Optimist Junior Girls Training at Burghfield Ssailing Club
by Holly Cox 4 Oct 15:15 PDT
1-2 October 2022
Always time for gynmastics - Optimist Junior Girls Training at Burghfield © BSC
For the second year Burghfield Sailing Club hosted the Optimist Junior Girls Training. It is aimed at girls 12 and under and not part of any squads. A big emphasis of the training is coaching from inspiring coaches and making new friends in the fleet from outside their normal club.
The training sold out quickly and attracted sailors from as far afield as West Kirby, Northampton and Hayling Island.
After a longish drive in a car packed full of sailing gear, a ton of sweets and the Oppi on the roof we arrived at Burghfield Sailing Club. To greet us were members from the host club who had organised this great girls Optimist training weekend.
With the boats rigged and after a quick play on the swings we met our instructors; Julia, Sarah and Anna who set us up in our groups and briefed us on what was going to happen throughout the weekend.
We launched our boats and did various drills; practising heading up wind and then playing games like follow my leader. We came back in for lunch and another little play on the swings!
We were then back out on the water for the afternoon which consisted of racing and lots of chatting! We were so lucky with the weather as it was really sunny and it was quite windy with a lot wind shifts, so much so that I capsized coming back into shore!
It was OK as the water was warm and I could jump straight into a nice hot shower! On Saturday evening we had a delicious chilli at the club with all the gang before heading off to get some rest before another busy day on the water.
Sunday started with a bacon roll before rigging and our briefing. In the morning we did a drill called "elephant ears" again practising heading up and down wind.
After lunch we split into groups for team racing. The wind had died down a bit by now which was a shame but we still managed to get four races in. Having never done team racing before it was great to have a go and learn some new skills.
The day finished off with another race but this time back to shore. It was a fantastic weekend where I learnt lots from some great instructors but also met some lovely new friends who I look forward seeing again soon!
A massive thanks to Anna Carpenter, Julia Staite and Sarah Jarman for great coaching and for Burghfield SC for hosting.