Saturday & Sunday, August 29-30, 2009
FAST Opti Team practice in Newport, Rhode Island
8:00 AM Saturday August 29: the last weekend before school starts and the first day of fall FAST. Heavy rain, low 60’s – most people spend these days curled up on a couch with a blanket and a mug of hot chocolate. No one suspects there are kids out on Narragansett Bay defying nature.
The forecast showed tropical depression Danny to pass by us, it rained like being under a fire hose, but sadly there was no wind. Fran, Scott and Spencer split us into two groups. The newcomers went with Spencer to work on tacks. The rest of us went with Fran and Scott to work on starts. We did rabbit starts, mystery starts, and 1-2 starts. We were a little bit rusty, but as the day went on we got better. The important things that Fran, Scott, and Spencer wanted us to learn was to push ourselves and to try things you would not try at a regatta, proper roll tacking, staying up on the starting line and find a spot, and when you are going down wind, you don’t want to cross under the fleet our you’ll get bad wind. After practice we all had cake to celebrate Nick Stewart’s birthday! Thanks Ms. Stewart!
Sunday was a letdown. After rigging our boats there was no wind, and the sky looked gray, but Spencer, Fran, and Scott made use of our time. They discussed Rule 42: illegal propulsion such as sculling, ooching, rocking, pumping, and tacking continuously with no tactics. They also talked about exceptions to this rule like being able to scull to help get out of a tack, and being able to pump the sail to help you surf a wave. Then they talked about adjusting sail ties and looking for chafing ropes when we rig our boats. Then it looked like there was some wind so we went out on the water, but there still wasn’t enough wind to race, so we ate lunch. After a few hours of waiting and some coming in and going out we were able to pull off two races before we had to go in for good. This was a challenging first weekend of fall FAST.
 
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