The weather can change quite a lot between Friday night and Sunday morning. It makes a big difference to the experience of sailing.
Zak and Emma are both sailing, Friday night coaching sessions and Zak is racing on Sundays.
On Friday we had blue skies and 5 to 10 knots of breeze from the south (which means calm water where we sail).
Emma is sailing an Optimist. They are sailed all over the world by kids as young as 8, up to 15. It is about as small as you can get. Zak sailed this boat for the last couple of years.
Zak cruised by Emma's group in his new boat, a Starling. These are a New Zealand design, not sailed much anywhere else. It's a bit longer, has more sail area and goes much quicker!
The Starling is big enough for me to sail... I've only had one go so far and didn't tip out. (I did sail the Optimist a few times too but people laughed at me because my legs stuck out one side of the boat and my head out the other :-) ).
and then... Sunday.
Zak has been doing Sunday races for a while now but until recently they were in the Optimist. Today, under a more threatening grey sky, racing started with 10 - 15 knots from the north west.
Zak made a really good start at the head of the Open class. (Click on the image for a larger version - number 2168, you can make out the red 'Angry Birds' hat he sails in). But... it didn't take long for the bigger Laser Radial boats to catch him up. This was expected. The actual problem was the wind increasing to 15 - 20 knots and gusts up to 25. The water got bumpy too (not like the ocean or even a big harbour but enough that it knocks the boats around some).
On his first gybe he and the other Starling in the fleet capsized and got there masts stuck in the mud. :-(.
In the Opti, he's sailed many races where the wind came up this high but things happen quicker in the Starling and he is only just at the minimum weight so today was... a challenge... Over the next couple of hours he lost count of the number of times he tipped out, somewhere around 7 but was still in good spirits (and good company) after racing was abandoned because there were a couple of breakages and way more sailers in the water than rescue boats available!
