I spoke to the people who were sailing these last week. The captain of the Gosport Model Yacht Club Laser Class, Chris, he very kindly offered me use of the clubs demo model.
I turned up as agreed at 10 this morning. Now it had been raining very heavily not long before, and whilst the sky was starting to clear, there was still the chance of rain so I was wearing my raincoat – as it happened, I didn’t need it, but I was prepared.
The model took about 5 minutes to get seaworthy; Keel, battery, rudder. The models come with three main sails of different sizes, used depending on how windy it is. A slight adjustment to the middle sail as it was a bit windy. Chris then put it in the water, and gave me the control.
There are only two channels, one to control the rudder, and one for the sail. The chaps were shouting instructions to me, especially as at one point I had the boat jammed against the opposite bank. Luckily I managed to free it. The terminology was slightly confusing, there’s more than one word for the same thing relating to how the sail works. The sail needs to be adjusted dependent upon whether you are sailing with or against the wind.
Sailing with the wind is fairly straightforward. Sailing against the wind is lets just say, a tad more complex. I guess once you get the technique, it’ll get easier – hopefully.
