Tim Wakeman's blog

Saturday saw this year’s Club-1 group out on the water for the first time. Having completed their Learn to Sail course only a few weeks earlier, the promise of good conditions for beginners brought a number of them down to the club for their first race. The conditions though ultimately proved challenging. Despite the benign weather forecast of 15 to 20 knot winds and seas of 0.5 to 1 metre, conditions out there on Saturday were tough. The wind was quite variable and the swell seemed a lot higher than the predicted 1 metre.

You can certainly pack a lot of drama into one of these sailing races can’t you? Well at least Ken and I can! We’re now managing to keep pace with the fleet and that brings with it a whole new level of enjoyment for us. No longer are we just sailing the course – at last we’re competing!

We need wind. Without wind we can't sail. So as if to reinforce the fact that our sport is so dependent on the wind, on Saturday mother nature withdrew our only means of propulsion - the wind. For those that revel in light wind conditions it was an opportunity to seize the advantage and post a good result. But for the majority of us it was a test of patience and persistence.

A little knowledge. That's all we needed. A few tips, a few observations, a few things to try, a few things to improve. That small amount of knowledge plus a little luck made all the difference to Ken and I when we went out for a sail in "Serenity" on the weekend. We achieved our best result ever and although our achievement went largely unheralded in club circles, it was a big milestone for us.

This week Ken and I were obliged to fulfil our OOD duty crew responsibilities. Finding ourselves on "the other side" gave us such an appreciation for the active participation of the non-sailors within the club. Without the people manning the rescue boats, the committee boat, the canteen, the bar, doing the race results, maintaining the website, running sail training, and sitting on the committees we simply wouldn't be able to do what we enjoy most - sailing. And so it was that Ken and I found ourselves on the other side of race sailing at Williamstown Sailing Club.

It was glorious weather for our first official race of the sailing season, almost a carbon copy of Open Day. Bright blue skys, lazy southerly breeze that picked up to a lively sea breeze later in the afternoon, flat water, moderate swell. Just perfect for sailing. Unfortunately, not such a perfect day for a pair of rookies.

Yes, we're back for another season! And the first official sailing event for the season was the traditional Open Day. There was all the ceremony of speeches, committee members in suits (I hardly recognised some of them), unfurling the club burgee (what is a burgee but the way?) and cheering the Commodore in an official sail past. There were new boats that had been purchased in the off season, new members to welcome to the club, and even a new website!
 

After an incredibly hot week in Melbourne we were greeted with perfect summer weather for sailing on Saturday. The forecast maximum of 37 degrees didn't materialise and we were treated to warm weather and a consistently moderate afternoon seabreeze. Beautiful. This week also turned out to be a very significant milestone achievement for Ken, myself and "Serenity".

Although we'd sailed the previous week (10 January) it was forgettable and I haven't written up an article. Suffice to say that with the difficult conditions we didn't have a very good time on board "Serenity". So it's a week I'd rather forget, let alone write about. The good news from that is that this week was much better for us. After what seems like weeks of battling against tough conditions we had weather that we could have a reasonable go at sailing in!