Ripon Sailing Club Winter Training Program

Published 12:22 on 8 Nov 2026

Although the main season came to a close with Halloween ROTTERS and the End of Season Awards we offer a Winter Training program each year alongside the Frostbite and Icicle Sunday race series. The Winter Training program forms part of our obligations as an RYA Pathway club, but we also open some of the sessions to adult sailors aiming to improve their skills over the winter. We also work with class associations, opening some of our sessions to sailors around the region for class specific training.

This year we have 4 Winter Training dates in the calendar, as detailed below. There will be hot lunches available each day, with hot chocolate (and other hot drinks) available at breaks and after sailing.

Don't forget that club rules state that you must be wearing a long wetsuit or a drysuit to sail on the lake between November and March. I've added a short section on winter kit to the Y&J FAQ page here with some tips on warm kit and layers. Your coaches will be doing their best to keep everyone warm, but if you start to feel cold please let them know – they can often change up your activity to help you warm up, particularly on a light wind day.

We look forward to seeing lots of you there!

Saturday 14^th December – ROTTERS and RASCALS

We'll be running training groups for adults and juniors. The focus of the day will be on moving smoothly between upwind and downwind sailing. Intermediate sailors will be focusing on getting your sails and yourselves in the right place for each mode of sailing while the race groups will be looking at how to improve their transitions between each mode of sailing and how to apply this to mark roundings in a race situation. Booking for this session is now OPEN.

Saturday 12^th December – ROTTERS host IOCA

We host the Optimist class association in December for open training where IOCA plan to run 3 coaching groups. Alongside this we'll be running a club coaching group aimed primarily at Topper and Tera sailors. Booking for the IOCA coaching will be run through their website, and I will pass along more information as I get it. You do not need to be a class association member to sign up for this!

Saturday 23^rd January – ROTTERS do Spinnakers

During this session we plan to look at downwind sailing in general and within this to do some small group work on sailing with symmetric and asymmetric spinnakers. This will probably mean that most sailors will spend part of the day sailing their own boats and part of the day in the spinnaker group.

Saturday 27^th February – ROTTERS and RASCALS

We'll be running training groups for adults and juniors. The focus of the day will be on starting races. Intermediate sailors will be focussing on controlling your boats at slow speeds in a small area and practicing stopping while the race groups will be looking at the pre-start period and some basic starting tactics.

Last updated 12:22 on 8 November 2026