YOBs Feva coaching day
On Tuesday 1st September, nine members of the YOBs were lucky enough to experience personal coaching from Niall Myant, the RYA National Feva Class Coach. This came about because I was involved in Race Management of the European Feva Championships in Ireland and the Feva Nationals at WPNSA, where I met Niall, who was coaching the British team. It was a sunny day but the wind was gusting over 20 kts. Niall checked with the youngsters that they were “up for it” and Richard Groves our safety officer agreed that we could take out three boats, staying close to WSC start line.
Thankfully, Ron Groves had been up since the crack of dawn repairing the WSC RIB which had been damaged during racing the previous day. With Richard, Niall and myself on the RIB and Don Cutler and Steve Bowerman on Viking II as mother ship we set to sea after an excellent theory lesson on boat handling in strong winds.
Niall set a short course between two buoys and the youngsters took it in turns practising tacking and gybing at each end of the course and taking turns at helming and crewing. It was interesting to see how the different youngsters coped with the conditions. The older boys, Tom and Merrick had the stamina to stay on (or at least with) a boat the whole session, helping the younger ones. Sophie took to the helm with such composure and skill that she looked like a national champion already.
She could also swim nearly as fast as the boat could sail when she was tipped out as crew. Niall jumped into the dinghies sometimes to help with sorting out rigging or to demonstrate tactics to some of the less confident youngsters. There were numerous capsizes although somehow, Corrie managed to avoid getting wet. Sam was a star, getting the prize for the most enthusiastic boat-righter in the group.
By lunchtime the wind had got up to gusting over 25kts and it was time to go home but the youngsters had all proved to themselves that they could all confidently manage their boat.
The afternoon was spent with Niall going through video clips of the skills that had been practised that morning with questions and discussion. There were tips and practical demonstrations on improving the rigging of the boats then the session ended with more video clips but this time of dramatic racing collisions and capsizes.The consensus of opinion on the day’s events – “awesome”
Irene Robinson
Child Welfare Officer
