Last weekend GBSC juniors kicked off their sailing season with a great weekend on the water. 17 young GBSC sailors spent the weekend at the club being coached in the finer points of rig set-up and 
boat handling. Whilst the club was fog-bound on Saturday the youngsters spent the day 'dry-sailing' including hiking competitions, simulated starts and rig set-up. But as the wind came up nicely on Sunday they got a long hard day on the water polishing their skills.
The coaching weekend was led by Thomas Chaix., the ISA's National Optimist Coach. Along with coaching the sailors he spent time on skills transfer to the optimist coaches that have contributed so much to the junior sailors over the past couple of years: Ruaidhri de Faoite, Christine Lynch and Cillian Dickson. The children and parents all learned a lot about sailing and having fun on the water.
Another small reflection of the effort and commitment of our GBSC Junior section came out yesterday as the 2010 national rankings for the Optimist fleet were published (www.iodai.com). 6 GBSC sailors will be at the Optimist Trials taking place in April and May. Each of those young sailors spent very many hours at their tiller last year. Along with many others from GBSC these sailors competed at three or four away events and clocked up 10 or more days of competition. Each competition day on the water is between 5 and 7 hours and is physically and mentally challenging as they faced everything from gale gusts to flat calm. An invitation to the National Trials is a measure of skill, endurance and commitment (of parents as well as sailors)!
A special word of gratitude goes to John Collins and Paula Lee who pulled the weekend together. Not only that, but the Collins family accommodated the travelling coaches and the Lee family fed and entertained all the participating children and their parents on Saturday night. Also to Maryse, Maura, Caroline, Daragh, Laoise and Sandra who provided a great lunch for coaches and sailors.
We have a lot to be proud of at GBSC. Full photo album (courtesy Bernard & Deirdre) available on: http://gbsc-foto.conservatorycentre.com/main.php?g2_itemId=4229
- Vincent
P.S. I'll be organising a meeting on Thursday 25th February to form a junior committee to help deliver the 2010 junior programme. I welcome all parents to come along and contribute a little or a lot. Contact me if you're interested and I'll send the details when they're finalised.
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