Its not about the end result! Well, sort of. Sailing out of Weymouth is not the most pleasant of experiences when you're used to an open bay within easy reach of a sheltered beach. The long delays between races and the long sail out/back each day certainly challenged my enthusiasm and reminded me of the reasons I stopped sailing back in 2003.
However, I was there to get some race tuning in and I certainly did. My results weren't anything to write home about but it was still an extremely useful exercise. I was yellow flagged for sculling on my first start and immediately approached the jury boat for an explanation. I learnt that sculling could only be performed to get the bow down from head to wind to close hauled or to get the bow through the wind onto a new tack. Sculling on both sides to maintain position was not allowed. So, the week from that point forward was all about changing my technique which was all useful practice for the worlds (even if it meant not getting a single sniff of clear air all week).
During racing, I worked myself into the top half of the fleet in about 3 of the 6 qualifying races and failed to convert any of those positions into results. Whether it be rustiness, poor decision making, poor speed or a just plain bad luck, it highlighted that I had some potential even if it was too late to make silver fleet. Having missed the cut then proceeding to collect a black flag in the first race on thursday, I decided I'd had enough of waiting around and sailed for home. Normally, I would have seen that as defeatist but I looked at it as lessons learnt and 7 days of top quality days in the boat. I was in need of a rest! I had friday off before sailing in my beloved Beer regatta and then spent the next week trying to loosen off my leags in time for Pre-worlds training at hayling.
I'm still feeling positive about my progress but there's nothing like getting a thorough whipping on the Laser circuit to bring you down to earth with a thud and focus the mind on the game in hand.
Tuesday 24 August 2010
Tuesday 17 August 2010
A whole month since my last post!
Its been quite a while since my last post. Up until now, most of my posts refer to club racing conditions so that everyone can relate to what I have to say. Seen as I haven't been club sailing much lately, I don't have a lot to say on that front. I shall be sailing again on Thursday and Sunday.
In the mean time, I thought I could just bring this post up to date with how preparations for the worlds have been going. An old sailing friend once said to me after I had suffered an appalling worlds in America that 'you cant do a worlds without doing a full months worth of sailing before hand'. So, about 3 weeks ago now I started sailing about 5-6 days a week on top of my usual fitness regime. Most of these sessions lasted between 2 and 3 hours and were based out of Beer with Mr Cornish. Most sessions consisted of at least an hours worth of sailing round 2 marks to sharpen up my mark roundings. The most critical part of this is to make sure every type of approach and exit is covered and all controls are adjusted every time. This encourages the 'autopilot' type execution of these manouvres. The rest of the time was spent doing boat speed work on all points of sail. In hiking conditions. Upwind speed runs typically lasted 20 mins to replicate the length of a worlds beat. These sessions proved very successful and led into the next step.
I turned up at Weymouth to start training for Sail for Gold on the Thursday before it was due to start. By this time I had aleady sailed on 8 out of the last 10 days with 4 days since my last break. With Ben unable to get out, I had arranged to sail with A very good laser helm by the name of Mark Powell. He was keen to get some big days in so we hit the water wfor 4 hours on each of thurday and Friday and then a further 3 on Saturday. It was pretty breezy and lots of the competitors from around the world were now on the water to start their own prep for S4G. It had been a while since I'd sailed against this standard of opposition but it was the best type of training you can have. Typically a long windward leeward would be set with one boat getting everyone away in a gate start. 60 odd boats of fairly even speed don't tend to get seperated by much over medium distances so crowded windward marks and impossible runs were the norm. This was exactly what I'd been hoping for and gave me a good indication of where I was.
I was fractionally off the boat speed pace upwind but it was good enough to round most windward marks around (but mostly below) half way. This represented a huge boost for me but unfortunately my lack of pace down the run made it hard to hold my position. over the 3 days I found my racing was improving and the hour long upwind sail home in the fresh southwesterlies were really giving my legs a serious test. Especially against Mark 'I will out hike you at all costs' Powell. I'd forgotten what it was like to walk down stairs after big Laser sessions and I will freely admit that I was basicly in pieces. However, with 2 and a bit weeks solid training under my belt. I felt like things were going in the right direction and was sort of looking forward to S4G with some optimism.
Next time.... How did it Go?
In the mean time, I thought I could just bring this post up to date with how preparations for the worlds have been going. An old sailing friend once said to me after I had suffered an appalling worlds in America that 'you cant do a worlds without doing a full months worth of sailing before hand'. So, about 3 weeks ago now I started sailing about 5-6 days a week on top of my usual fitness regime. Most of these sessions lasted between 2 and 3 hours and were based out of Beer with Mr Cornish. Most sessions consisted of at least an hours worth of sailing round 2 marks to sharpen up my mark roundings. The most critical part of this is to make sure every type of approach and exit is covered and all controls are adjusted every time. This encourages the 'autopilot' type execution of these manouvres. The rest of the time was spent doing boat speed work on all points of sail. In hiking conditions. Upwind speed runs typically lasted 20 mins to replicate the length of a worlds beat. These sessions proved very successful and led into the next step.
I turned up at Weymouth to start training for Sail for Gold on the Thursday before it was due to start. By this time I had aleady sailed on 8 out of the last 10 days with 4 days since my last break. With Ben unable to get out, I had arranged to sail with A very good laser helm by the name of Mark Powell. He was keen to get some big days in so we hit the water wfor 4 hours on each of thurday and Friday and then a further 3 on Saturday. It was pretty breezy and lots of the competitors from around the world were now on the water to start their own prep for S4G. It had been a while since I'd sailed against this standard of opposition but it was the best type of training you can have. Typically a long windward leeward would be set with one boat getting everyone away in a gate start. 60 odd boats of fairly even speed don't tend to get seperated by much over medium distances so crowded windward marks and impossible runs were the norm. This was exactly what I'd been hoping for and gave me a good indication of where I was.
I was fractionally off the boat speed pace upwind but it was good enough to round most windward marks around (but mostly below) half way. This represented a huge boost for me but unfortunately my lack of pace down the run made it hard to hold my position. over the 3 days I found my racing was improving and the hour long upwind sail home in the fresh southwesterlies were really giving my legs a serious test. Especially against Mark 'I will out hike you at all costs' Powell. I'd forgotten what it was like to walk down stairs after big Laser sessions and I will freely admit that I was basicly in pieces. However, with 2 and a bit weeks solid training under my belt. I felt like things were going in the right direction and was sort of looking forward to S4G with some optimism.
Next time.... How did it Go?
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