Day 1
“Good morning Jeffrey, time to get up.” “Whaaaaat? Why?” “It is BASC today!” (BASC stands for Balboa Advanced Sabot Clinic)
So that was the start of my day. I got up and didn’t eat any breakfast. Why? Because BYC provided their legendary breakfast burritos! I got down to BYC and had a great breakfast with my friends, and then I rigged my boat. The coaches called us back to do a workout with, Sean from The Training Zone .Then Katie introduced the coaches and stated the theme of the clinic. The theme was sportsmanship. All the coaches had a sportsmanship story to tell about spins or fouls or protest. Once we found our coach Justin law, we went over the agenda. We had a short morning sail and did some circle drills and tacking on the whistle. Once it was lunch time, everybody rushed in trying to be first in line. Lunch time was over quickly so we were back at the Whiteboard talking about geographics of Newport. Justin said to keep an eye on the wind and your lanes. We sailed up to the turning basin for practice races. We started a drill called sharks and minnows. It’s where the sharks come in on port approach and tack into a hole to start in. the minnows started on starboard approach and tried to protect their holes. Once we headed in I put away my boat and went home, had a quick dinner and went to bed.
Day 2
My morning started the same and we went down to get our boats ready. We had more intense workout. We had stretches and planks and push-ups. Then when we were finished, we had a person come and talk about protest and how to go through them. Once that was finished, we broke up into our groups and went to geographics of Newport and how it compares to ABYC. In the morning, we had tacking on the whistle and racing to mark and then back for lunch. Lunch was good and we went to our coaches before we went out for the real racing! My day was fair. I had good races and ok races. I never fouled and never protested. I did help an “A Fleet boat” get 1st place in his fleet and over all, by showing him the correct course to sail. On the last race at the upwind mark, I fell out of my boat! I was under water because I fell in head first, but once I came up, I knew what to do. I got in my boat and continued the race soaking wet and very cold. I ended up getting a 4th in my fleet on the last race. I got 3rd in my fleet and I got a trophy. I finished 13th over all out of 50 boats! In the end I had a lot of fun sailing with all the B’s that came to BASC!
I would love to thank the Balboa Maritime Sciences & Seamanship Foundation for funding me to attend this outstanding Clinic and I hope to attend this clinic next year.
Jeffrey Petersen, Sabot #9243