S.I Champs

I forgot to mention last week that the snow is back on the mountains. We can see it from our camp. We had a couple of cold nights and the tops turned white. It has almost gone now as we have had several warm days. The nights are cooler though.
Last Friday we drove to Picton for the South Island Optimist Champs. I had forgotten what a pleasure it is to drive the bus, she hummed over the hills hardly noticing that we were towing a 3.8 metre RIB. After a glorious day on Friday, Saturday dawned wet and there was not much wind at the yacht club. On the race course there was a lovely 10 knot breeze with regular 20 degree wind shifts – really good conditions for sailing. Four races were sailed, and the Nelson contingent performed creditably.
Sunday was wet and windy. One race was sailed after a long delay trying to get the wind right. It was shifting up to 50 degrees and very gusty. A second race was started and then abandoned because the wind was too strong. The sail home was a real challenge with areas of almost no wind and gusts of up to 25 knots. All young sailors should sail in this! A Nelson Sailor was the top South Island competitor.
Back in Nelson preparations are going ahead for the trip to Venice. Lorna and I are planning to take a bus trip around Germany after the contest before coming home.
This weekend is the celebration of Nelson Yacht Club’s 150 years. There are parties and commemorative events all weekend. In the midst of this I still have to conduct some training. Then it is in to our last week here for this season.

Three weeks to go

A neat letter box!

Well time is running out for this season in Nelson. The weather continues to be stunning, although the procession of anticyclones seems to be ending and there was rain last night. In the past week we have been involved in more work with schools. The local High schools are using the club to give their pupils sailing experience. This is very interesting when larger children get caught on the wrong side of a small training boat. Lorna and I also took two model yachts out to Brooklyn School, about 5 kilometres west of Motueka. Some 60 odd children had the chance to sail a model round the school swimming pool.
On Sunday Lorna joined in the adult learn to sail course. We organised for the participants to have a ride in a Flying Dutchman, and a laser II. Loran managed to capsize one of the Sunbursts and had to be rescued. Luckily the day and water were very warm. Arrangements are proceeding for next season so it is pretty well confirmed that I will be returning to Nelson Yacht Club as the resident coach.
This weekend we are taking a bunch of sailors to the South Island Optimist Championships at Picton. This will be the first away regatta for many of our young sailors so there is much excitement in the ranks. The trip to Venice is also proceeding. Lorna thinks she might come as well to make up the numbers for a group booking.

Damn it's cloudy

Damn it is cloudy! This is the first day of cloud since the beginning of February. Life has returned to the usual round of coaching with occasional interludes of hilarity. One of the local schools contracted the yacht club to provide sailing experience to some overseas students. They turned up with 16 young adults who speak some English. This is really fun when it is a little windy and instructions need to be followed immediately. Factor in that these people are too big for Optimist type training boats and there are some farcical gyrations on the water.
There have been a number of meetings in the past week dealing with taking teams to the
South Island championships on the 16th of this month, the Optimist Nationals at Easter, the trip to Venice in May and arrangements for our return here next season.
The sun is breaking through at 10 00am, so I guess it is back to normal. I have only had to mow the grass around the bus once this year. One of the requirements of our stay here is that we keep the grass mown on our site. It is cup of tea time now so I will sign off