06/09/2008, Home
Last week we were in Weymouth for a squad camp with coach Chris Draper (Athens bronze medalist and 2 time World Champion). It was really good having a different coach rather than our normal 2 coach's Billy and Harvey. The forecast was for a windy week and that was exactly what we got. There was lots of noshing around in the big breeze and it really pushed the limits of the whole squad.
On Monday we were not expecting to get sailing just because it looked to windy but we are not going to learn anything from looking how windy it is so we all went out and had a bash. It turned out not to be that bad with the breeze about 22 knots but quite a bit windier than the nationals. After starting off with a couple of races and once everyone had got the first capsize out of there system it was back to some boat handling exercises.
Over the next couple of days it got really windy but we still went out every day. I don't think that I have ever launched in the amount of breeze that we sailed in on Wednesday. Although the water was flat up at the top of the harbor that did not seem to make the bear away easy! Which made for some great pitchpoles and bearing away at the windward mark quite a challenge. We had some great tight racing which was quite a difference compared to the first day when we were just trying to getting around the course. Amazing what a couple of days can do with a great coach and going out when we normally would not. Also we stuck the GPS onboard for the day so our top speed of the day was 21.5 knots but we did manage 18.5 knots over 1km including gybes. Not bad when we were struggling to fill the kite because it was sooo windy.
Thursday morning was started with a Strongman strength and condition session just to warm us up... This involved farmers walk (walking around holding on to 35kg in each arm!), tyre flipping, tyre dragging, dragging a large weight on a sled and the list goes on. Its wicked fun but also blew everyone up so that when it came to sailing the crews were knackered. It was amazing what a difference it made to everyone's sailing, after some boathandling exercises it was into a couple of races to finish. It had got quite windy again by this point blowing 25 knots compared with 22 and there were some big gusts coming through. Basically when it is that windy in a 49er when sailing upwind the main just rags the whole time but we are still sailing the boat flat some how.
The forecast looked huge for the Friday so with everyone really tired we decided to go home and get rested ready for another camp next week. Although sailing when its windy is awesome fun, it is safe to say that we are looking forward to sailing in less than 18 knots.
here is another photo from the nationals.
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29/08/2008, Home
Well this year nationals was awesome compared to last years in Wales, we had some glamour breeze for the event and there were no postponements or cancelled races.
We arrived in Weymouth the Monday before the nationals begin for training but things did not go to plan... Firstly it was to breezy to go sailing for the first 2 days but the other problem was that I was ill. Not ideal before an event but better than being ill during the nationals. So we took it easy and did not go sailing until Thursday when I felt better. To keep ourselves amused we spent many hours playing Mario Kart on the old N64 which was wicked fun.
When we got sailing we had some great conditions and we spent the day doing a bit of tuning with Rash/Shrek and Mason/Peel as well as our foreign friends from Finland Lauri and Heizzi. Then in the afternoon we joined in with the open training group for some practise races. This turned out to be very dangerous, we had more almost crashes than we have had all year in one day and to finish it off our wing had a fight with the forestay from another boat and lost. Resulting in a large chunk taken out of the wing! After some doctor ding fix it stuff it was good enough for the nationals so we headed home for some more Mario kart!
The next day was much of the same but we were a lot more careful about who we started next to and if it looked like trouble it we just bailed out rather than get caught up in it all. After the tuning we were really happy with our speed, we never felt like we were slower than any other boat and felt like we were quickest of the bunch. A great confidence boost going into the nationals.
The first day of the nationals was sailing in 8-11 knots out in Weymouth Harbour, the breeze was shifting around quite a bit and there were plently of gains and loses to be had. We had an ok day but we were a little disappointed which left us 4th overall. We had loads of boatspeed and great starts in every race but something needed to be changed.
For the second day it went a lot better but there was one boat in the fleet that we could not get a head of (Pinky and Potter). They just seemed to have a bit more boatspeed than us and to compensate we tried too hard to get passed him. We had moved up to 2nd after four top 3 results on day 2.
There was only 2 races scheduled for the last day of racing and the breeze had freshened up to a nice 18-22 knots. We picked up another 2nd in the first race which seemed to be a repeat of some of the races from the day before. We won the win end, sailed out to the left then tacked which followed shortly by Pinky/Potter tacking on us. Then they sailed off to win the race and we came in 2nd. The last race was similar again but Lauri and Heizzi slipped through in to 2nd while we came in 3rd.
Overall we finished 2nd and I was first under 21 helm, which was a good result on us. We now have something to aim for at our training over the next couple of weeks before the Sail For Gold in September.
