Twelve sailors from 15 to 30+ years old took part in this year Espoir camp on Sunday June 30 at NSC. This year, all participants were members of NSC. They were part of the club’s youth 420 racing team or racers in the J22 or Shark classes.
The wind was very strong, 15kn with some gusts at 25kn, so three experience 505 skippers, Shona Moss, Luke Strickland and Evania Lovshin took their 505 out to give rides to the participants. The Storer’s brother took their 505 out by themselves and they did great. We had two coach boats on the water at all time for safety and to facilitate the exchange of sailors taking rides.
After a session to go over the 505 rig, four 505 were rigged and set to go sailing in windy conditions. Our three experienced skippers took off with three participants, along with the Storer brothers. The rest of the participants went out in in the coach boats.
Everyone enjoyed trapezing fully extended and blasting around with the spinnaker. It was terrific to see the participants get back in the zodiac after their ride with their eyes wide open and big smile on their face. In the debriefing session one participant comment “sailing a 420 is like driving a Mustang but sailing a 505 is like driving a Ferrari”.
We now have a large group of sailors keen to race on Wednesday nights and at other occasions.
Thank you to the NSC for letting the fleet use their coach boats, to Shona, Luke and Evania for taking the sailors out and to Steve Lovshin and Marie Gendron for operating the coach boats.
