RS 500 Training and Winter Warm-Up Day 1 at Datchet – 31st January 2009
Eight hardy RS 500 teams met at Datchet Water Sailing Club on Saturday for a day’s coaching by Nick Martin. They were met by freezing temperatures and a very gusty force 4 to 6. The event kicked off with a briefing which included a description of three exercises to work on to help improve approaching windward marks; spinnaker hoists and tacking. After some assistance with rigging, for people new to the boat, the fleet hit the water, in more than one sense. It soon became clear an additional exercise for the day was going to be capsize drill!
Despite many boats not spending much time upright, in the training area, Nick managed to get plenty of video footage of the experts performing the exercises. This allowed for some very informative discussions over the lunch break. An important lesson for the newcomers was how to depower the RS 500 rig. As with most boats you need plenty of outhaul, downhaul and kicker but it is also necessary to have some slack in the lowers before this tension is applied so that the mast is allowed to bend.
After this discussion a reduced fleet headed out for some short race exercises. In general most boats were a little more in control and there were slightly fewer capsizes. Some crew swapping also helped to improve some people’s confidence.
Thanks must go to coach Nick Martin for persevering with the coaching in less than ideal conditions. Hopefully next time we will be blessed by a perfect force 3!
Sunday dawned with more wind and colder temperature for the start of the Datchet Winter Warm-Up series. Ten RS 500’s have so far signed on to the event but only three got on to the water. Of these only one got to the start line and completed the first race of the series. Alex Taylor and Bryan Mobbs came second of the four boats who completed the course on the Asymmetric start. They were only just beaten on handicap by a 505!
There are three more Sundays of the event to come with a possible seven more races. With six races to count it is still well worth for more boats to enter next weekend. Please see www.dwsc.co.uk for details.
Michael Clapp
RS 500 Fleet Rep DWSC.
