The last week at Sail First's Kids Club has been fairly quiet, following the Carnival in Paphos. We converted a road trailer for one of our safety into an oversized dinghy and mounted an Optimist rig on top. We had some of the children dressed up in sailors uniforms marching alongside the float. We were lucky that cold spell relented on the day but it was cool out of the sun, and some of the kids came down with colds during the week.

Yesterday the Saturday class was held just as the Yachts taking part in the Volvo Ocean Race around the world arriving in Auckland, New Zealand. Video was not available, however with the use of the live virtual eye tracker and 3D models, the children could certainly follow the action of the leading boats.

The virtual tracker clearly illustrated the effects of gust and loss of speed of speed when taking. The racing was very close with Mapfre which had earlier passed, DongFeng and Abu Dhabi by staying away from the land, being chased down by then, on the run down the coast Abu Dhabi passe Mapfre as they turned for the final run into Auckland and although doing everything they could crossed the finish line 4 minutes being Mapfre.

The Children then had a discussion about the details of the race and what it was like onboard one of these highly competitive Yachts, where every action, even when resting could effect the boats performance.

The children also looked back at the grounding and rescue of the Vestas Wind earlier in the race. We then discussed the possibility of the school entering the next leg of the virtual race which starts in two weeks, will need a lot of planning in order to keep the boat competitive 24/7.

David Ogden
Sailing Master