This is what my eldest thinks we sail... wonder whether having the jib aft and the main fore is a good idea? The tell-tails seem to be streaming forwards as well, think I may be doing my backwards sailing!
So I didn't sail Sunday...I went all nostalgic, but we'll come to that later..
So Saturday we had an informal "Miracle training session" at Draycote Paul Huett the current Miracle National Champ, minus his young crew (11yrs old) turned up shore-side on a windy, cold Saturday afternoon to impart some knowledge, help people with their boat set-up etc etc.
Me and eldest son rocked up, well actually as the flyer had said "Training day" we rocked up at 11am..found noone was there and that it didn't start until 2pm, so re-rocked-up then ;-)
Anyway, about 8 or so Miracle yachters turned up and we got to grips with the basics, went through checking/demonstrating setting up the mast, checking it was straight, spreader position, length etc, this all seemed well received by most people, albeit the majority of stuff wasn't news to me.. but was stuff that needed at least checking on "Miracle or Jedi Mind Trick?"...
The interesting stuff came when Paul started talking more about how and his "small crew" worked together and how the boat was set-up to minimise the effort the crew had to do... this was good stuff and has prompted me to start to schedule a bit of an over-haul on a few of the aspects of the boat that are of significant concern to me when sailing with my eldest son in any futures competitions...namely spinnaker handling/work...
So with our fill of ideas (Thanbks very much Paul) for changes to the boat and also on the water techniques we departed to the clubhouse, pint and a bag of roasted peanuts with my parents and both my sons, watching RS200's blasting and a couple of 12 Foot Skiffs practicing for next weeks mega event at Rutland...SPLAT... then home to my wife and new daughter...good times...
Anyway back to nostalgia, Sunday dawned, usual family activities and then afternoon emptying of our loft, found old box of scraps/cuttings and some photo's of my early sailing career, including old "sailing related" homework from eons ago... a "project" about sailing in general and some technology coursework where I designed, manufactured, tested and had reviewed a titanium-telescopic-tiller-extension! So in that box were a lot of memories and a lot of names I need to try and locate and hook-up with and a heap of stories, pictures and stuff to blog-about, so you may find the next few months being a mix of now and then!
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