With the season approaching the Scottish RS Feva class kicked off with an open training weekend hosted at Loch Venachar SC over the 21st and 22nd March. A record twenty sailors attended with sailors from six different clubs represented on the water across the ten boats. Established feva sailors from Wormit BC were joined by a couple of sailors from Port Edgar Watersports Centre who have over the autumn and spring have run a series of coaching days seeing a regular group of sailors getting out on the water. Sailors also came from Cove Sailing Club, Aberdeen and Stonehaven, Clyde Cruising Club and a strong showing from host club Loch Venachar. With three charter boats kindly supplied by JP Watersports a number of sailors from other junior classes used the opportunity to try out a different boat and broaden their sailing experience.
Beautiful sunny conditions greeted the sailors on the Saturday morning but sadly not a breath of wind initially. However this gave plenty of opportunity for sailors to get the triple stacker of charter boats unloaded and boats fully rigged up ready for the breeze. After a busy fitness session ashore sailors made their way onto the water to enjoy a morning and afternoon making the most of the puffs of pressure coming down the loch.
A much better breeze welcomed the sailors on the Sunday morning and boats were quickly rigged and the fun of putting on wet wetsuits from the capsize games of the day before endured. After warming up on a windward-leeward course the coaches ran a series on mini races to get sailors into the groove before splitting to focus on the three aims of the weekend. For those sailors new there was the opportunity to look at general boat handling whilst those more experienced sailors worked their way upwind in a series of lane holding exercises to simulate the challenges that await as the boats join bigger fleets across the course of the season. The gusty conditions rewarded those crews able to keep their eyes out of the boat and spotting the gusts coming across the water. The hard upwind work was then rewarded with a series of long downwind kite runs and the boats all hunted down the best of the pressure.
The final afternoon saw a mix of racing and games on the water involving all of the boats with the weekend rounded off by an all-comers game of giant packman. The fleet now looks forward to the next event where they return to Loch Venachar to join the optimists and toppers at the RYA Scotland Spring Championships.
Beautiful sunny conditions greeted the sailors on the Saturday morning but sadly not a breath of wind initially. However this gave plenty of opportunity for sailors to get the triple stacker of charter boats unloaded and boats fully rigged up ready for the breeze. After a busy fitness session ashore sailors made their way onto the water to enjoy a morning and afternoon making the most of the puffs of pressure coming down the loch.
A much better breeze welcomed the sailors on the Sunday morning and boats were quickly rigged and the fun of putting on wet wetsuits from the capsize games of the day before endured. After warming up on a windward-leeward course the coaches ran a series on mini races to get sailors into the groove before splitting to focus on the three aims of the weekend. For those sailors new there was the opportunity to look at general boat handling whilst those more experienced sailors worked their way upwind in a series of lane holding exercises to simulate the challenges that await as the boats join bigger fleets across the course of the season. The gusty conditions rewarded those crews able to keep their eyes out of the boat and spotting the gusts coming across the water. The hard upwind work was then rewarded with a series of long downwind kite runs and the boats all hunted down the best of the pressure.
The final afternoon saw a mix of racing and games on the water involving all of the boats with the weekend rounded off by an all-comers game of giant packman. The fleet now looks forward to the next event where they return to Loch Venachar to join the optimists and toppers at the RYA Scotland Spring Championships.