Musings from Newbies in one of the Club’s Friendliest Fleet WORDS: SARAH JOHNSON AND STEVEN MOLYNEUX-WEBB
Sailing It started with the Middle Island 1 and 2 dinghy course – I got the bug and wanted to keep sailing. So, I hunted through the Club’s fleet webpages, and found the Flying Fifteens’ site, which said “turn up on a Saturday afternoon for a chat”, (really?) and so Steve (my partner) and I did. Hovering tentatively in the boatyard, we met Tim Roberts and Edith Fernandez from the fleet who talked us through the boat: a 15-foot 2-person keelboat with all the fun of a dinghy. And then they mentioned that one was for sale… That was pretty much it: we met the owner who took us out for a spin, and we had a blast! With only two of you on board the Fifteen, you have to be very hands on, and you learn super-fast – we loved it. Frankly we had been imagining any boat-owning future to involve a comfortable cruiser, island day trips and glasses of wine in hand, but something about the physicality of the design captured our hearts. It helped that the fleet were a really friendly bunch – the enthusiasm and support was probably our biggest single persuader. So, within a month of our first chat, we’d applied for Club membership and – soon after – bought the boat! And then the racing started – opening up a whole new world of challenges…
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| JANUARY 2022 AHOY!
IMAGE: VIVIAN NGAN
A
n afternoon chat at the Club… and in the blink of an eye we bought a boat…! Read on for some reflections on how it has gone so far.
Challenge 1: Complete the course Honestly, I was a bit nervous at even the thought of racing. Moving from Middle Island learning – with an instructor on a RIB who comes to fish you out if you capsize – to being alone, trying to navigate an invisible course across the harbour, was a bit intense! For the first couple of races, we just followed alongside the fleet with the harbour chart before we even tried to participate… it can be a challenge at first just to work out the course, where the marks were, and the correct way to follow it. People said “if in doubt, just follow Howard”… but as we learned, it turns out sometimes even he sees the wrong number! Challenge 2: Still be talking to your crew mates at the end of the course More challenging even than working out the harbour, was sharing that understanding. Steve (helm) and I (crew) have been together for 10 years, but somehow sailing has this special ability to make communication struggle spectacularly. “Sheet in!”… “which sheet?”… “THAT one”… “Watch out for the mark – this one?”… “I can’t see it through you!”… “The Mark!”… “SHEET!”… Bang… “Why weren’t you watching the Mark?!”… [Sorry E1!] Challenge 3: Beat the evil tide And so, we survived until race #3, and then… TIDE DOOM. Oh my goodness. We just could not start the race. How was everyone doing
