Medal racing, yew!
After our World championships both Nik and I took what was a very well deserved rest. We spent our time mostly at home familiarising our sevels with what our families looked like, having been away so much over the winter it really was lovely to spend some time at home. Inevitably time at home is a funny one, sitting still and relaxing is really my forte, so my time was mostly filled with helping the family business, and when i got a hour or so jumping on my kite board for a quick blast. Alongside that, we also had the small issue of preparing another boat to take to europe. Because of the logistics involved in shipping all the american stuff home, it meant that 'Swifty' wasn't going to make it back in time for the start of the season on this side of the pond. That meant it was time to dust off good old 'Peggy Sue' and give her a bit of TLC in the workshop.
After dad had finally kicked me out the workshop
Following a few days of Dad complaining that I had taken up the entire workshop space we were back in action. As ever with the european season, it all starts in Palma, on this occasion Nikki had arranged to drive the boats down. But I needed to prep and load everything at my end before they left. Finally after a good scrub and check over Peggy sue was locked and loaded ready for the trip to europe. At this stage i want to say a huge thankyou to a good friend of mine Maddy, because we took a spare mast with us to the worlds in america, we were left mastless back in the UK. Maddy has very generously lent us hers for the time being, which we cant thank her enough for! Cheers Mad Dog!
That pretty much takes us up to now, I flew into Palma a few days ago, and since then we have put the boat together and had a couple of good training days on the water. Like every year before the main palma regatta at the end of the month, there is a training regatta as well. For the next 3 days we will be competing in that, which is a great way to get back into the swing of things after our little break. Check back soon to see how that all pans out.
Lastly and probably most notably, you may have seen or heard some pretty important announcements this week with regards to the 2016 Olympic team selection. I want to start this by saying a huge congratulation to Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves for being selected to represent GB in the Nacra 17 Class, Ben and Nic have done a fantastic job this year and are very worthy of the honour. Both Nik and I wish you all the best and will help where we can to assist in the final run up to the games.
This news means that unfortunately for us the Rio campaign is now over, and you would probably think that would mean that we are really downbeat. However on the contrary, having moved forward so much in the last 6 months to our top 10 result in the Olympic year world championships Nik and I are more rallied than ever. For those of you that dont know the 2020 games is in Japan, Tokyo, and Nik and I are already working on our 'お願いします's and our 'ありがとうございました's (pleases and thankyous for those not fluent in japanese - all credit to google translate)
Looks awesome
On a serious note, Nik and I are now in a perfect position to launch a full and structured assault on our 2020 campaign, and we honestly cant wait to get going. After what can only be described as a 'messy' 2016 cycle with crew changes, support struggles and a number of tricky points. We are now in a position where as a team we are very strong, we have great support and based on our performance of late we are most definitely steaming in the right direction. I cant express how much we appreciate all of the support we have received up until now, and would love it if you guys would continue following on the next exciting step.
For now, the wind is just filling in, and the sun is shining here in Palma. So we are off on the water for some training before the regatta starts later today!
As ever, cheers all.
TP