Challenger Coaching Weekend at Rutland Sailing Club

 

The weekend 27-28 April saw the first Challenger event of the season. It was a coaching weekend led by Brett Cokayne, the RYA's National Sailability Developer. On Sunday Brett was joined by Andy Gordon of Scaling Dam. The weekend was made possible with the support of RYA Sailability, Rutland Sailability and Rutland Sailing Club.

Saturday saw eleven sailors, from six different clubs and Sailability groups, meet promptly at 10:00 ready for sailing. For four of these sailors it was their first ever Challenger event (it is hoped it won't be their last!). Four of the visiting sailors were loaned Rutland Sailability Challengers and they were very grateful to have such good quality boats.

There was a brisk north easterly wind (F4 gusting F5) and it was very cold but after an initial briefing the fleet headed out on the water. The fleet started with a "Round the clock" exercise covering all points of sail. Rory McKinna commented that while he'd done this activity before in a monohull it was rather different in a multihull with more care needed to avoid stalling on the tight turns. Tim Cripps (ex-Laser sailor) found the activity useful to start to get to grips with the manoeuvrability of the Challenger and its controls.

This was followed by a "follow my leader" exercise. On a whistle this turned into a practice start with sailors coming up on the wind and then tacking on the whistle while trying to hold their lane. The activity was then reversed with a bear away and gybing on the whistle.

On Sunday  the wind had swung westerly and it was predominantly F4/5 gusting F6 occasionally F7. The direction and strength rendered one of the slips unusable as the waves were bouncing chaotically off the pontoon. There was much staring at waterlogged ground and waterlogged Challengers in the bitingly cold wind. The cancellation of club racing confirmed the decision that it was going to be a theory day and no one objected.

Thanks are due to Brett Cokayne and Andy Gordon, RYA Sailability and Rutland Sailing Club. Thanks also to Rutland Sailability for loan of their RIB, Challengers and to their volunteers (particularly those involved in the bows first launches), and to the additional volunteers who came to help simply because we asked them to! Finally, thanks to Val Millward and Annie Molyneux who organised the entire weekend.