I apologise for the lack of update recently, but rest assured i aim to put everyone back in the picture with some of my forever poor-grammar spattered writing. As a word of warning i have once again be indulging in some of Bill Bryson's finest recently, so in respect the great man i may find myself waffling a little bit.
Adding to the literacy themed introduction, and as a good way to start, it seems sensible to cover the fact that i have begun to contribute towards my first book. I say ’first’ book in a way that suggests there will be more, however i suspect that may not be the case. Some of you avid and exceptionally geeky Cat sailors might have come across an old, what can only be described as Cat sailing bible, by a man with a beard and who was a lot skinner at the time of writing than he is now. Well that is my Dad, and between us we are updating the Cat Sailing Book, besides renewing the back and white photos where the sailing gear is……..hmmm……Traditional, we are trying to bring the book into the modern era, with skills used on the new breeds of Catamaran. Any way over the last couple of weeks we have begun to get the ball rolling on that front, and don’t worry, its a bit more than dad and I sat on front of a word document. By the time any of you see anything, a publisher will have turned our faulted ramblings into a masterpiece. Though thanks to this very blog, you lot all know the truth!
In and around my new authoring skills, I have also been trying to develop my Nacra ones too. Though as I’m sure you are aware, Blighty’s good old weather has been rather, not on side. Its a real kick in the teeth because as I write this it is sunny and calm, but up until last weekend, i have never known such a long sustained period of relentless wind and weather. After such a successful October on the water, i guess it was a little to be expected. Nik and I have done our up most to make the best of it, between the 50knt gusts we have managed a surprising amount of time on the water, and one thing is for sure our breezy sailing has improved a lot. That said there have been a couple of days which were just too windy, we have been using that opportunity to get in the gym and show it what we have. I have moved on a lot which is great, is so nice when you start to see the benefits of training. Over the last few weeks we have once again been working closely with our german friends. Having spent a good chunk of time with the guys now, we all get on so well. Plus given some of the missed sailing days its been great to have another team to go off and enjoy an activity with. I think the most enjoyable non sailing day was a day in the surf, I borrowed a spare surfboard and spent about 3 hours mostly being pinned to the bottom of the ocean by huge dumping waves. When I eventually made it back to shore, I was breathless, bruised, cold, but smiling. Who knew a physical assault from the ocean could be so fun!
Alongside the Nacra sailing, I have also had the phantom in Weymouth, to be honest with all the crazy weather I definitely haven’t sailed it as much as i would have liked, but Jon and I did manage to sail it a couple of times. On one occasion the wind got pretty strong while we were out there, we scored a new top speed just 0.2 shy of 30kts which was a little frustrating to be honest. Alas it has inspired us to get the rest and more next time! Anyway while yachting along at a modest 28kts or so, the foil decided to ventilate, the boat went from 28 to 2kts in roughly a 10th of a second. I managed to stay in my toe loop so just shoulder barged the hull as hard as i could, Jon didn’t manage to stay in his toe loop and so while the boat stopped, Jon continued at 28kts. I remember looking forward and seeing him still attached to his trapeze hanging way out ahead of the boat. Subsequently he came swinging back down the leeward side, and unconsciously decided to use the daggerboard and a crash matt. I think you can imagine who won that coming together, and the size of the bruise.
Last Friday was our final day sailing in the UK this year, from now on for next 3 months we are back and forth to far sunnier climbs. However that did mean some serious organisation over the weekend to make sure everything is in the right place to go off in containers and aeroplanes. We spent the whole of Saturday organising Swifty and her kit to send out to Florida for Miami OCR and the World Championships. Swifty had only just returned from having a bit of TLC from the brilliant Zest Racing. Now she and all her kit is ready to be loaded in the container and shipped across the pond.
Before we meet Swifty for our American adventure, we have a couple of trips on our own. Incredibly I am off to Bermuda on Thursday to race the flying Phantom. It is the last in the Flying Phantom series and given the location of the event I’m sure we will be surrounded by Americas cup sailing royalty on the water. It will be a brilliant opportunity for us to move our foiling forward with the best sailors in the world. Jon and I are so excited to get out there sailing, we haven’t done quite as much as we wanted but we have done everything we can. More info - http://www.phantom-international.com/2015/08/2015-flying-phantom-series-final-act-in-bermuda/
Nikki is also joining us in Bermuda for 2 reasons, firstly she will be a great team support, she knows exactly whats involved in these kind of events and so will be invaluable when this get a bit close or tricky. Secondly she is then in prime position to travel on with me to our next adventure.
Direct from Bermuda Nikki and I are traveling to Rio for an important Nacra event. As i have said before, we are getting to the business end of the olympic cycle now and events are becoming more and more important. There is a Nacra event in rio just before Christmas, Nikki and I and aiming to build on the success of the europeans and all of our winter training to secure a good result before the america trip next year. As you may have read Rio while beautiful is not the easiest of places to sail from. Should be a very interesting couple of weeks in what will be the Olympic waters next year!
So as you can see, it is all go, and I can’t wait. I will be taking lots of pictures and writing as much as i can in the coming weeks. Keep up to date right here!
Cheers all, this is because of you lot!
TP