The RS500 class and Royal Lymington YC hosted a training day on 11th October. RS Sailing kindly loaned a demo boat for the weekend and the try-a-boat slots quickly sold out for the training sessions.
Five teams assembled on Sunday morning for coaching by Charlie Gran, sharing his 29er and 49er sailing expertise with the sailors. The initially light wind provided an opportunity to check everyone’s rig set up and practice some shore drill - focussing on wire to wire tacks and gybes for the crews and roll tacks for the helms. When the wind filled in, we had a short session on the water to put the moves into practice before lunch.
The afternoon started with a briefing as new sailors arrived to step into the demo boat. Then out into the Solent for a longer session on the water to hone our skills with numerous roll tacks and gybes. With just enough breeze at times for crews to get out on the wire and flat water on a wonderfully warm and sunny afternoon, there were plenty of smiles as we all came ashore.
Despite a rather windy Saturday it was great to see six new sailors trying out the demo boat over the weekend. The age range of 15 to 50+ demonstrates the RS500’s appeal to both seasoned sailors and those looking to transition to a trapeze skiff from RS Fevas or single-handed youth classes. With a queue of young Lymington sailors keen to have a go we plan to get the demo boat out again over the coming weekends.
Quotes from the sailors:
“Lovely fun afternoon… First time in a 500 and hopefully not the last, great boat ”
“Really helpful videos… Next time will have to do it with more breeze!”
Thanks to Charlie for his patient coaching, Dave Earl for RIB driving and top RS500 helm Hugh Watson for supporting in the demo boat.
Report by Emma McEwen
