From frost to fast – winter coaching wraps at Pennine Sailing Club
by Ian Brown 3 Apr 10:52 BST
Winter coaching at Pennine SC © Dom Barnes Coaching
Saturday 29th March saw 15 sailors come together at Pennine Sailing Club for the eighth of the Dom Barnes Coaching winter sessions. The aim of these sessions has been to offer low-cost, high-quality coaching to single-handed sailors in the North of England, catering to all abilities within easy reach of their home clubs.
Beginning in November at Pennine, the series has also visited Delph Sailing Club in Bolton, Ripon Sailing Club, and West Riding SC, working with over 50 sailors throughout the winter.
Before each session, Dom sends out a detailed questionnaire to every sailor. Based on their goals and current abilities, he organises them into small groups with his experienced coaching team to target key areas of their sailing skill set - aiming for big wins.
From those simply wanting to make the start line on time at club racing, to sailors competing at national level, everyone has been given the tools to make meaningful progress. The feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive.
On Saturday, they sailed through an eclipse - and Dom finally got himself back on the water for some much-needed practice ahead of this weekend's season-opening ILCA Northern Grand Prix event at Delph Sailing Club (Saturday 5th April). He built a comfortable lead in the final practice race until a gust wiped him out, just showing that it can happen to the best of us.
One sailor particularly looking forward to this year's Northern Grand Prix circuit is the championship's reigning female champion Lilly Brown (16), who finished her winter training with a new sponsorship deal from Dom.
As the participants packed their boats away for the final time, a rainbow shone across Pennine Sailing Club - a good omen, perhaps, for their chances of bringing home some glory after a winter well spent on the water in the North with a top-quality coaching team.