Family Weekend Part 1 - Friday & Saturday
Published 11:34 on 18 Aug 2026
Ripon Sailing Club's Family Weekend ran from Friday 14th to Sunday 16th August. The weekend started with some casual sailing on the Friday afternoon/evening. Everyone used their own boats and as it was relatively breezy we were just trying to go fast. Once boats were put away and everyone was changed, the ROTTERS played football on the field with people coming and going because of the BBQ until it was dark, meaning that everyone was tired by the time they went to bed.
On Saturday there were more people and events such as the codebreaker challenge happened. Milk bottles were tied to all the marks in the South half of the lake and to the 4 coloured temporary marks and each bottle had 4 numbers written on it in different colours. For Level 1 everyone was given 2 marks to sail to and record the numbers ( for example 1 Red, 4 Blue) and when you had got those numbers you came back to get a new code. For Level 2 you had to sail to 3 marks, for Level 3 it was 4 marks and after that it went up by 2 extra marks each time. Some people were given marks that were further away if they had faster boats or were more experienced sailors. By the end of the time period lots of people had got to level 6 but no one completed the whole challenge.
After lunch we did some more challenges like boat limbo, where a rope was tied between the masts of the two RS Visions and we had to tilt the boat to get under it as it got lower and lower and an Overload race, where we had a one-mark course and every time we did a lap we had to pick someone up. If we capsized in the Overload Race, we were out!
While the kids were having a snack after all those challenges the adults had their own race sailed in the kids Oppies. Racing was tight even if the boat handling was a bit shaky. For a while it looked like Ed L was going to win but Ian P got away in a lucky gust near the wreck.
After that it was the raft race in which the winner was debated as no raft remained intact fully. Team 3 was announced the winner with their two pieces of wood, several ropes, three bottles and not a partridge in a pear tree or any kind of tree. In the evening there was pizza for tea and karaoke expertly run by Jimmy H. Most people who were there camped overnight so the social went on long into the evening.
Last updated 11:34 on 18 August 2026