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Posts tagged ‘dinghy’

Mar 9

Corinthians waiting for wind
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Smörgåsbord of recent events

Two weeks ago I had a chance to try my hand at club duties at the London Corinthian Sailing Club. As a deputy race officer I was stationary in the race officer gazebo and in charge of the start sequence flags. Three or four Laser races were to be held on the river, however light winds gave some doubts whether the races could go forth at all. Olympic campaigner Val Nedyalkov went for a test sail up the river, roll tacking against the tide. The verdict was that the river was sailable, and so the race could go ahead. Double-handed troops had to still stay behind, as their boats were too heavy for the light conditions. They manned the club bar instead. Read more

Jan 4

249661297_caa4a49ba8_z
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Watch out for that boom

With the America’s Cup destination decided, a study identifying sailing injuries is timely

PROVIDENCE, RI – Just as the site for the 2013 America’s Cup has been announced, a study from Rhode Island Hospital highlights that the sport isn’t always smooth sailing. The study was published recently in the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.

Through an on-line survey completed by sailors, researchers at Rhode Island Hospital have pieced together a report of the injuries that occur on two types of boats — dinghies (small boats with crews of one or two) and keel boats (larger boats like those used in the America’s Cup races with a crew of up to 16).

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Dec 19

Charmione-1
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Two weeks and twitching – Training calendar for 2011

Two weeks after finishing Hamble Winter Series 2010, many of London Corinthian Sailing Club shipmates coincidentally have found themselves browsing sailing videos and websites. Two weekends of rest has been enough, and now there is appetite for more sailing – the sooner the better. LCSC dinghy racing calendar is packed with activity every weekend, therefore Hammersmith is the direction for the winter weekends to come. (Lack of dry suit is an incentive to avoid capsizing.)

Offshore sailors have confessed browsing Volvo Ocean Race videos, and in addition to that I have found myself also looking into Rolex Fastnet Yacht Race and Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race (check the previous post). Information has been squirreled away about spinnaker techniques, sail construction, storm sailing, ISAF requirements for offshore races and anything & everything that could possibly interest over zealous offshore race learners.

Even though dinghy sailing in Thames is the likeliest sailing option for winter season, some ideas beyond Clipper Round the World Race 11-12 are already forming. Sadly next autumn I’ll have to pass Rolex Fastnet Yacht Race and Rolex Middle Sea Races 2011, but on the positive side at that time the Clipper Race 11-12 is already progressing from Europe to Brazil and onwards to South Africa.

Training calendar for Spring – Summer 2011

My S/S 2011 season training calendar looks as intensive as the past autumn training, if not even more so.

  • December 2010 – March 2011: Dinghy sailing with London Corinthian Sailing Club. Also occasional deputy race officer duties have been sprinkled in, so it’s interesting to get a view to racing from the organiser point of view.
  • Warsash Spring Series 2011 in March: Hopefully I will be able to visit one or two weekends on March. However around this time it will be very busy getting ready for the major training stint explained next.
  • April – July: Zero to Hero training aka RYA Offshore Yachtmaster Fast Track Programme with Clipper Training. I will leave London for good on April 2011, so it is vital to get rid of all furniture and belongings by then. Only 20 kg of clothing and equipment will remain for the training and Clipper Round the World Race. Practical part of Clipper Level 3 training will be also included in this stint.
  • May: Dinghy race training weekend at Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, coached by SailLaser.
  • July: Level 4 training with my Clipper Race skipper and team. (To be announced on April 2011).
  • August 2011 – July 2012: The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

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This time the muscular lady on the photo is Laverie Vallee née Cooper (July 18, 1875 – February 6, 1949), best known by her stage name Charmion. She was an American vaudeville trapeze artist and strongwoman whose well-publicized suggestive performance was captured on film in 1901.

One might ask what’s this fascination with 19th century strongwoman photos, as last time it was Louise Leers and now Charmion in the picture. It’s simply the beauty of strength and physical shape acquired by training their respective arts, which is very different from the inflated muscles of gym bunnies. These ladies worked hard to achieve a skill and the muscles were a side effect that allowed them to master their professions. The same way I would expect anyone racing around the world on the foredeck returning a year later carrot-shaped, simply for hauling heavy loads and performing physical tasks throughout the race. Gentlemen might wish to achieve less curvaceous figures than these ladies though.

Charmion exhibiting The Muscles

Sep 11

Photo by fd

Day of plunges

What a day it has been. Two hours of dinghy sailing this afternoon drained my energies temporarily. (And the 7km walk it takes to get there and back) It was a very breezy day, so a single-handed dinghy demanded full attention all the time. I am pleased to report some progress though: today I capsized for the very first time. And as all good things come in threes, it didn’t happen only once, but thrice. Every time the reason was a careless gybe, I wasn’t quite anticipating the boom movement and pulling it briskly enough through the wind. Fortunately the water was warm and I managed to avoid falling on the sail. Righting the boat was very easy too, so that was a good learning experience.

Finally dinghy sailing feels like high energy action sports! Ploughing through waves upwind gave some good bounces and there was a sudden incident of a main sheet block coming off too. That was interesting to say the least, without the sail I lost the steerage and the boat went on drifting towards a concrete ‘beach’, so I had to hop off to prevent collision and hold the boat in water up to my armpits until a safety boat came to my rescue.

Tomorrow morning I’m heading back to do more gybe and tack drills and as much up and downwind sailing as the ongoing sail club championship races allow. No doubt my wetsuit will be still wet in the morning, yikes.

I can warmly recommend dinghy sailing to everyone. First it felt really silly and pointless to sail back and forth an artificial lake or on river, but man, does one learn about the wind and helming! It’s great to be in control of such small vessel: it reacts to everything, so there’s instant feedback in form of a sudden bath if something goes wrong. I’m absolutely loving dinghy sailing as training practice.

This might be worthwhile doing from December to March during my Clipper training gap. There is also an opportunity to start racing dinghies over the wintertime! If I manage to keep it upright, that is.

[Update Sun 12 Sept 2010]

Today’s sailing was much better compared to yesterday’s ground hog day. It is worth getting angry at yourself every now and then! Today I got frustrated with my clumsiness and wind gusts that would have required de-powering the sail to keep the dinghy balanced. Instead of letting the sail out, I got my ankles strapped and leaned well over the side to balance the boat and keep it going faster. Probably those are the situations when some core national characteristics show up: in very Finnish manner I summoned some “sisu” and thought “I’ll keep this @%&*$ boat going and lean over, even if that would tip me over in the water. Stop being such a wimp!”

The RYA Level 2 dinghy course starts next Saturday – looking forward to learn more moves.

Photo by fd (creative commons)