What We've Done

2014: Jill Reid provides a short report on the season.

The first race of the Cygnet series kicked off on an extremely windy day, which resulted in only four people starting and three finishing. The three who finished were Ethan Shepherd (1st), Jill Reid (2nd) and Martin Atkinson (3rd). Rhys Lewis (4th) got a DNF and Reuben Tendler (5th), Dulcie Motteram (5th) and Iona Reid (5th) got a DNS.

The second race got everyone thinking that Ethan was going to win again this year with his second win in the series, with Jill Reid in close second and Reuben Tendler coming in 3rd,3 seconds in front of Martin! Was the podium going to be the same this year? Martin Atkinson came in 4th with Iona Reid coming up close behind him in 5th place. Dulcie came in 6th with Rhys Lewis closing with 7th.

The third race had a no show from Ethan so Jill raced ahead to secure the 1st place position for herself. Martin came in 2nd with Alasdair Barton coming in 3rd. He was then followed by Dulcie in 4th, Reuben in 5th, Rhys in 6th and Iona in 7th.

By the 4th race, Jill was focusing on winning this year, so she finally beat Ethan which put her tied for 1st! Ethan came in 2nd, only 13 seconds behind Jill, closely followed by Reuben in 3rd. Martin came in 4th, Dulcie in 5th, Iona in 6th and Rhys in 7th.

The fifth race had the same results as it was similar conditions, which moved Ethan down into second place.

Race 6 had another no show from Ethan but also Dulcie and Martin! Jill came in 1st again with Alasdair in 2nd. Rhys was close behind in 3rd with Reuben in 4th and Iona in 5th. After the race, because it was a hot and pretty much windless day (which explained the fact that everyone did 1 lap), the juniors were sent out for a sail around the lake.

On the date for the 7th race, the parents involved cancelled it because there wasn't a drop of wind anywhere. So the juniors enjoyed the day jumping in, playing games like 'how many capsizes in a minute' and 'walking round the boat on the whistle'.

On the last race, Ethan won by 19 seconds! Sadly for him it didn't make a dent in Jill's reign but at least he ended the series on a happy note. Jill came in on a close second with Martin right behind her in 3rd. Reuben came in 4th, Rhys in 5th, Iona in 7th, Dulcie in 8th and Alasdair in 9th. After the race, juniors decided to have a go at backwards sailing, tacking and gybing. After their boats had been put away, the juniors had their yearly party. Everyone had fun and some took part in a game of tag before going home. In the series, the most popular boats were the Topper and the Optimist, with 4 of each being sailed. Next it was the Topper 4.2, with 2 people sailing that. Overall it was a great year for the juniors and everyone had fun.

Jill Reid

2011: The club held an exciting programme of combined junior training sessions and activity afternoons as well as a juniors only racing series, kindly run by club volunteers.

All junior sailors have had the opportunity to sail with some of the club's more experienced sailors to progress their sailing skills and confidence in an informal environment in our training afternoons.

Below are some of the dates held in 2011, with brief details of how things went:

Saturday 10th September - Training afternoon - Despite strong winds, all sailors were confident enough to get out in a boat at some time. Plenty enjoyed a capsize (sometimes more than one!) and the two safety boats were certainly kept busy. However, going back to similiar conditions in April when people weren't keen on taking to the water, the success of the year's events were evident in the fact that everyone was happy to go out. The strong winds changed the afternoons agenda and certainly made 'catch the balls' challenging with no clear winner (due to the capsizes!), but plenty of fun was had by all.

After all the sailing events, everyone gathered in the clubhouse - a presentation of a thank you card and gift was made to Mike Pritchard and Nick Marlow to show the parents and juniors appreciation for their efforts throughout the year (a thank you card and gift were also passed onto Robyn Pritchard, Rob Marlow, Josie Adams and Kevin Last for there help with the sessions). All the junior sailors were then presented with a certificate, by the club's commodore Nick Turnbull-Ross, acknowledging their participation in the years events. Finally, a buffet was unwrapped and a clubhouse full of parents and juniors dived in!

Many comments were made on the success of the years events and how good it was to have seen so many young people actively involved in sailing. Hopefully, next year will build on the first years successes and see another full calendar of junior events.
Sunday 14th August - Junior racing series - The two die-hard entrants, Freya and Ethan, kept the junior racing series alive for the last race of the junior season. Good winds were enjoyed by both sailors on a slightly more detailed course.
Saturday 20th August - Training afternoon - Although the winds looked a little wild at first, things soon settled down into nice consistent conditions - the sun even showed it's self later on! The afternoon started with the sailing of a triangular course with tips given on sail trim, tiller control etc. All the juniors then took part in a race which gave everyone an introduction to tactics around a simple course. Then the fun started with two rounds of 'collect the balls' which involved the juniors racing to collect their share of around 50 balls from the lagoon - Bethany won round one and Will won round two (by one ball from Jonathan!). Then whilst Will took out a Topper, everyone else took another topper! Four sailors on the same topper took some co-ordination with one person helming, one person on the mainsheet and the other two relaxing - four people trying to right a capsized Topper certainly took some co-ordination!
Sunday 31st July - Junior racing series - Unfortunately, only one racer on this occasion!
Saturday 30nd July - Training afternoon - Although the winds were very light, the blue skies and warm weather was good compensation! After some on the water training, plenty of fun was had - with Rose being the only sailor with a water pistol, other sailors resulted in defending themselves with their bailers. Luckily everybody dried pretty quick, but then got soaking wet again as the afternoon finished with plenty of capsize practice.
Sunday 17th July - Junior racing series
Sunday 3rd July - Junior racing series
Saturday 2nd July - Training afternoon
Sunday 19th June - Junior racing series
Saturday 18th June - Training afternoon
Saturday 11th June was a training afternoon. Favourable weather conditions made a welcome appearance (first time this year!). Another strong attendance led to some good time on the water with two optimists, a feva and a bug amongst others.
Sunday 5th June was the 2nd racing event but poor attendance meant the event didn't go ahead.
Sunday 22nd May was the 1st racing event but very strong winds unfortunately meant the days event was cancelled.
Saturday 30th April was a training afternoon. With wind conditions being a complete contrast to last week, the blustery conditions made on the water practice very difficult but an RS Feva took to the lagoon at high speed! A strong attendance of sailors were given tips on boat settings at various points of sail and following this, a number of sailors took to the more sheltered part of the lagoon, near the rear launch ramp in Bugs and a Topper.
Saturday 23rd April was a training afternoon. Light winds made the going difficult at times, but a good attendance of sailors took to the water in a variety of boats, including Optimists, Lasers and a RS Vision. The training included sailing two simple courses, with on the water assessments and tips being given. Back on dry land, there was some interesting discussion of what was learnt in the boats, along with some further guidance. Certain sailors also decided to practice their capsize recovery technique towards the end of the day!

Attenborough Sailing Club run RYA training courses - available courses.