Schooling

Well.... what is there to say about today.....

First - format. We started in the clubhouse, figuring out where our boat was and getting GRTBII registered. Then we had a Shark oriented, dry-land training by some guys that have been racing Sharks for lots of years (cute guys at that - or at least one - or at least that was my opinion - lol). Then we went down to the boats and talked about rigging and some of the nuances about racing sharks while divided up into 2 groups.

The women here are from all over: BC, Ontario and Quebec primarily with at least me from Alberta and another girl on a BC team from California. Immediately we recognized a couple of women from Ottawa that had been at HYC for Tanzer NA's a couple of years running, including winning in 2006 on Beagle.

Then we went out on the water. It was blowing 10 knots or so but oscillating and not constant. There were coach boats to learn from, but it turns out we did enough learning on our own without the coaches.

Once again, we had a couple epics. Not the least of which was our man-overboard drill - actually Jenny overboard drill. Turns out the Shark is not quite as beamy as the J24 or 22. However, the lack of lifelines also facilitates quick rescue, which we managed to pull off within half a boat length. Awesome.

Also awesome was the coaching and the venue. ABYC has done a phenomenal job of hosting this regatta and putting together a fantastic coaching staff.

We showed up in our Girls Around the Buoys t-shirts and looked very team like. We worked out the kinks (hopefully). We've just been for some great Italian food in the Beaches just east of here and eaten too much ice cream on the way home.

Tomorrow, if nothing else, we plan to win the party.