CMWD

In December 2017 we received the Double Handed Maidstone Coaching Award and on the 25^th February we arranged for coach Richard Sherindan to come to Redoubt Sailing Club for the day. The wind was around 15-20 knots with some big gusts and was perfect for focussing on our high wind spinnaker work, although it was very cold and we started the day chipping the ice off of our boat.

In the morning we joined in with the club race for the start and then spent time working on our gybing technique with Richard right beside us in the RIB giving us loads of advice. The wind had increased in the afternoon and so we concentrated on our upwind technique and more spinnaker work.

When we came in, we spent some time in the club house going over what we did that day and a little bit of theory.

Richard was great and really made us think about what we were doing. He gave us loads of tips and advice and we both learnt lots. We now can’t wait to put it all into practice, preferably on a slightly warmer day.

Thank you KSSA for the award, which made this day possible and thanks also to Richard, our dads and everyone at the Redoubt SC for their help and support on the day.

Evie and Abbey

We have combined both our Performance Bursaries to buy a much-needed new mainsail for our RS Feva. This actually arrived last week and as well as being excited at the prospect of sailing with a brand new sail, we are both very grateful to the RYA London and South East Youth Training Fund for this Performance Bursary. We cant wait to try it out!

The KSSA Annual Regatta at the Downs Sailing Club,  Deal saw 51 boats from all over the South East on the water, in northerly winds with sunshine. The largest fleet as ever were Toppers, but there were Fevas, Lasers, Radials, 29er, RS200s and Optimists.

There were two races scheduled for the morning and two for the afternoon. Good sport was had for two hours before lunch with the two fleets, less experienced sailors were identified with red streamers but did not seem daunted by the distance out, let alone the famous deep water at Deal.

Sam Chick was at hand with his dustbin sized camera to capture what was a very colourful scene, and boats off-shore had video footage. There were countless rescue boats, a committee boat, beach teams and seemingly swarms of activity around the clubhouse.

The Kings School, Canterbury were well represented and brought with them some delicious packed lunches which l must confess l ate a few left overs! Pre-ordered hot food was ladled out from the DSC canteen and homemade cakes were available after the event. This came sooner rather than later as only one short race was held before the fleets returned to shore, with lack of wind in the afternoon.

Amazingly only one Laser missed a start with a broken rudder, there were no upsets and nobody returned to shore to text message. The only real hazard was a particularly steep beach after recent gales, but as the tide receded during the day the landings were easier.

One  parent arrived with a twisted tow bar assembly and even this was duly replaced by Richard Winters on site. With Martyn Styles acting as ‘regatta organiser’ everything was so efficient:  his omnipresence and fine-tuned attention to every need, be it sorting out a tangled winch or rounding up the prize-winners for a photo, made sure the day flowed like a finely-tuned, taut sailboat.   Commodore Stuart Bradbeer gave a relaxed race round up and prize-giving, and by this time, huge burgers and sausages were already sizzling on the BBQ.

For several sailors it will be their last KSSA event having turned 18 and off to university. This included Ryan Winter, Stan Chick and Joe Lord, the later two’s  passing shot was to take the school prize for Chatham and Clarendon House Schools. It would seem that Stan might well be amongst the overall winners on the day in his Laser. As Debbie Thomas – KSSA Commodore –  who recounted how Stan’s great commitment and love of sailing began in a Moses basket on his family’s boat in Cornwall, celebrated all that he has given to KSSA by awarding him The Chairman’s Cup for endeavour. He received this prize for commitment from  County Councillor,  Chairman David Brazier, who gave a charming account of his own fond memories of sailing at The Wilsonian Sailing Club and emphasised how sailing is a marvellous sport for excitement, independence and developing resilience in young people.

It gives the Kent (high performance) team managers Mark Breare, Tim Seward and Sam Chick huge pleasure in reporting that the Kent team have won a fourth consecutive team trophy at the NSSA annual regatta. Sustaining consistent interest in great success is often hard however please think back to our huge excitement in Deal when we won the team trophy – our young sailors have now won four years in a row!

The week was sailed in varied and mostly gusty, shifty and very strong winds which didn’t always favour our team and beneath leaden rainy skies which definitely didn’t favour our adults.

Leading sailors came from a wide spread of clubs within Kent with top three results from; Alex Head (1st topper), Lewis Humphries (3rd laser radial), Heather Denbigh (1st laser 4.7), Samuel and Michael Dyer (2nd fast handicap), Stan Chick (1st laser standard and 1st medium handicap), Max Tullet (1st rookie handicap) and Luka Franklin (2nd rookie topper). In addition were the single handed trophy won by Alex Head, closely followed in second place by Lewis Humphries and the all-comers race won by Samuel and Michael Dyer in their 29er.

The overall team trophy was awarded after much arcane and complex mathematics with contributions from a wide range of sailors. It must be stressed that all our young sailors worked towards this fantastic result as a team.

Other awards went to Lewis Wright (the Winchester Tankard) for his gracious, selfless and dedicated behaviour towards his team throughout racing on Wednesday, Lee Windridge (leap-frog trophy) who was the most improved sailor of 2017 and Stan Chick (NSSA presidents award) having competed in both inland and annual NSSA regattas for 7 years and sailed with the KSSA since 2009.

Kent was by no means the largest team this year and the question was inevitably asked, how do Kent keep winning? Can this be attributed to the aggregation of marginal gains? Perhaps… whilst the team managers didn’t bring mattresses and pillows from home (well not all of us) nor ban the team from shaking hands, there is much truth in the idea of a committed group of talented sailors, strongly supported by dedicated parents and carers willing to input time throughout the year with training, regattas and larger events. During the week there was rarely a time when a Kent sailor couldn’t visit the team tent and find a parent / carer willing to fix a boat, feed them or simply find a coat to keep them warm. A huge thank you therefore must go to all our ‘support team’ and visitors throughout the week including Deb Thomas, Elena Setterfield, Mike and Marion Smailes and Isabel Emby.

Sincere thanks also go to;

our team captains Hannah Mumford and Stan Chick for their advice and help throughout the event
Kent parents and wider team who operated and staffed two safety boats throughout the week
Dave Ellis who transported the Kent rib to Graham and worked all week on the committee boats
Jon Hill who helmed the KSSA rib and Sandra Hill also working on the committee boats all week
our parents and sailors who tirelessly launched and recovered not just our own boats but all others who launched from our slip regardless of team
the older and / or more knowledgable sailors helping, coaching and advising their peers on and off the water
Please look out for emails from the KSSA secretary since we are already discussing improved and targeted training for the upcoming season and we look forward to our own KSSA annual regatta hosted by Downs Sailing Club on 16th September 2017.

I hope you will join the team mangers in congratulating our young sailors for this fantastic result!

This years New racers event was held at Redoubt sc in perfect conditions, with brite sunshine and an increasing breeze. 26 sailors took to the water from across Kent, 4 races were sailed with on the water instructors and coaches giving direction throughout. All sailors were given an explanation of the basic rules of sailing  and flags to be used by the committee boat. Everyone enjoyed the conditions with a reaching course set by the race organising  team, this allowed all competitors to complete the course and enjoy some racing

Thanks to all the Redoubt team and volunteers who gave up their time to make this event such a great success.