Splash!

OK, so no crap about the weekend today, lets cut straight to the interesting stuff.... I've finally joined Draycote Water SC, amd we managed to get hold of my dad's Solo again on Sunday for (becoming regular) spot of sailing with the kids...

So the breeze was light, it was slightly overcast but nice and warm. We'd had a lazy morning, walk the dog, playing, talking, chilling a "nice Sunday"... left a voicemail for my "Solo owner" to see if we ould borrow it... around 3pm the call came, he'd done the first two races and was happy to let us go for a yacht...cool...

Grabbed cheque-book, kids sailing kit, wife, camera....kids... and off to DWSC for a yacht.

I've spent the last week priming my eldest son for stage 1 capsize drill.. basically the plan is we sail along not too far from the shore, he slides over the side.. floats...waits for dad to tack round and pick him back up... he was up for this, so with that in mind he went sailing second so he wouldnt be hanging around in the "cold"...

So Flynn was up first... he's bloody confident as 3 year olds are and just waded into the water and clambered into the boat then made his way up to the bow by the centreboard, he was ready to go, the breeze was really light by the shore so I gave a good shove, popped the rudder and board down and did some rock-and-roll'ing with him clinging to the sidedeck to get us out into the gentle breeze! He enjoyed that...

I could see in the distance the start-line set-up for the 3rd rac so we decided to go and do a bit of racing...unfortuntely we were 5 mins late so we missed the start-line and joined in (without annoying anyone that was already racing "properly") he loved sailing behind and past people, I got him to shout "starboard" which he loved to do and he liked being "look-out for the other boats... as we neared the windward mark he started putting the pressure on.. "lets catch that boat up" ... "come on dad go faster", jeeze it was worse than sailing with James! We rounded the mark and started to pursue the boat infront of us, we were going OK until he decided that he wanted to "ride the rail" i.e. sit on the side-deck and drag his feet in the water... bloody good fun for him, especially when he started kicking his feet and getting dad wet, but even with those little feet it really slowed us down (I must teach him about drag and stuff)... we bailed out of the race to have some fun.. he did some "fishing" with the mainsheet..and he's actually got it now, its not a main-street its a mainsheet, yay! He did some fantasticly confident leaning out, more reverse hiking, pumping the main and all manner of fun stuff.

Managed to convince him that dad needed a rest from helming, so I cleated the main and past him the tiller extension; just like his bro' he seems quite natural, holding the boat on a fairly steady course... problem is he has no fear so occasionally he just throws the tiller over and I have to grab it before we go into some kind of mad crash gybe and boom/head collision action....stressy... so after a nice play he'd had enuff and wanted to go back to the club.. he popped back onto the side deck for another hiking session and a foot paddle and then we were back on sure...

Rowan was already in the water...floating.. getting used to the feeling which was good.. in he jumped, again all nice and confident, no falling over, straight to where he needed to sit and off we pushed, Flynn upto his waste in water, pushing the rudder down for me as we drifted away from the shore!

So off we went for a sail, no racing today just sailing with my eldest for the hell of it, wind was still light, clouds were breaking up, still very nice and a perfect day for "stage 1"... so I sailed for a bit, did lots of roll-tacks and gybes and generall mesing about on the water...

Rowan took over and did some helming, I'm still sooo proud of how well he sail the boat, he seems to just drift off and enjoy it, not watching where he's going but having a lot more confidence so when we go off course I just tell him and he confidently re-aligns the boat.. his perception of which direction we are going isnt sorted yet, he seems to aim roughly 10 degrees higher than we actually are travelling, thats weird and I havent worked out why yet.... passed him the main and amazingly he's started to "master" (for a 6yr old) trapping the mainsheet under his thumb on the tiller-extension to trim the main... WOW he has the start of an actual technique :-) *proud*!

So we sailed around a bit with him having a good time, I made him lean out a bit by tipping the boat, just to give him something else to think about... he enjoyed holding the main and extension in one hand and leaning over the side-deck and draping his hand in the water, but hey we all do it, we all love the feeling... we even ventured into him doing a tack, he did it ok, got real low so as to not bash his head, completely let go of the extension, but we went round, it was a tack and he quickly got control of the boat on the other tack... one time we sailed nicely towards the shore and Rowan did a tack right in-front of his mum and grandad... he did the best one ever and got lots of claps... we're all very happy!

So Rowan was now getting a little impatient and wanted to do "stage 1" capsize drill... yep it was time for me to dump my son over board, let him "float free" for a minute and then pick him back up into the boat.... (gulp)

So we sailed towards the shore..starboard tack so hsi mum and grandad could watch him slip into the blue... for some reason he didnt want me to through him in, prefering to do the more graceful and controlled "sailors-slide" off the side-deck... so as we neared the shore, about level with the powerboat morings if you've ever been to DWSC, he got into position, he was nervous, excited but ready for it (after building up to it all week), this was a big thing for him..being dumped into the water and me sailing away from him..3, 2, 1 ,0, -1, -2 GO....

In he went, not much of a splash but plenty of bobbing up and down.... he was cool, the water was cold and "sharp" but he'd gotton used to that earlier so he was OK, I kept talking to him and keeping an eye out, I sailed on for about 20 secs, tacked round and sailed carefully back to him, along side him and he grabbed the side-deck and I hauled my little drowned-sailing-rat into the Solo.. he was happy, he wasn't scared, he wasn't phased he enjoyed it..... so we did it again.... he went under this time, a lot less gracefull, but a lot more confident.... then we did it again... big splash, big smiles and a bit of a chill... he stood up in the boat, we laughed about it, he faced the sun to warm up and we sailed into shore... what an achievement, my son :-)

Now he wants to do Phase 2 .. a proper capsize... we might do that next weekend, we'll see how he is.. certainly not gonna push it we've got all summer...actually we've got a whole lifetime... funny not sure I've actually capsized this season yet.. certainly never put the Solo in... hope I can get it up again!

So back on shore Rowan was shivvering so up to the changing-room to sort ourselves out and into shorts and T-shirts...back outside and the sun had chased all the clouds away.

Rowan was soon warmed up, happy with a can of coke, bag of smoky-bacon crisps and his family around him re-canting tales of his adventures, Flynn boasting about getting daddy wet

... sun shining, dad and mum proud...life is good...

Footnote: Not only were we proud, and granded of course, but other, long time sailing friends that were there, its great that my 6 yr old is getting encouragement from people like Pat and Jerry Walters and others... they encouraged me when I started and wasn't much older than Rowan... the circle of life...