After seven days and fourteen races Wellington Spirit helmsman Josh Junior has finished in 6th place overall at the 2010 Laser World Championships in Hayling Island England. Stepping up from 11th overall last year, this is Junior's best result to date at the Laser World Championships and sees him on track for selection into the New Zealand Olympic team.

Junior still has some work to do to gain selection as New Zealan Sailing Team mate Andrew Murdoch finished three places ahead of Junior at the event. With Michael Bullot finishing in 14th spot and Andy Maloney in 16th, the New Zealand Sailing Team has a lot of depth in the Laser fleet.

"This regatta has been awesome" said an elated Junior on returning to shore. "We have had really good winds all week ranging from light to fresh and the competition has been super hot."

"The New Zealand Sailing Team has performed very well in this regatta and is looking good for the build up to 2012. Jez (Fanstone, Olympic Director) and Mark (Howard, Laser Coach) have done a great job of getting us to work together as a squad and the work we have been doing together is starting to show in the results" said Junior.

After a brief break in Sydney Junior returns home to compete in the New Zealand Youth Match Racing Championships on Wellington Harbour in late September with fellow Wellington Spirit sailors Matthew Steven and Chris Jones.

"This is our last chance to get our names on the Warren Wolfie Williams trophy as we will all be to old next year," said Junior.

Once the youth nationals regatta is completed the Wellingotn Spirit match racing programme will begin in earnest with a team to be selected to compete at Open Namational Match Racing Champs in Auckland in October

When the quiz session came around on the final night there was a flourishing of rule books as the boat crews tackled the scenarios and the high scores returned demonstrated a clearer understanding of the rules by all.

Steve and John's notes from both racing rules seminars are available for download:

Seminar one: Starts and upwind here
Seminar two: Mark roundings, downwind, the finish here

Copies of the current race rules are available for purchase from the Wardroom. If you want to race close and competitively then you should have a copy- and remember, its not just duty of the skipper to know the rules, if the whole crew know which boat has rights at any given point then decisions are made much sooner and advantage can be gained or collisions avoided.

The new sailing season is upon us - time to race hard, race close and most importantly race safe!

 

The course content was really an RYA – Club Safety boat hybrid. Over the first day of the course all of the safety and boat handling components of the RYA course were completed. Then on the second day rescue components such as towing and pushing alongside another vessel were covered.

 

Ian, Russell and Graeme in Chaffers marina

 

Some of the specific topics covered on the first day of the course included approaching and leaving the dock in both forward and reverse, slow speed manoeuvring, turning in a confined space, picking up a mooring and high speed manoeuvring. It is really important to be proficient at these key competencies before moving on to the rescue components of the course, as these are the skills that are used when attempting to assist others.

 

The RYA course is designed to be suitable for students with little or no previous experience, so the skills and knowledge of Te Ruru that Ian and Russell brought enabled the course to progress at a faster rate and made room for the rescue components. It is also important to note that Te Ruru is not the type of vessel that you would teach someone in who had no previous power boating experience. Te Ruru is relatively long as far as RIB’s go and turns in a wide arc. The twin engines also cause the boat to swing further from its pivot point than many expect and as both props are right hand (and not offset) there is no reduction in prop walk.

 

First task on the second day of the course involved all participants completing the RYA assessment. This involved leaving the dock at Clyde Quay, picking up a mooring, moving into the harbour and executing figure of 8 turns, retrieving a man over board, moving into Chaffers Marina and pulling into a berth forwards, reversing off before returning to the berth in reverse, completing a 360 degree turn in the boats own length and returning to the berth at Clyde Quay.

 

We then spent the remainder of the day both towing and pushing alongside a keelboat off Oriental Bay. This proved to be a very valuable exercise and something that everyone appreciated doing before it was actually needed.

 

Russell secures a line from Port Nic 2

 

While completing the towing exercises we had a northerly wind averaging about 25 knots. Although this did help keep things reasonably realistic, it did help everyone realise how important things such as having the correct type and length of rope would be in the conditions likely to be encountered when rescue is required. Again these were good things to sort out before it actually matters.

 

The final drill we completed was pushing alongside a keelboat. This exercise is all about positioning the towed and towing boat correctly and all those on the course benefited in having completed the exercise.

 

Setting up lines to push along side.

 

By the end of the two day course Russell, Ian and Graeme had all successfully completed the RYA assessment and had the opportunity to put those skills into action in a rescue context. It’s also really good from a risk management point of view to now have qualified rescue boat operators at the Club.