I admit feeling a little disappointed with the TY role up for the first race of the season, Frou Frou being the only starter on the day. However it was uplifting to see so many other sailors from the mono and cat classes front up for day one of our 2013-2014 sailing season. There were even 5 Manly Juniors out in the morning with keen young crews putting us old blokes to shame. I remember when I first joined the club I was often the only monohull sailor on the course starting with the TYs. How times have changed. I am hoping this is not indicative of numbers for the rest of the season, as it will be very lonely and a little pathetic for us if we are left to sail Frou Frou around the course with no other competition for her.
If you have any good ideas about how I could stimulate interest in TY club racing please let me know. I could go back to mono’s I suppose.
So how was the sailing I hear you inquire? Without sounding too glowing, it was one of those great days for sailing. Wind from the south at around 10 to 15 knots, nice cloud cover and no rain combined to make near perfect conditions for shaking the winter cobwebs out.
Thanks to Rob, Bob and John Porter as our duty crew on the water for setting a great course and watching out for us.
To cut a long story short, Frou Frou got off to a good boat end start, sailed around the course without incident with crew work improving on each tack, thanks to Peter, Alan and Ian, leading all the way to take out the first race of the pointscore series.
I hope to see more of you in the coming weeks.
The end Trev