17 December 2011

Huge River Sailing Club Christmas Party

Sarah renames the BRSC as Huge River Sailing Club
Saturday 17 December
At last, a dry day forecasted and a pleasant 6 - 9 knot SE wind. Little Dragon would enjoy a relaxed social sail. I went down to Harwood on Friday afternoon planning to rig and then enjoy a quiet evening watching sunset over the Clarence River. I had a hunch that the forecast wasn't accurate when the wind failed to die away at sunset and continued to blow all night. Normally there is hardly a ripple at dawn but on Saturday there was already a good sailing breeze at 7 am.

By 9.30 am club members were rigging dinghies for a crowd of excited and enthusiastic youngsters. The breeze increased and there were plenty of capsizes before the lunch time sausage sizzle. No-one seemed to mind. It was a gloriously sunny fun day.
Naomi, Cooper and Matthew








John, one of the adults who had been helping launch the dinghies, came out with me and a trio (Naomi, Cooper and Matthew) of youngsters for a pre-sizzle sail. Thanks John, we needed two pretty hefty adults as well as our lightweight crew to keep Little Dragon reasonably upright. The wind had backed to a southerly so we were able to reach up and down the river and never attempted to come right on the wind. The youngsters all had a (closely supervised) turn on the helm and learnt how to handle the jib sheet. It was a pleasure to have the youngsters aboard and a relief that they all said they had enjoyed the experience.

By the time we had finished the festive fare there was too much wind for relaxed social sailing - so I packed up early. NB I checked the Yamba observations when I got home and it recorded a gust of 28 knots during the afternoon.