easter course 09

Easter Course 2009

"Easter Tuesday saw 23 slightly apprehensive children down at the club eager and ready to go for this year's Easter Junior Course. The sun was shining, the wind was perfect, the instructors were fresh and full of ideas, we got the capsizing bit out of the way, and all was well with the world. Smiles all round. We had a Terrific Tuesday.

Wednesday was more interesting. Grey for most of the day, and much much windier. We resorted to getting the Cornish Cobbles out in order to give at least some time on the water. A great day for theory. Knots everywhere. Pictures of boat parts pinned up around the club. Huddles of keen students in every corner. Eventually the sun came out, bringing with it the smiles, and that made everything less scary. Everyone took to their Toppers and Oppies. Plenty of reefing, a fair amount of capsizing, and from the top group whoops of pure delight as they zinged back and forth. A Wild Wednesday that ended well.

Thursday was another day that was way too breezy for beginners to practice the niceties of boat control. The sun shone at times and as before, this encouraged everyone to take to the water. But when the sun was hiding, theory was starting to wear a bit thin. The inventiveness of instructors was put to the test, and they came up trumps. Wordsearches, quizzes, more knots, some towing round the lake, alphabetical lists of dinghies (anyone know a dinghy starting with Z??). The smiles stayed in place just, and the children decided it had been a Thundering Thursday.

Friday was the final day. Yet again the wind was up in the high teens with gusts at 27. The top group went race training on the little lake, Team JHAMS got out the Wayfarer, chain gangs got out the Cornish Cobbles, and with children as young as 8 at the helm, they took to the water. We had to abandon the planned George Stanton Grand Finale Allcomers Race, but by now the hard work of our amazingly talented instructors was showing results. The children were becoming both confident and competent. They were becoming sailors! As the wind dropped to the mid teens, out came all the Oppies and Toppers for a final frolic. I'm pleased to report that our fine Commodore turned out to do the presentations, he did the business in terms of a short speech intended to inspire us all to become champions and everyone went home on a high. It had been a Fantastic Friday.

Thanks to the very very many people who really got stuck in all sorts of ways throughout what was a challenging week in many ways. Together I think we did our club proud, and I look forward to joining in the cheering when one of the 23 children becomes a world champion!"

Charles Ferrar