Monday 18 April 2016

Crowded instructive



Saturday: week 3 of the adult sail training at Frampton. The day began cold, grey and damp, and with next to no wind to compensate for the discomfort. As the morning wore on however, the wind built and the skies made a valiant effort at clearing. By the time we got into the afternoon sessions, the weather was damned near perfect for a day on the water.

It was a busy day; Frampton was running three different RYA adult courses alongside visitors from neighbouring Thornbury Sailing Club, who were also running their own sail training. Our Thornbury friends are based on the Severn Estuary, just above the Old Severn Bridge, which is an unforgiving place to try to teach newbies to sail so they guest at Frampton for a couple of weekends every year. In addition to the sail training, Sailability was also running, so the lake and shore were teeming with activity.


Our old Drascombe Lugger "Ondine" is now a part of the Frampton Sailability fleet. It was lovely seeing her out and about on the water. Naturally, Dad was aboard, helping Barry and her crew of Sailability members.

It's been about four years or so since I last instructed on an adult sailing course, I've been running various junior courses over most of the years previous. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching kids to sail and enjoyed running each and every courses, but it's strangely rewarding teaching adults, and just working as an instructor, leaving the organisation and responsibility to somebody else for a change. We're halfway through their course now, and so are beginning to see the results and rewards as everybody's confidence builds and basic boat handling skills begin to bed in.


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