On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 01:32:31 +0100, "Donal"
wrote:

Well, I've had two wonderful weeks of dinghy sailing and windsurfing in
Turkey.

I'm shocked by the quantity of political crap that has been posted here
during my absence. In fact, I'm not going to bother to read most of it.
Joe, felton, Walt and Jon all deserve a good kick up the backside!!

Sinc when did this become a sailing newsgroup? I must have missed
that memo Otherwise, congrats. I'm jealous Kick away...I have
been numb back there for quite some time....


Anyway, I learned a couple of things in the last two weeks. Windsurfing is
great fun, but you really should learn to do it before you reach 40!
Lasers are much easier to sail than Topaz's, - AND they go faster ....
especially downwind!!

Watching the youngsters was very interesting. The kids played a game
called "Pirates" using Topper Taz's. The Taz is a bit like an
Optimist(sp?). It is a beginne r'sdinghy.
There are two objectives in the game of Pirates.
The main objective is to capture your opponent's boat. You have to board
their boat and eject the occupant into the water. The secondary objective
is to simply capsize your opponent's boat. In other words, Pirates is a
game of total havoc! At any point in time about half of the 16 strong fleet
was capsized!!

At first I was horrified, but I soon realised that the kids were learning
about sailing without realising that they were "learning". They were also
having great fun.
I watched one boy stand on the bow of his dinghy as he approached his
target. He was going downwind, and he seemed to be steering by shifting his
weight from one foot to the other. He had learned to do this without any
lessons!!!

On the other hand, I attended a "Beginner's Clinic" before I took out a
Laser.



Regards


Donal