Our Club Captain Brett Heath and our boating manager Colin Burgess, with others’ help, plan racing and regattas months or even years in advance. One event on our annual calendar is BLiSS; namely, Brighton Ladies’ Skipper Series. It’s still half a year away, (on Sunday 1st May,) but worth keeping in mind.
Worth it because, as the old adage goes, the more you put in, the more you get out. In particular, the more you practise, (yeah, yeah, on a personal note, I’m being hypocritical), the safer and more enjoyable sailing will be.
Practice can be part of a formal training course (sailing skills, tactics etc), be something you do at home (tie a bowline behind you back, use an app to understand Rules of Racing), or something you are actually doing on a boat.
For BLiSS the particular requirement is for a female to be on the helm. (Until about 1980 the requirement for the precursor to BLiSS, The Associates’ Cup, was simply for there to be a woman on the boat.)
So, fellow female sailors, work out what you need to know to be in charge of the wheel or the tiller, and then ask if you can have a go.
Owners/skippers, think what conditions you would like for this to happen – in what weather would it be safe to practise; what Sheep Stations would you be prepared to lose in a race?
Much better to have crew on board, of whatever gender, who’ve had practice on the helm in managed conditions, rather than in 30/40 knots at night in Bass Strait when you are desperate for a break, or even off the breakwater when the foresail jams and you are needed on the bow.
Happy, safe sailing.
Marnie Irving
RBYC General Committee