GBR Blind Sailing Winter Training at Windermere Leisure Centre

by Lucy Hodges 26 Nov 2015 04:05 NZDT 21-22 November 2015

GBR Blind Sailing Winter Training at Windermere © Blind Sailing

With the snow on the ground cold northerly breeze GBR Blind Sailing were back out on the water in Windermere with the support of Windermere Leisure Centre and volunteers Ian, Justin, Jonny, Catherine and Peter.

This weekend was the start of training towards Blind Match Racing events in 2016 and increasing participation and opening the door of racing. Lucy and the team have worked hard breaking down match racing taking a view of all the countries and regattas and looking at ways to improve GBR training.

This weekend was about creating the pre-start picture with Blind Match racing there is no sighted support on board, it is all done by an audible course and with both boats making a noise to identify which tack they are on. There are no other changes made and the same rules apply as if you where sighted. If you want a tiny feeling of what it is like, stand with a friend, one of you making a sound, the other close your eyes and try and walk round the sound then imagine adding in the conditions, feeling the wind shifts, setting the sails by feel, calling tactics on another boat - you are listening too, it takes a lot of concentration, make sure you are safe when trying.

The team worked through this weekend building the picture of a start and how to work out time and distance against sound and putting in changes as the wind decreased and increased as you looked to plan your entries.

GBR Blind Sailing was pleased to introduce four new sailors to match racing and watch them challenge themselves in negotiating the course by sound, all said it was a great way of having a picture of the course, hearing both ends of the line then working out where we are and getting to the right place at the right time - a new aspect of sailing that they had never seen.

This weekend also saw Patrick, Blind Sailing youngest member at 12, take a look at match racing. Patrick is a B3 but does not even with the sight he has have the ability to see a start line, but it was great to watch a 12 year old move into a bigger boat than his Optimist and work as a team. Although Patrick is used to sailing by himself, over the weekend we watched him change, communicating to his crew and working out where he needed to be to gain penalties. He is certainly building for the future.

Over the two days the team worked on starts with a steady breeze, all be it chilly, they worked hard and aligning the sound, working on time and distance and adjusting to the wind. It takes time to build the layers but the team are working hard and their hope is to have more sailors enjoying match racing and sailing in safety without sighted crews on board.