is £8 per day, and if you can only make one day, that will be fine.
The timetable looks like this:
Saturday
9.00 Club open for early arrivals
10.00 Arriving, unpacking boats ready to rig
10.30 Briefing – what you hope to get from the weekend (I hope we will have an idea of this beforehand)
1045 Boat rigging, with advice from experts as to getting the best set up for your boat, where needed, showing how sail controls work
11.45 Changed and on water for a short pre-lunch race
12.15 Lunch, with discussion (& video) of what we have seen whilst sailing
13.15 Mini races for starting/first beat/running practice. Windward-leeward courses Video recording
15.00 Break, with video playback
15.30 ½ hour race to see how things have progressed
16.00 Pack away
17.00 Final get together of day at club
17.30 Pub for well earned dinner
Sunday
10.00 Briefing, looking at what can be improved from Saturday, what we will be doing
10.30 On water for mini races, looking at different points of sailing – Triangular courses, video recording.
12.30 Lunch with debrief on the morning
13.30 Longer races, putting everything together that has been learned
15.30 Packing boats away
16.30 Final debrief and goodbyes
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