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.