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Open Meeting Vs. Club Racing

Posted 6 months, 26 days ago

Open Meeting Vs. Club Racing
My Dilemma.... I love racing, I love socialising after racing, I love competition, I love doing well... but I don't sail an Ent anymore, I sail a Miracle with my kids... Option 1 Do I jump into the deep-end with my 8 year old son/crew and go to a load of Miracle Open Meetings in the UK, hardly any of them local...mostly in northern England and mostly a couple of hours away... not that many of them (compared to the Ents) and all seemingly on bad dates for the family! Option 2 Do I sail regularly at Draycote Water...Great club, great water, less than 10 mins from my house, racing whenever we get the chance be that a Wednesday evening, or any of the  races on a Sunday or just out for fun on a Saturday afternoon, or maybe go for one of the Pursuit races on the Bank Holidays... It's a bit of a challenge getting the right balance between what I like:

• Open Meetings
• Competition
• Hard racing etc

..and what my keen, young, novice crew/son wants and needs:

• Sailing for the sake of sailing
• fun
• confidence building
• learning...

So, lets think about it... at an Open Meeting you get to race against a range of sailing abilities... we both learn about racing Miracles...he learns about tactics (and how arsey his dad can be on the race-course!).... good stuff Racing at Draycote we get to sail against last years National Champion, his brother and a decent number of other part-time Miracle sailors who are bloody good yachters in other classes.... So, I *think* but welcome the opinions of the masses.... Focus on time on the water at Draycote, get the boat sorted (new boom, rudder, re-vamp the control-lines etc)... get the on the water practice in, build the confidence up in my son's sailing abilities, his sailing knowledge etc... plan to do an event or two closer to the Nationals in Brixham later this year, maybe they'll be a few pop up in the Midlands... Then in 2009 we'll be ready to hit the Racing Event scene properly...! Technorati Tags: Soulsailor,sailing,Miracle Full Story »

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