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CentreBoard

August 2004

The Newsletter of Spinnaker Club, Ringwood

www.spinnakerclub.co.uk

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Sunday Topper Coaching

Topper Race coaching on a Sunday morning has got off to a good start, with boats turning up every week, sometimes we’ve had up to 7, and I’d like put in print the fact that all of them have without exception improved each week, as hopefully the results start to show.

I have a couple of requests here:

I desperately need someone to assist Nigel and myself with the co-ordinating of people, and also with doing the training itself.
Also we are still hoping to appoint an official Topper Class Captain.

So if you think you could help at all, in any way, with any of these roles, even if only occasionally, please get in touch with myself or Nigel Neame.

The other thing is more of a reminder that we are doing this, and it is open to anyone with a Topper or similar type of boat (Pico, Feva, Topaz) who would like to join in. It’s very informal, and happens at about 10:00 every Sunday when there’s not an Open Meeting. The format tends to be:

Rig boats in advance
Bit of a chat about something we need to practice
Sail for half an hour or so.
Enter the 11:30 race, in which you will receive advice as you progress around the course.

Paul Irons

Mirror Coaching

If you have a Mirror you will have a special opportunity on 30/31 October.

The Club is expecting two top coaches - one will probably be Rob Grieg-Gran, the 2001 Southern Mirror Champion [etc., etc.]. Visitors will be paying £10 per day to attend, and they will without doubt be coming, as the RYA will have a talent scout present to earmark the best of them for places in the National Squad or South Zone Squad.

However, as we are the host club, you will not have to pay! Although personal coaching cannot be guaranteed if you are not a Mirror Class Association member, you can at least watch and learn, on or off the water. End of October may be late in the year for some of you, but wet or dry suits are not actually compulsory until 1st November.

Bill Bacon

Safety Boat Course

The next Safety Boat Course is to be run on 11/12 September and is already fully booked.

As described often in these columns Spinnaker organises RYA Safety Boat Courses to complement RYA Power Boat Courses.

ALL members are encouraged to undertake this training. So if you have not yet taken yours yet, why not? Watch out for the next dates to be announced. Ed.

Junior Power Boat Course

John Clarke’s initial announcement in May’s CentreBoard about a course for junior power boating resulted in highly successful sessions on 22/23 July with six youngsters aged 9-14 years.

The instructors themselves were surprised by the level of competence and ‘grown up’ approach displayed by the young participants, most of whom had never driven powered craft before. Without exception they all passed their Level 1 and two even gained their Level 2.

The RYA recently introduced these junior courses to acknowledge that many youngsters have the opportunity to drive tenders, rubberdubs and RIBs when away from Spinnaker Club, perhaps on the family’s “big boat”.

There is a junior course for 8-11 year olds and Level 2 is now allowed from 12 years rather than the original start point of 16. However, both these new categories apply to adult supervised driving. It is also stressed that Spinnaker Club boats cannot be driven by under 16’s.