Junior Scows Report by Louis Warrillow

JUNIOR SCOWS REPORT

Participants – Daisy Gittins, Imogen Maver, Lola McCafferty, Jake Mudie, Coco Nicholson, Eliza Sopher, James Thomas, Louis Warrillow

REPORT from Louis Warrillow

We all started Junior Sailing week with making our way up the river from Factory Fields to the wonderful garden of Oxleys. Having unfortunately already missed a day of sailing due to gusts of up to 40 knots, Victoria Bonham Carter wasted no time in teaching us the very basics of tacking to complex racing techniques – hot chocolate and biscuits kept us going strong so we could finally get out on the water.

Or we could have been on the water if it wasn’t for everyone’s gormlessness in rigging a scow, so after a little more help and explanations from Victoria we finally managed to get out sailing. This was definitely smoother for some and a lot rougher for others. The wind had been marginally growing while we were on dry land and 16 knots proved to be more than most could handle at this stage, so after going round a few marks, Victoria took the executive decision to bring us in, swap around the pairs and send us sailing again with a bit more knowledge of the wind.

This second sail was almost idyllic if it wasn’t for early gybesand near capsizes from a few. After that however it was truebliss, sailing up the river on one tack and then practicing racing each other back up wind – the first day came to anextremely successful end with a lot of lessons learnt.

The second day started with theory, dry gybe drills, flukey winds, a couple of races, rowing challenges which showed up a distinct lack of oarsmanship apart from Imogen Mavor and most importantly the day ended with ice creams all round.

Having lost the first day to high winds we thought we’d lose the third day also with forecasts again of up to 40 knots, but Victoria and the Junior sailing team were quite rightly determined to get us out on the water and what a great decision as it turned out to be the best day of the week with great sailing in high winds and learning how to ‘gently’ arrive back at the pontoon.

The last day finally gave us ideal conditions with a bit of sun and light winds. Everybody felt more confident in their scows and the races began in earnest with slow, yet competitive shouts of starboard which seemed to break the otherwise serene surroundings. After 6 races with helmsman changing after each race I managed to scrape through to twin the cup. 

Huge thanks to all who helped, especially Victoria with her unwaning enthusiasm and expert knowledge and Lucy Markby for helping us and organising everything.  Also to Peter Hayward-Broomfield and Peter Bettridge for ‘safety’ along  with Beattie, Nell and Phoebe and all the parent helpers.