Thursday, June 08, 2006
i'm sorry i haven't been updating my blog regularly. a lot has been happening of late... just finished running the 1st batch of Basic Sailing Course (BSC) and it went pretty well i must say.
details of BSC1st day:
as the lazy students of SP, always "tu-ing", they dilly-dallied and many were late... SOOOO.... they weren't let off so easily... the usual push-ups, they had to do. whilst waiting for the latecomers to arrive, i brought a couple of guys over to the Republic of Singapore Yacht Club (RSYC), which is just next to Poly Marina (PM), to bring over the simulator. damn was it heavy, but it was good training for the guys. after which, briefing began and that marked the beginning of their BSC. oh and their instructor was tiong jin (TJ).
so the 1st day was mainly on theory and practising on the simulator... other than that, they did their capsize drill and a BIT of sailing... they were lucky in a sense that they train with us on sundays and we have already taught them a bit about sailing. this time round it was tp perfect it and make sure they know everything...
many of them came back a bit... "traumatised" and "scared" i must say.. a couple of black faces.. hahas. i reckon they din think they'd get that much shouting while they were out there. poor guys. hahas. i think i've spoilt you guys too much. TJ is not the fiercest YET.
and aren't you all lucky i bought you pizza? tsktsk. BE HAPPY LAH.
day 2:
anyways, though some were "traumatised", i still had full attendance for the 2nd day. i reckon if you paid for something, you might as well just finished it eh? ;)
and so they were unlucky this time round... there was heavy rain so they couldn't launch. so they had early lunch.. after lunch, the rain subsided and so they launched. it was cold and drizzling... it kinda dampened their moods but the course had to carry on nevertheless.it was tough on TJ as well cos the winds were really shifty... and the rain was just retarded lah. ruining everything. they were so unlucky... had they had good weather and winds, they could have learnt much much much more and done much much much better.
TJ decided to try to do their manoverboard drill but.... to no avail... there just wasn't sufficient wind. when there was zero wind, he decided to wrap up the day and head back to shore. there was simply no learning value. letting them drift out there was just gonna kill their spirits and make them nauseous. hahas. (you're not supposed to get sea sick!) just kidding.
so they washed up, had a shower, debriefed and went home. xD end of day 2.
day 3:
jun khee met me at clementi... we bought lunch for them and took a cab in... good weather... good winds... full attendance! weeeeee! ;) waited for them to recover... jun khee wanted to sail so he went ahead to rig up the laser. hahas. my muscles were all aching i simply couldnt lift the boat off the rack. so he had no choice but to wait for them to return to seek help. hahahas. i felt useless seriously. so they got back at bout 2pm... had their lunch and then at about 2.45pm, they headed out again...
boy had they improved by leaps and bounds. just that some of them still needed quite a bit of work... but from here i could already spot those who had some potential... it may still be a bit too early... but i'll be looking out. so guys! keep up the good work... train hard! i'll be watching you!. hahahas.
we had a mini race.. many of them couldnt understand. but what the heck. they managed to sail the course and that was what's most important for them. =) i'm pretty satisfied with their results except for some people which i wouldn't mention names.
i got to sail too of cos! hahahas. took over the laser. danngs. the winds were pretty light and i was hiking out like crazy already! hahahas. jun khee was having it easy lah. he sat on the boat and it went flat. hahahas. that's what weight can help you do while sailing a laser. oh yes. a laser is an olympic class.. the optimum weight is from 75kg-85kg or even heavier. i'm far from the lowest of the range so yeah. imagine the amount of work i had to put in. ;) a laser radial, the one i usually sail, its optimum weight is 65kg. hahahas. not even there yet. so yeah. gotta train real hard.
TJ had a go at sailing the laser too. hahas. that was after he gave his instructions. he made them follow his boat as well. on the overall, all of us had fun. took some photos as well.. waiting for them to send it to me... then i can post it up.
-end of BSC-
so now.. it's back to e-learning work and looking forward the the pulau ubin trip on sat, training on sun (with half of them being able to sail already) and next week's bsc! yayy!
