Youth sailors benefit from Jon Emmett champion coaching at Royal Lymington

The RLymYC ILCA/Laser fleet were welcoming hosts of the champion laser sailor and coach, Jon Emmett, at an open training session for youth sailors last week.

The session drew in not only a strong local cohort, but also participants from further afield, including five sailors from the famous GCA Sailing, the first inner-city London comprehensive school to have its own sailing club that is famed for their successful Fastnet journey in yacht Scaramouche and other impressive feats.

Saturday frustrated sailors and coaches alike as the wind refused to build, meaning sailing theory and whiteboard talks became order of the day. This provided a great opportunity for Jon to demonstrate best practice boat handling when he was lifted into the air inside a laser, thereon demonstrating what the perfect tack and gybe in various wind conditions should look like!

Sunday looked to be developing in the same way wind-wise, but happily a building north-westerly eventually filled in, providing ideal conditions for boat handling and wind shift work.

Amends were made for the lack of sailing the previous day, and the sailors benefited enormously from over five hours on the water under expert tuition.

RLymYC ILCA/Laser Coach and Fleet Captain, Nik Froud said: "It was a good weekend of development. All the sailors learnt a lot and had a great time together on and off the water. We look forward to welcoming sailors from the GCA to future training weekends at RLymYC.”

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The ‘Lymington Youth Lasers’ fleet includes young sailors in both the 4.7 and radial rigs and aims to provide the knowledge and confidence to sail this technically challenging and rewarding single-handed dinghy, to sail it well, to make friends, to have fun and develop lifelong skills that are common to many aspects of sailing.