Musto Skiff Open
Dalgety Bay Training Session
Photos : Andrew Greer
Report : Alistair Kerr
Musto Skiff training for Scottish boats
was organized by Gavin Homer for the weekend of 16/17th
April. This presented a good opportunity to get some
serious practice in prior to the first open of the year.
Five Mustos and one RS800 took to the
water on Saturday morning after a brief brief from Gav.
The conditions were excellent with reasonably flat water
and plenty of wind, even Bob was flat wiring…
The fleet appeared to be directionally
challenged to start with taking to all corners of the
Forth, eventually we got the hang of turning round and
spent the remainder of the first session on a windward
leeward course.
After lunch the fleet sailed upwind towards
North Queensferry, concentrating on upwind speed and
tacking. Sailing as a group and tacking on a whistle
proved useful and highlighted areas with room for improvement,
using Mr Renilson as the benchmark. The day finished
with a downwind blast home, smiles all round.
Sunday the fleet was down to four Mustos, allowing more
one on one coaching time. There was less breeze than
Saturday but enough to be wiring most of the time. The
sun was out and it was a beautiful day on the Firth
of Forth. The focus for the first session of the day
was to be upwind speed, and tacking. Again we tacked
on the whistle and sailed as a group putting into practice
the points discussed the previous day. The lighter winds
allowed for more refinement of gybing technique. The
main points were; take all the slack out of the lazy
sheet and pull from the block on a gybe, sheet the main
in more than you think, mark the main sheet position
for speed and gybing to allow quick adjustment. After
lunch the fleet joined in the club racing to put our
new skills into practice, well in theory!!
Thanks to Gavin for organizing the weekend
and to Dalgety Bay Sailing Club for the use of their
facilities.
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