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Menorca 2007
From the 22nd to the 29th June, I went to Menorca with
Menorca Sailing. I saw a special offer in the
Dinghy sailing magazine and went for
it. The deal was for a single room on a self-catering shared apartment. However, I was
surprised as I had been upgraded to a single room on a self-catering shared villa. Some
pictures of the villa can be seen below.
The quality of the villa was very good including the pool. However, it could have been to
the fact that this was early in the season. The quality of the apartments is not as as good.
In addition, other persons have explained that the pools are not always working.
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The villa was only 5 minutes walk from the beach where all the dinghies were stored. Notice
that no catamaran was on display when I was there but I am not a fan of catamaran anyway.
The day was organised into groups during the day and one to one session (or free sail) in
the afternoon. I was on the advanced laser group. I intended to improve my light wind
sailing and race tactics. However, the wind was too strong for the first part. It
oscillated between force 3 and 6. During the session, the instructor sailed with us all the
time with back up from a RIB if it is necessary. The main topics that were covered were
race tactics, tuning, race start and first beat, gibing and tacking on strong winds, marks
rounding, wind bend, etc. The course was pretty thorough, enjoyable and a lot of take on
board.
The afternoon for my group was two races back to back. The first one was between
lasers only and the second one was for everyone even RS200, RS700, etc. In average, I did
better on the second race than on the first. My start has improved during the week although
I kept ending up on the dirty wind of other dinghies. My first beat has not improved but I found at
the end what I was doing wrong i.e. not looking for wind shift. Overall, my racing has
improved. The improvement will have to be measured on the Pill race and open meetings.
However, my confidence about strong winds has increased even though it was with a radial
sail most of the time.
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At the start, I was not confident enough even with the radial sail
for gibing in strong winds. The training highlighted some positive points. My tactics
can be good against a few boats. However, I struggled when facing too many boats. I suspect
that practice makes you perfect. The other interesting point was that I can
be as fast as others.
This was shown on the GPS. During one afternoon, they placed GPS on our boats for the
afternoon races. The GPS showed my positions and speed. The interesting point was my
speed was as good as others. Another interesting tool was the video of the races. This showed
the start and the mark rounding. Interesting to see the race from a different perspective
however, it is always not showing what we expect.
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In the evening (after the afternoon race), I did three free sailings, one refreshment
on the Seamanship skill and one one-to-one session on the RS800. The free sailing was on
the RS200 on two occasions and one occasion on the RS400. I did not try the RS700 as I
bottled out.
Although the wind dropped when the session
started, I could see potential of this boat. I am glad that I was with an instructor at
the helm. I do not think that I would have been able to helm that boat. However, I enjoyed every
minute of it. The start was interesting as the rudder was slightly damaged. We had to come
back to the beach on rudderless the day after the seamanship skill training.
We managed to have both
of us on the wire and with the kite up. The RS800 has a very powerful kite and acceleration.
In the night, there were three organised evenings: a welcome drink, a trip to Ciutadella and
a prize giving drink. I enjoyed the remaining nights with my great housemates.
Back to the top
On our way back, the plane was delayed by two hours. This is apparently very common with
this type of trip. Therefore, I recommend having alternative plans for your return or sleep
at a Gatwick hotel.
Overall, the trip was very enjoyable and I intend to do another one with the same company.
However, I will stay at a villa or at the hotel.
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