Open Sailing ran it’s first Open 5.70 Boot Camp – 4 days of intensive coaching on the water targeted towards Open 5.70 owners. The course covers everything from rigging the boat, boat handling skills and racing strategy, tactics and rules. The goal is to make the owners more confident on the boat and improve their results on the race course.

Kathy & Cathy showed up with “Boudicca” from San Francisco and Bryan sailed on his recently acquired Open 5.70 called “XLII”. After a few hours in the classroom in the morning the afternoon was spent doing a variety of sailing drills. One day was dedicated to boat handling – practicing tacks, gybes, set and douses. Two days were more focused on racing – using a small windward leeward course in the main channel we ran multiple starts to familiarize the students with the starting sequence. Racing in the channel provided plenty of close quarters sailing giving everyone an opportunity to see the racing rules in action. The races were tracked using Kattack and we also shot plenty of video providing us with plenty of material to debrief with back in the classroom.

After a day of rest it was the SCYA Midwinters regatta – a perfect opportunity to put everything into practice. With a 10 boat fleet and plenty of breeze it was the perfect end to a week of sailing.