News
How She Sails: Catherine
Published Mon 18 May 2020
How long have you been in the sport of Sailing?12 year
What Club, Association or company are you involved with?
YMCA Sailing Club, Canberra
What Part do you play in our sport?
Sailor; on water volunteer; Parent
Tell us how you first got involved with Sailing.
I learned to sail when in my teens and loved it but rarely had the time, money or opportunity to sail. Much later, when my son was about 12 I offered to let him take lessons at the sailing club and he fell in love with it. I became more involved while he was sailing and stayed after he moved on, mostly driving safety boats.
There are many pathways in sailing, where has your journey taken you?
Mostly down to the local club and out onto the lake.
Whatever part of sailing you belong to, tell us about what you enjoy about your sport?
I really enjoy the freedom of moving across the water. With the club you are simultaneously working with a group of people and on your own. There is also the satisfaction of manoeuvring vehicles in and across a medium (water) that is unpredictable and challenging. Also I find that when you sail nobody cares about who you are, just what you can do.
What would you say to someone thinking about getting into sailing?
Definitely give it a try. You learn a lot about yourself and what you are capable of when you spend time in a boat.
Tell us your favourite story ….
We race on a lake. There was a day when I was rostered on to help with safety but after we got on the water, the race had to be abandoned because of crazy weather. The Race Boat had engine trouble and wouldn't start so the guy in the other safety boat came over and was helping the race officer with that. This left me to pick up all the marks by myself and also tow in a couple of disabled boats. This took about 3/4 of an hour. After that was over, I realized that the other safety boat and the Race Boat were nowhere to be found. So I went back out to see what was up. I went to where the Race Boat was last anchored and still no boat. I finally saw them way up the lake, the safety boat towing the Race Boat. When the two guys were trying to start the engine they forgot the anchor was up and the wind was so bad that they got blown about a kilometre up the lake before they realized what was going on. Not a real exciting story but I always like it because it was a day that nothing really went right and people made mistakes but we all worked together. And I still like to remember finally seeing the Race Boat way up the lake. I wonder what they said when they realized how far they had been blown.
We race on a lake. There was a day when I was rostered on to help with safety but after we got on the water, the race had to be abandoned because of crazy weather. The Race Boat had engine trouble and wouldn't start so the guy in the other safety boat came over and was helping the race officer with that. This left me to pick up all the marks by myself and also tow in a couple of disabled boats. This took about 3/4 of an hour. After that was over, I realized that the other safety boat and the Race Boat were nowhere to be found. So I went back out to see what was up. I went to where the Race Boat was last anchored and still no boat. I finally saw them way up the lake, the safety boat towing the Race Boat. When the two guys were trying to start the engine they forgot the anchor was up and the wind was so bad that they got blown about a kilometre up the lake before they realized what was going on. Not a real exciting story but I always like it because it was a day that nothing really went right and people made mistakes but we all worked together. And I still like to remember finally seeing the Race Boat way up the lake. I wonder what they said when they realized how far they had been blown.
"You learn a lot about yourself and what you are capable of when you spend time in a boat." |
