Scouts - Vaal Sailing Camp

To end off the year, we headed to Deneysville Aquatic Club on the Vaal dam for a weekend of sailing and for the first time in years, Mother Nature obliged with a decent breeze.

We took the gig as well as 3 dinghies and we were all very keen to see how the gig performs with its hybrid Enterprise rig in decent wind. With the seniors out in the main dam on the big boats, the juniors cruised around the bay in the O-9'r and Dabby. And as they had not listened to what they had been told, they struggled. We had to rescue the Dabby after it turtled and the dagger board fell through, so we sat down at lunch for a serious chat.

After lunch I made all the "non-sailors" do a capsize and recovery, alone, in the O-9'r. After our chat and this exercise, everyone was suddenly much more comfortable, knowing that the worst was they get wet. The juniors got going again with renewed vigour and did some really good sailing up and down the bay.

In the meantime, the gig was out again in about 12 knots of breeze. With 6 people aboard and all sitting on the gunnel, the gig proved to be faster that our Gypsy (with 3 aboard) and clocked up a top speed of 8 knots. By far the fastest it has ever been and really impressive for a vessel designed as a pulling boat. Foremost on everyone's mind was how this could perform on the Gig Adventure.

Sunday dawned and again we had decent breeze. We were on the water reasonably early and the increased enthusiasm and skill level was really great to see. Jennifer completed the practical elements of her Helmsman badge. There is still a lot of work to do to make competitive sailors, but finally a culture of sailing is starting to emerge in the troop.