The Ridge of high pressure and heat wave were bound to create perfect conditions in Chichester harbour for a training day. The force 3 to 4 from the south was warm and the sea temperature was the warmest that many of us have ever known.

We started with two presentations one on how to rig the mast head floats and the other on how to use the righting lines. 6 boats took to the water sailed to our base beach on Cobnor Point and practiced lee shore landing and Anchoring.

Have discussed successful patterns of landing on a lee shore we engaged in an activity called Course Made Good where we work out the best plan to sail from one place to another place and back taking into account the conditions at exactly that moment; where the wind shadows are where the tide is the strongest and where the best sailing will be. We then did a much better job of lee shore landing.

The weather was so perfect and a number of participants were keen on practising Spinnaker so Spinnakers were rigged on all the boats and we simply practiced raising lowering and gybing spinnakers.

A highlight of the day was towing one dinghy with another and pretty much everybody had to go at being towed and doing the towing. There is a lesson to learn about understanding how long your boat is when you are towing and perhaps not allowing your towed colleagues to be pinned against a withy on a strong ebb tide…

Trio Steve Anna. Trio James Sandy. Trio Simon Lisbeth. Trio Matthew Camilla. Versa Paul Clive. Wanderer Jeremy Adri.

Swimming followed today’s recreational activities and seem to be enjoyed by those who are prepared to plunge in to an ebb tide in Chichester Harbour

A delightfully social evening followed and thanks to Lisbeth for being the designated driver.