Since the end of October Zennor and I have been flat out, we have been on the water as much as possible, and when we are not sailing, putting together all the admin associated with an Olympic campaign!
After Zennor initially arrived back in Cornwall, we spent a good few weeks putting together a solid foundation of skills for us to build from. What I haven't anticipated, was how quickly Z picked everything up, and before I knew it we were already looking at the subtle refinements to the boat handling, in order to really extract everything we could from all the manoeuvres.
Based on our quick progression, and our thirst for racing, we thought it would be a great opportunity to attend one of the national ranking events at Weymouth, the 2012 Olympic sailing venue. Unfortunately the regatta we decided to attend a lot of the other teams didn't, so there were only a few other boats to race against, however that changed nothing for us and we put everything in to the race weekend. We walked away with a clean sweep, 4 first from 4 races and a the event win! Not bad for our maiden regatta!
On returning to Cornwall and having done some sailing in the more pressurised racing environment, we knew the areas to focus on. Another couple of weeks battling the Cornish elements, and we found our selves back in Weymouth for a Nacra class training weekend, it was great to sail against some other boats and the good news is that we are definitely on the pace! Over the weekend we worked with the coach Rob Wilson, who was very impressed with our performance given the short amount of time Z and I had been in to boat. With some final words from Rob, we again returned to Cornwall.
That takes us up to now, over the last 2 weeks since Weymouth training we have had just perfect sailing weather here in Mylor, Zennor and I have been on the water nearly every day, and things are really starting to click. For 2 days earlier this week, a good sailor and a great friend of mine Richard Glover came down to help us on the water. It was a really fun few days lots of wind and waves which made for great training. Unfortunately it did end with a hole in my head after falling off the back of the boat downwind. Still all fixed now and ready for more sailing.
Here is a little video of some training up until now. Merry Christmas and Enjoy!
Cheers TP
