By Phil Gambrill
In the last newsletter I mentioned that I was going to try my hand at dinghy sailing and see if I could cope without a 200hp engine on the back of a boat. Well I am please to inform everyone that I have nearly completed RYA dinghy sailing level 1 & 2, and the Commodore of Liverpool Sailing Club can now manage to get a dinghy virtually where he wants whatever the direction of the wind! The course is at Pilkington Sailing Club and consists of a 'taster sail', an eight week course and then a series of races for the rest of the year to improve our new found skills. LSC's own Dave Wilson is one of the instructors and numerous dinghy sailors are roped in to act as assistant instructors, including our own Tom Workman and Jim Hughes. Before the course started a course briefing evening was held. Now this was a very pleasant affair with an introduction to the instructors, until phrases like' the water temperature is freezing at the moment', and 'when (not you will note, if) you capsize', followed by a video on the correct way to capsize started me wondering if I should stick to powerboats! Chloe Wilson (Dave's daughter), and Phil and Debra Crosby of LSC have also signed up joining a class of about 30 novices. Then with the warning to bring a warm spare set of clothes we were sent home for a week to wonder what we had let ourselves in for. What follows is a brief week by week account of events.
THE TASTER SAIL
With so many students we were split up, two students and one instructor per boat. I and another student joined Tom Workman. Rigged the boat and with gentle winds had a very pleasant couple of hours cruising up and down, with an introduction to the various parts and the new names we have to know. Now the confusion begins, ropes become sheets, wire becomes stays, the jib tell tales appear to be strands of old wool, that coil of string in the corner is - wait for it- a coil of old string! For such a small dinghy, every piece of rope, sorry sheet, on the Enterprise seems about three times too long and with two novices aboard with inexperienced size 10's in all the wrong places, a great deal of time is spent getting untangled.
WEEK 1
Joined a North West Champion Enterprise racer for this lesson, he only wants to sail at top speed and sedate sailing seems to have gone out of the window! Three main things learned this week, it's always the crews fault, crewing for a racer is knackering and it's always the crews fault. Also I've discovered I'm not telepathic and my head has been knocked 'til it's black and blue. Enjoyed it though, I think.
WEEK 2
Dave Wilson the instructor this week, and joined by John. Gentle breeze meant a return to calmer sailing and we had a chance to put our new tacking skills into practice. Not to sure if the reason for the slower speed is the gentle wind or the fact there must be 40+ stone in the dinghy! Chloe keeps passing us. Learning to duck!