Skill Builder Weekends with London Corinthian Sailing Club

Published 11:11 on 16 Dec 2019

Another successful skill building weekend completed and I'm looking forward to the next.

4 crew members and the skipper attended the weekend. The crew was made up of varying skills (1 competent crew, 2 who have recently passed their day skipper theory and 1 day skipper.)

After meeting Friday evening and having a thorough safety briefing onboard, we all ate ashore, had a few drinks and the crew got to know everybody.

Saturday morning, we woke at 7am to focus on power handling and a bit of pontoon bashing. After a quick classroom session, we took it in turns to helm, steering off the pontoon, along the river and then trying to moor the yacht. It was great to learn about the wind and tides and how these can affect a "simple" manoeuvre.

A quick lunch onboard and we then set sail into Southampton water, taking it in turns to helm, crew and also skipper. Luckily the waters were quiet at this time of year, allowing us plenty of space to practice man over board manoeuvres. The sunset at 4pm but we kept on sailing until 5.30pm which was great to learn about sailing at night and what we need to look out for, testing our lights and nigh sailing knowledge.

After mooring at Hamble Marina, the crew we woken early to the smell of bacon and eggs and we we set sail again, making the most of the light. Perfect conditions were waiting for us in the solent, no rain, the sun was poking through and a good wind strength.

The crew worked well as team, changing the helm and crew positions on a regular basis as we practiced tacking and jibing and sailing in a "time trial" course. It was a hard but throughly enjoyable day as we all learnt a lot and improved our skills.

The weekend was great for all of the crew as we all improved on our individual sailing journeys and I always learn something new each time. I look forward to the next one and will keep working towards my day skipper practical course too!

A Thank you to James Hughes for his article

Last updated 10:35 on 18 February 2024