RORC
Club page Words into action
This month I have taken a different tack with this page as I want to share a great initiative the London Corinthian Sailing Club have undertaken to broaden their members’ exposure to offshore racing culminating in the chance to take part in the 2023 Rolex Fastnet. The scope of the project includes those new to offshore sailing
through to experienced Fastnet racers who want to improve their skills; it’s a fantastic project as it really is sailing for all with all of the benefits of the sport – outdoor experiences, endurance, team- work, communication, learning and development. There is also an interesting framework here that other clubs may
want to take a look at. The driving force behind the initiative is LCSC’s Commodore Ray Campion…
The background London Corinthian Sailing Club is a club with about 500 members and a 125-year history. Being London based we don’t have many members with raceboats, which has been both good and bad. The downside is there are few cheap opportunities to get involved in offshore racing within the club. On the positive side it has given us flexibility in how we undertake our racing and training as we’re not constrained by the views of those who own the boats. Over the years members have found their own way to participate
in the Fastnet. With a limited amount of centralised offshore racing going on, our race community has been scattered, consisting of a lot of enthusiastic beginners with a subsection of experienced off- shore racers. Many members also sign up with our handful of pro- skipper members who put on Fastnet campaigns on a commercial basis. Others have chartered raceboats, splitting the costs with their crews. But having a mostly inexperienced crew made the aspiration within the race one of attending, and not contending.
The goal Rather than just turning up, as in the past, I wanted to offer club members a route to be able to properly compete within IRC races, with a focus on entering three member-crewed boats in the 2023 Fastnet. This is open to any member interested in offshore racing.
The problem It was clear that if we’re having to train up crew from scratch in one season, as we’d done previously, we’ll never improve. We need to
broaden the offshore base within the club, and we need to increase the experience level of that base. We also need to work as a club towards it, and not as a series of individual sailors.
The solution We didn’t have the experience in-house to deal with this, so I asked the racing team at RORC to recommend some good offshore racing coaches. I was immediately introduced to Hugh Styles. My first reaction was Hugh, being an ex-Olympian and current
Olympic coach, was way over-qualified, but on reflection he was perfect for the role. Racers with some experience often think they know best, so we needed someone who was obviously better than anyone within our club to ensure the practices being taught were adopted. Also, Hugh had the knowledge to build the structured learning programme that we needed. After a few early conversations we started to build a programme
of on and off-the-water training sessions. LCSC chartered two First 40s and a 40.7 from its membership for the training and racing sessions this year. Hugh then pulled together a team of offshore coaches to speed things up: Gareth Griffiths, a seasoned offshore pro sailor, heads up the practical training. Hugh also pulled in two Olympians, Helena Lucas and Kirstie Urwin, and Tom Fenemore, an experienced two-handed offshore racer. During the winter we started with a series of interactive classroom
sessions covering all the key elements of racing. As well as sail trim, race starts and race prep, we also covered how to learn, and how to improve, regardless of the starting level of each member. This gave members a good theoretical base from which to work, with supporting video footage and literature. On the water we mixed up the experience on each training boat,
allowing the more experienced to bring up the level onboard more quickly. It also allowed the coaches to understand where each crew member was at based on how they coached others. Mixing up the membership also ensured that future races would always have a bunch you’d already trained with. For this all to work we needed a common playbook for each
manoeuvre that we use as the basis across the three boats, and a common vernacular so instructions are easily understood. After each day’s training on the water we hold a boat-specific debrief on each boat, and a further joint debrief with all 25 crew and coaches. When the work is done the crew and coaches then sit down to a joint dinner each evening and discuss the events of the day.
The outcome We launched the idea in October 2021 with six lectures and four on-the-water training sessions planned, followed by four RORC races and two regattas. By December all on-the-water training was fully subscribed, with a further two training sessions added to cope with the excess demand. The lectures had up to 60 joining each one, and we have between one and three boats entering each of the races. We’ve even had people join the club after hearing about the programme in order to participate. To date we’ve finished the lecture series and are now halfway
Founded on the tideway at Hammersmith in 1894 – the adjacent Black Lion pub providing the insignia – London Corinthian SC now shares its magnificent listed Thameside home, purchased by the members in 1999, with the Sons of The Thames Rowing Club. The club’s history is also deeply intertwined with designers and equipment pioneers Jack Holt and Uffa Fox, who were frequently to be seen trying out new designs and equipment on the river’s fast-flowing waters. Ironically it was the high-performance Int 14 class (above) that made this narrow stretch of river an important early centre of activity, somehow threading their way between London’s giant refuse barges and the steep river banks… usually
70 SEAHORSE
through the practical training sessions. The common playbook is also under development. We have 360-degree feedback, where the coaches feed in to the other coaches on each of their crew, and the crew provide anonymous feedback on the training sessions they attend. So far it has been constructive and positive from all sides. The benefits to our club are already starting to show. We’ve had
a full clubhouse on many winter nights where people would probably have preferred to stay at home. Many of those attending joined the club during lockdown, so it’s giving them a great entry point into club life and we’re achieving what we set out to do in building the offshore racing base and experience. The talk in the club bar has moved from Covid to wind shifts, spinnaker hoists… and a lot about Fastnet 2023. Ray Campion, LCSC Commodore
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