Level 1 Training

There are a lot of really great blogs out there that can give you a rundown of what to expect on your Level 1 training. A lot. Mine, on the other hand, will be dedicated to random stuff. Maybe you’ll find it interesting 🙂

Bob

Bob is our “crash test dummy” for Man Overboard drills. He gets chucked off fairly regularly.

Bob is a crappy sailor – he keeps falling overboard – but makes an excellent chair for aching backs (sorry Dave! I know that one should not sit on safety equipment 0_o)

Safety

Speaking of safety equipment, did you know it was possible to sunburn your eyes? I didn’t but now I do. Sunglasses at all times, kids. Even when it’s cloudy.

When Bob goes overboard, someone on the team goes “swimming”…attached to a halyard of course. Can’t have them floating off! Here we have the lovely (and tiny) Heather demonstrating the swimmer’s (enormous) safety gear and being dropped overboard.

Just a note to the designers of this safety harness…we spent a long old time farting about with trying to get the legs the right way round to put the damned thing on. Not ideal if you’re trying to get them on quickly enough to hopefully save someone’s life.

Suggestion: A small piece of velcro to hold the back of the legs to the waistband and hey presto! Super fast safety fabulousness.

Winches

Correct winch action can mean the difference between a win or a lose. It can also mean the difference between losing a finger or keeping all 10 piggies in their pen 🙂

There are many many many winches. These on the left are the 3 in the Snake Pit.

You can see why they call it the snakepit…and one is constantly moving lines from one winch to another…

My OCD both enjoys and loathes working in the snakepit. I have to keep it tidy (which is a good thing) but it doesn’t stay that way for very long…which makes me twitch. Going to have to work on that methinks.

Food

It’s not exactly haute cuisine but it is filling and simple and full of so many calories. You will be very glad of that.

The stove moves with the motion of the ocean so it’s a good idea to wear foulies when cooking…as Lars demonstrates. Spills be damned!

Sails

The sails on your boat are your powerhouse…your “engine” so to speak. You have one mainsail – a “trim” sail sat on by Skipper Dave on the left  – and multiple yankee and staysails (headsails – your real power source) which will be used depending on the strength of the wind and severity of the sea. You have storm sails for when it’s really rough too. You never stop racing…storms are just a higher gear!

Below is a pic of a sail that has been “flaked” and put back in it’s bag ready to stow. Note it’s likeness to the BFG in a bodybag. Erm…

We also have Alex demonstrating correct sail-tie technique which prevents sails and halyards being blown off deck in a wind. And finally a sail hanked, tied and ready to hoist. Pretty…

The Boat

Because boats.

Left is my tiny weeny bunk with the blue storage lockers. Centre a demo of our on-board entertainment system-come-classroom and on the right a picture of the enormous mast that someone needs to climb every day.  Just like Rick is doing below left…checking all is in working order.

On the right is a bit of boat porn. The absolutely gorgeous bit of yachting history called the Mariquita. Launched in 1911 as one of four 19m class boats, she is sadly the last one left.

The amount of drooling over that boat was monumental. She is an absolutely glorious example of why yachting makes me go all quivery and one day I’ll set foot on her deck.

Some random but exciting pics

Because I took them and I like them.

…oh wait, which boat was that one in the background again? And what is this landmark on the right?

Answers on a comment postcard peeps.

Thanks for reading. MWAH!