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Time to step up another notch ready for next years round of regattas.
You have got it in the two of you, work hard and set your sights high. YOU WILL GET THERE
13/08/2008, North Wales
Stokes Bay Training
Before Alain and I headed off to Cowes for Skandia Cowes week we had a couple of days training at Stokes Bay. Friday was blown off in usual Stokes Bay fashion, 25-30knots onshore with large chop crashing onto the slipway. There was no chance of us sailing so we headed back to Alain's and I went for a bike ride on my new borrowed bike. Which was awesome, overtaking cars in a 40 down a hill!
The next day the breeze had moderated to about 8 knots. We got a good 4 hours on the water as the wind gradually increased to 15knots. Cowes week had started so there was over 700 boats on the water plus us, so we went keelboat racing in our 49er and we won. But it was good trying to race against 45ft yachts but we did have a touch and go moment with one yacht whilst we were twin stringing downwind. I thought that we would make it in front of the yacht but once it disappears behind the kite it's a bit like hit and hope! Luckily we made but only just and the yacht did have to luff to avoid us. At that time we thought we should head back in.
The following day the breeze had increased to 15-18 knots so it was another glamour days sailing out in the Solent. We joined in a club race which gave us and interesting course but was perfect for practicing our gybe drops that we had been working on a couple of weeks ago. We were out there for a couple of hours concentrating on gybes sets and drop before we did some trigger work then headed in.
Another load of solid hours on the water over a weekend which was awesome. After we had fueled ourselves back up again we headed off to cowes on the Red Jet for some exciting (or not) sailing on Sunsail Sunfast 37's, but it was all part of our duty as Skandia Team GBR.
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27/07/2008, weymouth
It was set to be a hot week in Costa del Weymouth and when the weather is this good there is no where better in the world to train (apart from stokes bay of course ) getting lots of hours in on the water. We were coach less until Wednesday as Harv had some meetings to attend to as well as a broken leg , sprained ankle and hole in his head from trying to hobble up a step with no crutches!.
So with rashly and Shrek we had to go find some buoys and yachts doted around the harbour to go round the most common exercise seemed to be follow my leader and 5 lappers there were a few angry fishermen and people on their yachts, to give the crews a little rest we did some trigger work and long line starting.
When Harv arrived on Wednesday the forecast was set to be light winds which was a bit of a change as we have not sailed in these conditions in months. we did plenty of tuning runs trying different techniques like sailing downwind with the tiller on the deck and just using heal to steer the boat finding out how very little you need the tiller.
Thursday arrived it was set to be the big day out in the bay with 15knts and big waves Harv set the challenge of 25 gybe sets and gybe drops. It was a long beat out into the bay and rashly managed to damage his wing sliders jumping over a wave, but still carried on. We worked on the 3 processes of the gybe set - bear away, the gybe and then the hoist. This was working well and we came out of it with a load of ideas on how to make it the perfect gybe set. We sailed in for lunch and the breeze had increased up to 20knts and Harv decided to make the worlds shortest boat handling course barely enough time to hoist and drop. Going down wind in one of our races we ripped the kite cleat out of the deck so session over and off to th3e cinema to see bat man !
We did a short early session on Friday involving a few races and more gybe sets which concluded our weeks training in Weymouth. We are next sailing at stokes bay next weekend trying to get a few more 49ers to come out and play and do lots of races then its onto Cowes week where we are sailng the sunfast 37's all week so lots of crashes !!
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03/07/2008, Home
The biggest event of the year in Europe with almost 60 boats and only missing a French and American from the Top 20 ISAF ranked sailors. Also for a change we were camping... Well I was sleeping in my van and Alain was in his tent.
It was a mixed event but had general Kiel conditions i.e. shifty and gusty with not a lot of predictability. Overall we had 2 good days that if we had similar days on the other 2 would have put us in the Medal Race. This is really promising because it has gone from 1 or 2 races a event suitable for a top 10 overall to 2 days now all we need to do is sort out the other 2. Kiel week was also our first event this year that we have qualified for gold fleet racing, which has been a goal for us all year.
We felt that we sailed differently to how we have done at recent regattas. As in we had much better starts throughout the fleet especially in gold fleet. We even managed to port tack the whole in fleet in one qualifying race! Everything that we have been working on really came together and we felt that we could pull through the fleet and but in consistent results.
The first day went really well posting a 10, 5, 10 which although we were a little annoyed at losing places for stupid reasons still was good enough to put us on equal points with 13th going into the second day. The second day did not go quite so well but it was still not a bad day, in the end we posted a 10,11,5,12. We did well in qualifying not to pick up any big numbers which was easy to do in the shifty conditions.
