Father and son win first sailing race

Sixteen boats competed in the Tweed Valley Sailing Club’s race day earlier this month in a 10-12 knot breeze that suited newcomers to the sport well.

Adam Andrewartha entered his first race with his son Zac on an NS14 and the duo scored a first on handicap in the second race of the day.

‘I was really pleased with how Zac and I worked together as a team,’ Mr Andrewartha said.

‘We had a reasonable run on this race, keeping up with the front pack and finishing in a respectable position,’ Mr Andrewartha continued, ‘this is great from our perspective as we can learn by watching the faster boats/skippers in front of us’.

Mr Andrewartha said he and his son learned a lot and had new things to work on for next time to try to improve their placing.

Monique (last name withheld) also had her first try at racing.

‘It was amazing to see so many boats participating,’ the beginner skipper said.

Monique said ‘chirps of encouragement from the other boats’ were great displays of sportsmanship, as was the racing sailor ettiquette displayed of giving buoy room and navigating around near collisions.

‘All in all, an awesome introduction to dinghy sailing’, Monique said, ‘I’ll definitely be joining the next ‘She Sails’ course’.

The fleet consisted of Corsairs and Lasers.