A chilly weekend of J80 training

First RTYC J80 Team Racing Training event takes place at Queen Mary sailing Club over chilly weekend of the 4^th and 5^th December.

Event organiser Richard Hill found himself anxiously following the weather forecasts of snow storms and freezing weather during the week leading up to the event with a distinct possibility that the boats could not be launched and sailors snowbound and unable to get to QMSC. However finally on the Friday before the event with a two day window of warmer weather promised, he gave the go ahead and 24 keen racers arrived at 9am on Saturday morning for the first of the two training days.

Our Saturday race trainer, BA Cup helmsman and Carmela Cup holder, Mark Lees, gave the group a detailed explanation on the team racer's objectives and followed this with a guided tour around a typical box race course. He explained the various issues facing the crews and teams on each leg of the course, covering opportunities for making conversions and how to avoid being converted yourself.

Unfortunately a weather front that was crossing southern England had not passed through and the lack of wind meant little chance of sailing in the morning. Undaunted there was an impromptu Racing Rules discussion lead by Mark and Bernard Kinchin. With patience running out and lunch eaten the boats were rigged and the hardy 24 went out for some on water drills including starting practice. Finally they gave up and returned to the club due to lack of sufficient breeze which needless to say filled in nicely during the debrief.

Sunday started at 9.30am with our Sunday race trainer, BA Cup helmsman and captain Andy Cornah covering the various combinations and mark trap techniques for two and three boat team racing. With better breeze and a forecast for the wind to die later, the crews were quickly out on the water for some start practice and coached racing in cold but fine weather.

Finally coming ashore as the morning breeze gave way to more variable wind, Andy gave a full debrief and short Q&A before the crews drifted away into the evening gloom.

Many thanks to Mark and Andy for giving up their time to train the crews, Alexis Dogilewski and Peter Schroder on the Committee boat and Brian Smith, George Ehlers and Ed Fryer for Umpiring. As always Freddie was on hand to help with launching and mark laying. All the sailors found the weekend very informative and stimulating and the quality of training from two of the worlds top team racers was superb. We hope to do more training throughout the winter for those unfortunate enough to miss out this time.