The 3rd day was the first day of gold fleet racing and it was a bit different to what we are use to but was awesome. We did not have a great day which pushed us down to 24th overall after going into the day in 20th. We thought about where we were losing places and cleared our heads ready for the 4th day of racing. Well we had an awesome day with a 5, 17, 5, 14 but were still a bit frustrated after losing places at the finish in 2 of the races. After looking at the results from the day we had the 6th best day out of the whole fleet! This pushed us up to 19th overall and we only had a couple of points between us and the boats ahead.
The last day of racing was the lightest day all week and we managed to get stuck in a large whole down the run. Not an ideal situation to be in but we had still done enough to move up 2 more places to 17th overall. We were really chuffed with this result because we knew we could achieve a top 20 we just had to go and do it.
Camping actually went really well even though it did rain for a couple of days and a couple of other Brits tent went for a swim on the first day!
Now we have a lot of summer training planned at Stokes Bay and Weymouth before the Nationals in Weymouth at the end of August followed by the Sail for Gold in September. It's a very early end to this season of racing with the next ISAF Grade 1 in Miami at the end of January 2009 which we arte looking forward to already.
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28/05/2008, Home
Last week we were in Medemblik in Holland for the Delta Lloyd Regatta. This is another ISAF Grade 1 event like Hyeres Regatta and similar to Princess Sofia in Palma.
We arrived in Holland on the Wednesday before the regatta for a squad camp. We got in 5 days of solid training in over 15knots. This was exactly what we needed to hone our windy boathandling. Medemblik is known for its very short and step chop. On the first day training in 18 knots the whole squad bar one boat (Stevie and Ben) pitchpoled down the first run! After the 5 days training it was a totally different story, we joined in some racing the some foreign teams and really showed them how to sail 49ers when its windy.
Unfortunately we did not have more than 12 knots for the whole regatta so we could not show off our windy boathandling. Which is typical train for 5 days in one breeze direction and strength and then the wind blows 90 degrees the other way and its light all week but you still get the same difficult chop.
The Race Officer had decided to race the 45 49ers in one fleet! Normally we spilt the fleet so the fleets are no bigger than 35 max or smaller than 20 but normally they are around 25. Racing 45 49ers on one startline is absolutely mental, there is just so many boats with everyone wanting to be at the bias end because the line is so long. Over the week we had quite a few general recalls but there should have been a lot more. It was very different racing with so many boats like going down the windward mark with 4 boats all next to each other or when 20 boats come together at the leeward marks at the same time. There were some massive gains and losses to be had with such a large fleet.
The first 3 days went quite well for us. We had some good starts and we were getting used to racing in such a large fleet. Most of our results had been in the top 20 and we were 22nd overall, this would have put us into Gold fleet if they had decided to spilt the fleet. The last day of racing went very badly for us, we broke our vang lever before the first start so we missed the first race fixing that. Then had the 2 worst starts we had all regatta, which basically involved us going backwards at start gun. Definatly not the fastest way to start the race, we pulled it back in both of the races but with the DNS (did not start) in the first race it pushed us down to 25th overall. This was really frustrating because we knew that we could come in the top 20 only being 7 points off going into the last race.
At the end of the day we learnt loads especially racing in such a big fleet and I am sure that next time we come to race in Kiel (ISAF Grade 1) where they will be racing us how we normally do we will be able to see the difference. Everything that we had been working on is coming together, our boathandling is so much better and we consistently have good boatspeed. We just cannot wait for Kiel week now.
We have a week off from sailing before we have a 5 day camp next week down some at a top secret location...
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12/05/2008, Home
On the 10/11th of May we had a National Ranking event at Hayling Island. It is the last Spring Series event of the year and a chance to get some good racing done back in the UK. A couple of days before the event we were down at Hayling training whilst we had some glamour weather in the UK for a change. The training went well especially the windy day which really brought out how much we are improving our windy boat handling.
Racing was supposed to start at 12 on Saturday but there was no chance of that happening when there was no wind, but at least it was hot! Which was perfect timing for Tasha and Dominie who came from Joules Clothing (our secondary sponsor) to have a see what we really get up to at events? We finally launched but a bit later than expected. After 15 minutes of trying to sail out of the harbor we had managed to move about 10 metres out to the bay. So we sailed back to the shore and walked the boats all the way along the beach and round the corner and we still could not make ground over the tide. So eventually we got a tow off a rescue boat in time for the first start.
