Session three of the Southwest training squad saw 6 boats from across Cornwall assemble at Restronguet SC.  The day started out with a presentation on starting by the coaches, Tom Cosier and Alex Hayman, that gave the principles of a good start.

Then we hit the water to practice box starts and trigger pulls, which we had learned last week. Box starts were extremely hard as we weren’t allowed to sail outside of the box and if we did, then we would have to do a 720 before re-entering the area.  After a lot of 720s, we had all done some amazing starts where all 6 boats were on the line.

After lunch we sat down for our morning debrief and watch some amazing action videos of our starts where we found our areas of improvement.
The afternoon session consisted of some more box starts but without it being marked out and four races that will count towards a small (edible) prize. The first race had everyone on the line and most of the boats flying spinnakers whilst receiving some very loud advice from the beach. The second, with even more kites up and a fresher  wind had some very close racing that came down to who got water on the finishing mark.  The third and fourth race  brought more close racing.
The weeks  exceptional “bake off “ entry came from the Hawkins family (Looe) in the form of individual  decorated sailing themed cookies.

Esther Bowdler