The air is still, the water flat, there is a light drizzle falling from the sky. The centre is dead, no schools this week. This can mean only one thing…

Staff training. Staff sail training…

I know the RYA Seamanship Skills course is about sailing in adverse conditions, but sailing in no wind isn’t quite what they mean.

Sailing in no wind is possible, it’s very slow, but you do move mostly in the direction you want to go in. You have to lean your boat the ‘wrong’ way so the sails bag with gravity which gives them the most chance of catching wind (mostly your own whining and moanings about there being no wind ;-). Gybing can be done at will with no real preparation, the boom harmlessly staying where it is, requiring manual intervention. Tacking takes forever.

I did manage a few dry capsizes though. The first one I tried had me dangling from the side of the boat before plopping into the sea. The second attempt mostly worked, the boat went over, I trod on the centreboard handle, got a foot caught in the tiny Topaz jib’s sheet and scrambled onto the side.

Eventually the wind died completely and stationary objects on the shore started to overtake us so we went in. As is the way of these things, the instant we’re back, putting the boats away, a consistant movement of air that could almost be called wind started to blow. Hopefully this’ll be the gales that have been forecast.