The breeze had filled in to about 5/7knots for the first race out in Hayling Bay. We had a good start but wanted to go right, so we tacked out and unfortunately touched another boats tiller in doing so. Once we had completed our 360 things were not looking good, but we chipped away around the race course to bring in a 5th. The next two races went reasonable with two 4ths but nothing special.
Sunday was another glamour day on the water, with 7-10knots of breeze and lots of sunshine. In the first race the breeze went right making quite a large gap in the fleet. We rounded the windward mark in 7th place but had good boatspeed to finish 2nd. In the following race we thought we had a glamour start off the pin end sailed all the way to the port layline, tacked and crossed the fleet, then rounded the windward mark 1st only to find out we were over the line at the start. It turned out that we were about 3 feet over the line which was frustrating. The final race went well with another good glamour start but this time we were not over the line. After some good racing we finished 3rd in that race which was were we finished overall.
On Wednesday we leave for Medemblik in Holland for the Delta Lloyd Regatta.
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07/05/2008, Stokes Bay
Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday we were training down at Stokes Bay with a couple of training partners. Chris Rashley and Matt Gotrel aka Captain crash and Shrek, because Rash always crashes and Matt's tall, ugly and always moans about generally everything. As well as Chris and Matt on the Saturday/Sunday Richard Mason and Tom Peel joined in.
On Friday after spending the morning sorting out all our kit that seems to have built up and has now filled the box trailer to the brim, we went for a 3 hour sail out in the Solent. We had between 8-12knots of wind and a bit of sunshine which was glamour 49er sailing weather. Once we launched we concentrated on boathandling with a bit of follow my leader, loads of tacking and gybing, some short course 5 lappers and a bit of starting/triggering to finish off.
The wind was a bit fresher on Saturday with about 14-16knots gusting 18 another awesome day out in the Solent. In the first session of 2 that we did, we were looking at our boathandling again. To warm up we did a bit of follow my leader and then the 50 gybe challenge! Not the crews favorite exercise but we do more gybes in one run than we do in a week long regatta, so an awesome way to practice gybing but you need a big bit of water in a 49er to complete it. In the afternoon we did some short course racing and then looked at our starting again.
The wind had moderated on Sunday and at points in the morning there was no wind, but the wind did fill in to 5 knots and gradually built up to 8. More boathandling with follow my leader around some close buoys next to the club and the we did a short races around the buoys that you are not supposed to go inside because apparently in May people actually go swimming in the Solent! We had to move because the club was not happy with us using these marks so we moved further offshore. We then finished off with some triggering before we headed in and packed up.
Another 3 good days on the water and lots learnt. On Wednesday to Friday we are training down at Hayling Island with the rest of the 49er Olympic Development and Performance squad before the RYA Spring Series at Hayling on the Saturday and Sunday.
Here is another photo from Hyeres
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30/04/2008, Home
Hyeres 2008 Update
Last week Alain and I were in the South of France at a place called Hyeres, this was for another ISAF Grade 1 Olympic Class's Regatta. When we arrived the weather was worse than the England! It was raining non-stop, cold and windy. But after a couple of days it was shirts off weather and a glamour 8-11knots of breeze for our last day of training before the regatta started. Again we split into 2 fleets for the Qualification series, for the first day we were yellow fleet and first start.
The forecast for the first day was breeze on and it was supposed to increase all day which is exactly was it did. Our first race was about 18-20knots and the chop had really kicked up. It was an awesome race with plenty of capsizes, pitchpoles and breakage but we did not suffer from any. Since the Europeans we have been working really hard on our boathandling to ensure that we do not capsize when it gets breezy and it paid off. For the second race the breeze had picked up again to 22 knots and the chop had massively picked up. There was even more thrills and spills in the second race with lots of top teams taking a swim. We had another consistent race with no capsizes but a very very close pitchpole. After rounding the last windward mark about 100m behind the French and Portuguese, we caught up with both teams half way down the run but then saw a massive wave set in front. Alain started to flap the kite to lift the bow and slow the boat down but this was not enough, the bow went straight in to the back of the wave. Usually this ends with the boat doing a front flip, but we managed to save it and rounded back up into the wind with the kite still up. Alain went in and dropped the kite, we tacked round and re-hoisted. We did not loose any places on that run and we were sent in with racing finished for our fleet. On the way in we were two sail 'Death Zone' reaching, this is basically sailing downwind with boat of us on the wire and in the footloops. Its called the death zone because it can very quickly turn bad, as it did with us. The boat was staring down the back of a huge wave which would have resulted in a certain pitchpole. So I decided to round back up into the wind which resulted in us capsizing. When we got the boat upright we had bent the boom badly so had to drop the main on the water and sail in under jib alone. The second fleet only completed one race and there was only 7 finishers from there race compared to 14 in both of ours!
