29er Training at Grafham Water Sailing Club

by Robert Loveridge on 17 Nov 2010 On the sixth/7th of November 2010, 16 boats came t to participate in a 29er Open Training at Grafham Water SC. These 16 boats consisted of many combinations of ages, experience and ability and everyone got well tailored training specifically for them as well as the general group exercises.

On the Saturday we saw relatively light winds, which was great for training as we all tried to improve on our boat speed and boat handling in the gentle breeze. In the morning we did tacking on the whistle exercises upwind attempting to keep the boat going well through the tacks in the conditions, and did some congestive mark roundings downwind which were at times interesting but were also great for general tactics and taught the importance of positioning when coming up to a mark.

We shortly went into a set of races bringing all the other aspects together before going in for a well-deserved lunch. In the afternoon we went out and practiced our gybe drops and gybe sets on a course with an offset windward mark. This proved to be a great exercise in which we could practise the challenging manoeuvres in the light winds in preparation for heavier winds when they prove difficult.

This exercise saw Phil, or Phyllis one of the coaches getting into a boat and falling over whilst demonstrating a gybe drop manoeuvre, which was caught on video and caused much amusement in the subsequent debriefing. We went into more racing, yet again practising the things we had learnt in a racing scenario and came in at the end of the day exhausted.

The next day we woke up to a decent wind which was welcomed after the light winds the day before, so we went out as quickly as possible for a single, very long session with a focus on acceleration. We all learnt loads about how to get the boat going fast as quickly as we could on the startline and with our new skill went into more racing; unfortunately the wind had died down significantly by now to Saturdays light wind.

This didn’t matter however as the racing was very tactical and we all had to think very hard about positioning as well as speed and boat handling to come out on top. After this we went into a ‘riverbank’ exercise where you have to stay between two powerboats up the beat, proving a very interesting exercise which tested boat handling and caused one or two collisions! We went in soon after, again very tired after the full on day.

Overall, I believe I speak for everyone when I say we had a great weekend. Thanks to Phil Walker, Dave Hall, Grafham Water and everyone else who helped contribute to making the weekend what it was.

Link http://www.29er.org.uk/news/uploaded/Grafham_Training_6_11_10.pdf