Despite the heavy wind conditions, our RYC Juniors were out practicing and having a blast last Friday!
The Drake High School Team was working with Coach Dan Brandt in the 420′s. Their focus was on the trapeze and keeping the boat flat in the big breeze. They’re looking great!
The Opti Team was out with Coach Drake Jensen and they were learning how to do rabbit starts. They had a ball!
Left: Working on the rabbit starts! Right: Charlotte…is that mud on your sail?
It was an incredibly great weekend for sailing at the Richmond Yacht Club. On Saturday, the 29er group decided to do some single-handed skiff sailing and had a blast. On Sunday, Drake shows his flexibility and versatility as he teaches his Opti class, and Coach Dan Brandt is out with the older kids in 42o’s. At the end of the day, a couple of our Juniors helped out Jim DeWitt with his dinghy. Tons of fun! Check out the pictures!
Some singlehanding and doublehanding in the 29er.
Left: Amelia, Alyson and Erica finish rigging the 420. Right: Sam and Erica with Coach Dan Brandt as they head out to the channel.
Left: Berky and Joe heading out. Right: Drake gives some on the water instruction.
Left: Drake and Amanda learning about the wind and the main. Right: Davis and Amanda team up.
Left: Jim talks to Alyson and Erica about the boat. Right: Erica takes off.
Left: Oops! Right: Alyson still upright!
Looking for something fun to do this summer? Looking for an adventure? Do you like being outside and on the water?
Then come join us at the Richmond Yacht Club’s Summer Sailing Program! We have the best summer sailing classes for kids in the San Francisco Bay Area!
There are plenty of classes, for all different levels, on the most popular boats in the Bay Area. Check us out! You won’t regret it!
Here’s the link for registration (plus other details you’ll want to know) http://www.richmondyc.org/link/linkshow.asp?link_id=396686
Sunday was a busy day for our Juniors. Some were sailing in the Double Handed Clinic, some racing over at the High School Gold PCC Event, some were working diligently on their Level 1 Instructor certification, and one very happy junior was putting his new Opti in the water for the first time!
Left: Karen, Sarah, Pickledish and not sure who the other person is… during Instructor class. Right: Raffi inflating the airbags in his shiny, new Opti!
A very happy Raffi and his new boat!
The Double Handed Spring Training Program got off to a spectacular start on Sunday. The conditions were perfect, the sailors enthusiastic, and a great time was had by all.
The group started off working on their trapeze and spinnaker skills. The drivers were learning how to keep the main in tighter so the crew would feel more confident on the wire and the crew focused on learning to trust the harness and wire. There were only a few times when the crew did a little 180 spin on the wire… but what the heck – practice makes perfect!
After lunch the group did a Soda Can Race around Southampton. The kids got a kick out of the lovely smell of the Shoal and someone thought their gear bag kinda smelled like that sometimes. (Gross me out!)
And the day wasn’t over yet. Coach Dave then set up a race course so that the sailors could practice a lot of spinnaker hoists, jibes and takedowns. Sometimes this all happened in 3 minutes.
All in all – a fantastic day! We love the Richmond Riviera and our Club!
Left: Erica and George working on the trapeze. Right: The “unflappable” Alyson steering for our fearless Amelia on the wire.
Left: Berky having the time of his life on the trapeze – never saw the smile leave his face! Right: George and Erica coming in for lunch…must be thinking about the upcoming milkshake!
Left: Coach Dave replacing a bent guy hook with Erica assisting in the surgery. Right: Alyson & Amelia and Erica & George rounding Southampton and breathing the fragrant aroma around them. Nice…
Left: Alyson and Amelia working on the spinnaker. Right: Coach Dave and group doing a debrief at the end of the day.
The High School Gold PCC’s just wrapped up last weekend at Treasure Island. Only 20 teams through out California qualified for this event and the top 5 of those qualify for High School Nationals. For the first time ever Richmond Yacht Club has had a team qualify for this event. Sir Francis Drake High School worked very hard this year to move out of Silver fleet and into Gold fleet. Even though their overall results don’t show completely how they were sailing it was a good weekend for them. A lot was learned and a couple of things that the team needs to focus on were apparent and all are charged to qualify next year.
Congratulations to all of our Drake HS Team Members!!
The Ladies were quite pleased with the beautiful day! We do like the sunny, blue skies for our classes. This past class, we decided to sail in Brickyard Cove. As we know from sailing with the Junior Program kids, this is a great place to sail because it has low traffic and is nice and contained, but the wind is definitely a little trickier. This was really good practice for us in learning a little more about how to read wind shifts and avoid wind shadows and other assorted weird stuff.
We also started working on some racing. Dan laid out some basic rules of the road and we were off trying things out. We don’t really pose a threat to anyone – yet… but, a few more practices and look out people!
As always, we welcome new Ladies. Give us a try – you’ll get a kick out of it!
Thought you would all get a kick out of knowing that we are officially over the 15,000 views mark on our website!
Our RYC Juniors had some terrific results last weekend at the Big Dinghy Regatta!
Sunday’s Pursuit Race also had a large group of RYC Juniors participating as well. On the Long Course – Mike & Haydon, Maria & Crew, Neil & Robbie, and Joe & Crew. On the Short Course – Berky!
Congratulations to our RYC Juniors!!
Mike & Haydon on Saturday.