Day 2 was another glamour days sailing in Hyeres. 3 races were held in 18-22knots and blue skies, we had a consistent day with nothing amazing results wise. We had mistake in the first and last race that cost us a lot of places up the first beat and then we recovered but not enough for gold fleet. For the 3rd regatta we were only a few places away from gold fleet. In a normal 49er event we would have been in gold fleet because we qualified in the top 25 which is normally gold fleet but at Hyeres it was top 21. Although we were annoyed at the time, our goal from then on was to win Silver fleet something we had not achieved.
Day 3 was supposed to be the last day of racing for the Qualifying Series but it was blown off because it was blowing a gale literally!
Day 4 was the first day of silver fleet. Our goal for silver fleet was to win either the pin or committee boat at the start. Something we use to do all the time in 29er's but since moving to the 49er we have stuck with the easier option of starting in the middle. On the first day we had to glamour starts either the first or second boat down from the committee boat. The first start was the worst, we ended up going backwards at the start and we were well and truly last off the startline. We just picked off one boat at a time during the race and finished 3rd, not bad after being 21st off the startline! We had moved up to 2nd in silver fleet and we were only a few points away from 1st.
The last day of racing was a lot lighter than any of the other races we had during the regatta and very similar to the conditions we had last year. The breeze was shifting around quite a lot and there was massive gains to be made around the course but bigger loses. We had boatspeed to burn in both races and finished with two 2nds which put us into 1st place with 2nd place 8 points behind us.
We felt that we had an awesome regatta and there was a lot of information for us to take away and work in time for the Holland regatta in 3 weeks. This week we are having a couple of days off before we are back training at Stokes bay and then Hayling Island the following week.
Photo copyright Steve Lovegrove
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Keep up the good work.
03/04/2008, Home
So now we are back home after 4 weeks in Palma of training and regatta's. Last week we were competing in the 2008 49er Europeans in Arenal, Palma de Mallorca. It was an awesome event but defiantly one of the windiest 49er regattas we have competed in.
The first day was abandoned due to too much wind so the only people on the water were the windsurfers and kitesurfer's which was amazing to watch. I defiantly need to learn how to kitesurf. The following day was also windy and the breeze was blowing straight in to the bay kicking up a massive swell. The first race started in 22 knots and was on the edge of 49er racing. We had a good start and we were 6th going down the last run only to make a massive mistake. I kicked the tiller as I crossed the boat in the last gybe to the finish. The end result was we capsized, I fell out the boat and we finished 16th. We were still confident in our boathandling and had a good start to the next race. But disaster struck in the first run, as we were going downwind on starboard coming into the leeward gates there was an Italian 49er coming upwind on port. We tried to get out the way (even though they are in the wrong) but we did not get out of the way. There wing went into my arm, so I went flying round the back of the boat broke the trapeze elastic and hurt my arm. Our coach took me in to see the medics whilst Alain had to sail the boat in by himself. We took the main down but it was still impressive he managed to get in and get the foils out! The Medics wanted me to go to hospital to get an x-ray but they did not think it was broken. I could not sail for the rest of the day and we missed 4 out of the 5 races that day but we got redress of average points. But it was windy and we were really frustrated on missing the races as all you had to do was keep the boat upright and you came in the top 10!
The next day of racing was lighter we had an average day posting a 13,19,8 which unfortunately was not enough for gold fleet. It was really frustrating because we knew that we could be in gold fleet but in such a tight fleet with 16 and 19 its always going to be hard to make gold fleet. But we were confident in Silver fleet and our goal was to come top 3.
First day of silver fleet racing went really on one side and bad on the other. We had a brilliant first race leading from start to finish with loads of boatspeed and great boathandling. Again disaster struck when we bore away on the last lap of the first race, our wire forestay almost broke. There was a big bang and Alain looked up to see a frayed forestay but we thought we do not care as long as we do not capsize or pitchpole it should be fine. We made it down the run and won the race convincingly but there was no way it would survive another race. So we had to take the main down and head in missing the 2nd race of the day. We were gutted about missing another race when we were going really fast and had great boat handling.
The next 2 days we sailed really consistently and it was the first time in silver fleet that we have sailed such a consistent series. We moved up from Qualifying 4th in Silver fleet to 2nd in Silver fleet. This is our best position at a Worlds or Europeans and we were really happy with how we sailed but next time our goal is to complete all the races!
This weekend we are doing an I14 event at hayling island to get some experience in another high performance twin trapeze boat and hopefully it will be wicked fun.
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