Bosham Winter Training
After a postponement due to strong December winds, the second IOCA winter training at Bosham SC took place on Sunday 16th January. 12 young sailors found their way to Bosham Quay to be met with fog no wind and friends they hadn’t seen since 2021. With no wind in sight the day started with some boat checks and tuning and excited renewing of friendships. By 11 o’clock the coaches Andy and Islay sent the sailors afloat in an attempt to burn off some excited energy, amazingly prayers were answered and just as the first boats launched ripples started to appear on the glassy water surface.
Soon a gentle force two was blowing, perfect for some boat handling and upwind sailing. Well done to Elsie, Alice, Kate and Olive for experimenting with rolling an Optimist and fighting the temptation to keep the boat flat.
After lunch, with a fast-ebbing tide, the focus became understanding how to use the tide around the racecourse. Three groups of sailors planned and designed their own courses in Bosham Channel, Jack; Benji and Olaf were first to invite the others to race on their course, which was set with several traps to catch out the unwary sailor in terms of shallows and crossing the tidal flow. The course was perfect 15 minutes before the race, however, the dropping tide meant sailors had to resort to unconventional methods to get around one of the buoys with the water so shallow foils had to be removed. Well done to Jack and Benji who managed to best overcome the challenges of their course to win and a thank you to Jack and Felix who enthusiastically waded through the Bosham mud to retrieve the buoy. After another ‘less eventful’ race the sailors headed ashore where the hose pipe was in high demand and tales of the racing grew taller. See you all at the next training day scheduled for 5th February.