ladies laser training

Ladies Laser Training 23rd July

Ladies and Lasers

The first Ladies training day was held on Saturday 23rd July with 10 ladies attending, coached by club member Rebecca Ogden. It was near perfect conditions good breeze, sunshine and lots of enthusiastic ladies. The plan was to be rigged and ready by 10.00 which was going well until Mark (Laser Fleet Captain) arrived as safety cover with his large piece of equipment.....one rather large lens which sent the ladies into concerns that their bums might look big or even worst our outfits might clash. We wondered if this was the concern for the men were also having some Laser training from the Marshall brothers?

Rebecca went through the rudiments of rig set-up since all our boats are different ages and have different contraptions. Even at this stage everyone was learning something, like not leaving our sails flapping while on the shore and the Laser knot which Kate perfected, making a beautiful necklace!

Rebecca set our first task of rounding two marks and getting the feel for the conditions and our boats. Bearing in mind two helms borrowed their sons boats for the first time (Cath Reynolds and Catherine Hughes) and some helms hadn’t been in their boat for over two years! (it must of been the promise of Pimms that got them out on the water). We were all pretty impressed to have no capsizes at this stage, as we were asked to follow in a line (this is where it gets tricky especially as the two lead boats had helms called Kathryn!). We rounded Mark 6 and re-joined the line, all pretty impressive stuff but after an hour caffeine was calling so we headed to shore for a well deserved drink and doughnuts, (thanks Kate) whilst Mark re-loaded his camera and deleted any dodgy looking shots (girl on girl not appropriate Mark!).

Our next plan was to practice our tacking and gybing (obviously Rebecca felt we needed some work on this area). We watched from the shore and were very impressed with how easy Rebecca made it seem, would we be ever as good as that? We were equally impressed with her launch technique and keeping those toes dry (and we might add not smudging her make-up). Our next task was to again follow in line and on her whistle command firstly practice our tacks and then gybying, all in the same vicinity as each other (at this point we checked our insurance indemnity). Getting us into line caused Rebecca some grieve but we eventually managed some beautifully executed tacks eventually finishing with us all on the same tack (a miracle). But for good measure we now had to gybe whilst running....still no capsizes but a few chicken gybes and warring round just for good measure. By this time Rebecca decided we needed lunch and a rest.

By 1.15 we were back on the water for one more hour of practice before joining the Saturday races (two back to back). By 2.00 the water was looking very busy and the usual Saturday racers wondered was what was going on as they were joined by over 15 Lasers. The Race Officer set a challenging course, even for Saturday standards, with three gybe marks in succession (1, X and 10) added to three other marks to round, would we be able to remember all these marks for starters let alone all the things Rebecca had coached us on?

The tricky conditions and rounding’s made for some interesting tactics and unfortunately a number of ladies came a cropper and had a swim, but not deterred no one gave up and all completed the necessary qualifying laps to get a hoot. Special mention to Katie, Lucy, Karen, and Maria, as their racing prowess enabled them to keep with the front of the pack. Race Two only saw eight of the ladies out but this time they were more vocal in calling for water and shouting starboard as necessary. Kathryn had a great start remembering of cause to watch those tell tails closely followed by Maria and Philipa.

After the races eight exhausted ladies retired to the changing room to de-brief and decide what next? They all agreed it was a fantastic day, lots learnt, lots understood and when can we do it again was the resounding request. We are planning our next ‘Ladies that Launch’ event, which could be at the Club, Majorca Sailing or Antigua - we did somewhat get carried away.......more details and dates to follow.

So watch out boys..........we might not be Olympic standard but the names to watch are Cath Reynolds, Catherine Hughes, Karen Newcombe, Kathryn Hinsliff-Smith, Katie Gard, Kate Lenthall, Lindsay Ogden, Lucy Beale, Maria Bilous and Philippa Logan.

And finally a special thanks to Rebecca, who will probably never offer to coach the ladies again and to Mark, our fleet captain, who facilitated this day (p.s. we need to vet the photo’s please) - (too late up on website!! (Website editor!)