Optimist Junior Girls training at Burghfield Ssailing Club
by Holly Cox Oct 4 22:15 UTC
October 1-2, 2022
Always time for gynastics – Optimist Junior Girls training at Burghfield © BSC
For the second year, the Burghfield Sailing Club hosted the Optimist Junior Girls training. It is for girls 12 and under and is not part of any team. A big focus of training is training inspiring coaches and making new friends in the fleet outside of their regular club.
The formation quickly sold out and attracted sailors from as far away as West Kirby, Northampton and Hayling Island.
After a long drive in a car full of sailing gear, a ton of sweets and the Oppi on the roof, we arrived at Burghfield Sailing Club. To welcome us, members of the host club had organized this beautiful weekend of Optimist training for girls.
With the boats rigged and after a quick play on the swings, we met our instructors; Julia, Sarah and Anna who set us up in our groups and briefed us on what was going to happen throughout the weekend.
We launched our boats and did various exercises; practice going upwind and then play games like follow my leader. We came back for lunch and another little game on the swings!
We were then back on the water for the afternoon which consisted of racing and lots of talking! We were so lucky with the weather because the weather was really nice and it was very windy with lots of wind shifts, so much so that I capsized coming back to shore!
It was ok as the water was hot and I could jump straight into a nice hot shower! On Saturday night, we ate delicious chili at the club with the whole gang before heading out to rest up for another busy day on the water.
Sunday started with a bacon roll before rigging and our briefing. In the morning we did an exercise called “elephant ears” practicing the direction of the wind again.
After lunch, we split into groups for team runs. The wind had calmed down a bit now, which was a shame, but we still managed to do four races. Having never raced a team before, it was great to try out and learn some new skills.
The day ended with another race but this time back on land. It was a fantastic weekend where I learned a lot from some great instructors, but also met some lovely new friends who I can’t wait to see again soon!
Many thanks to Anna Carpenter, Julia Staite and Sarah Jarman for their excellent coaching and to Burghfield SC for the welcome.
