So, I always seem to be writing these things while on a plane. I think it must be something to do with the oxygen deprived air, or near non existent elbow room that encourages me to get on and ramble. Either that or this is the only time in my life where I am force to sit still for more than 5 minutes at a time. Oxygen quantities, elbow room and stillness aside, it's about time I updated you all on my shenanigans.
Since the Rio charge came to and end, Nikki and I took some well earned time off, and during August we managed to have some great down time catching up with friends and generally enjoying the British summer. I was lucky enough to have a few goes in one of the 2016 foiling a cats, they are absolute machines and it was a great insight into what is likely to come for the Nacra in the new 2020 cycle. Along side thatI spent time helping on the farm - that jobs list is never ending -, seeing those I don't often get to and generally spending as much time in the sea as possible. It was a lovely few weeks off, but It's fair to say I was ready to get back on it by the end of it.
Come September Nikki and I were back, we are in a strange part of the Olympic cycle where many people choose to take some time out after the hecticness of the 2016 charge. So for the most part we have been training and sailing alone. On top of that we currently have a bit of uncertainty with the class as to whether we will be adopting a foiling package or not, despite all of this strangeness Nikki and I are really focused at the moment, we are working hard both on and off the water and trying to get as ahead of the game as possible.
It was great to get back on our own Nacra after spending a lot of time sailing the rio based boats, and after a little time finding all the bits again Swifty was back up and running. Nikki and I have moved up to weymouth for this training period through until Christmas to make the most of it while the weather is still relatively warm. Because we are here for such an extended length of time we have decided to settle in properly and have brought the megatron trailer up to ack as a bit of a base while we are here. She is set in prime position and now stacked with lots of nacra kit and a few toys too!
As I mentioned a little earlier, the class is at a bit of a fork in the road currently. for a number of reasons Nacra are investigating adapting the current boat to a foiling configuration. There are good and bad bits to this, but in my opinion, and fairly selfishly I am desperate to foil. Having had a bit of a taste for it during my Phantom time this year, I know it is they way I want to move my sailing, and the opportunity to do that on an olympic stage would be incredible. Because of my previous foiling experience, Nacra asked Nik and I to go out to holland, sail and provide feed back on the newly developed N17 foiler.
I dont think words can do the experience justice, so here is a bit of a video from the trials. For some context the boat the leeward is C-foil nacra 17 very similar to the original only with the daggerboards a little further forward. The footage was taken on a upwind tuning run and shows the potential in this new foiling platform.
We left Nacra HQ in Holland with huge smiles and a lot of bruises! It really was an eye opener and gave us a great insight into the demands and intricacies involved in what could be the new class.
Now I am on my way back to hopefully a very pleasant sunny weymouth for another training week, we have a National ranking regatta this weekend and while only a small fleet it will be great to do a bit of racing again.
Stand by for some results from the weekend,
Cheers TP