By Andrew Weeden

20-21 February 2010 - 28 junior sailors arrived at Draycote from clubs as far apart as Bartley, Rutland, Rudyard Lake and Shropshire to hone their sailing skills under the guidance of Jon Lewis, assisted by Phil Walker. The theme of the weekend was “leaking boat lengths”, a term used to demonstrate how a number of small mistakes added up to cost races.

Saturday morning started with a brief and then out onto the courses where coaches watched individual sailing skills before offering advice on specific areas of improvement. Lunch was followed by a video de-brief before more specific areas of coaching were set up.

Sunday morning started with snow, which made getting to the club the first challenge of the day. The brief for Fevas looked at the roles of helm and crew within the boat for each phase of the course and the importance of team communication towards a successful race. This was taken out onto the water for a short session which included the skill of gybe drops. The Teras had the costs of “crashing and bashing” in lost places demonstrated by on course incidents and were encouraged to seek clear water and clean air to maximise boat speed.

After lunch three back to back 20 minute races were run to consolidate the coaching during which a improvement by all across the fleets were clear to see. The day concluded with a final de-brief and a chance to ask the coaches any final advice.

A big thank you, once again, to the RYA Volvo Championship Club scheme for financing some of the coaching, also to Jon Lewis and Phil Walker for some inspirational coaching and advice through-out the week-end, Simon Loveridge for organising and co-ordinating the week-end and of course to the parents for their support.

If you would like to be involved in future weekends for Teras, Fevas or 29ers please contact office@draycotewater.co.uk for details.