We had a great practice two weeks ago. We really focused on keeping the boat at an even heel level by using main trim, steering, and weight placement. We also tried hard to keep the boat pointed as far to weather as possible, as many people lose a lot of distance by sailing below close hauled. Improvement was excellent during the day, and I hope people had fun.

For today, breeze is looking pretty good, a moderate SEster. Let’s be dressed and rigging at 6pm. I’ll be there a bit earlier today to help groups get ready.

We’ll begin by sailing out to the anchored floating dock in the middle of the river, and doing loops of that (rounding it to port continuously). The goal here is to warm you up, to gather everyone, and to practice our gybing and tacking maneuvers, as well as our windward and leeward mark-rounding maneuvers. You can attempt to get inside overlap as you come around each corner, taking a shorter or faster route. Be careful about being inside at the windward edge though, as you still need to clear the dock AND it’s anchor lines!

Then we’ll briefly gather on the dock for a quick roll-tack and roll gybe demonstration. Hopefully we can land all the mercuries on the dock safely for a few minutes. We may need to lower the mainsails. Lastly, we’ll do some loops of a smallish windward leeward course with a requirement to tack or gybe five times between each mark. Also work really hard on making tight leeward (and windward) mark roundings, particularly on finishing on the correct course.

I promise, next time we’ll do starts, slowing or stopping the boat, and even maybe some “Sumo-Sailing”.