The quote of the week this week was an old favourite – racing is training without consequences.
I have started getting my groove back in the past two weeks, spending most days on the water. Tuesday and Wednesday I trained on the Spiral; crews were sparse this week due to the exam period in Canberra. Tuesday’s session with the HPS was an excellent continuation of my own training the week prior; trigger pulls and downwind gybes. I sailed really well in this session, great to know that my work is starting to pay off. There is still plenty of work to be done, and a to do list, including tightening up my downwind gybing angles, and nailing my starts at the boat as well as I can nail them from middle to pin. Boat starts are on for tomorrow’s session! Nothing better than trying everything and knowing you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
By Wednesday I had spent seven of the last eight days on the water, and was well overdue for a rest. I probably should have listened to my body, but found myself on the water yet again. The breeze was incredibly patchy, and glassy in some places for the twilight race. The highlight was beating a number of boats around the course that were well under my yardstick, due to the flukiness of the course, and of course being boarded by a few Magic 25 sailors. Video shall appear in my blooper reel; coming soon!
Speaking of video, I have been working on my November footage so far over the past week, which has been a good excuse to review my GoPro videos over and over and over again! Excellent to see the small improvements on film, as well as what I need to work on. I have started adding some images from my Match Racing days to my multimedia, and will continue to add pics over the next week so keep an eye out.
The weekend was spent sailing on the NS14 with Chris in Sydney. Saturday at Connells Point in a nice little Nor’Easter, my goodness do I miss the seabreeze, and even the salt. I even got a steer, which was great. Best way to appreciate and improve on the boat is to swap around and get an understanding of the other roles on the boat. I find this helps so much when working on boat handling! Sunday we were at the Nationals venue, Cronulla for training with the Davidsons – who are sailing smart and fast! The tweaking over the week paid off for us. We managed to find the speed we had been lacking in the low wind range. Still a bit of work to do on our height, but the crew work is improving all the time. It is really interesting to be crewing for yet another skipper, the dynamics are always different with the processes much the same. Especially coming off the back of the Tasar Worlds, most of what we have to work on is communication. I think I can safely say that Chris and I are enjoying the sailing together more every time we get out on the water, which is pretty awesome.
After a well earned rest and some family time today, it all starts again tomorrow with HPS, Twilight on Wednesday, hopefully a 470 sail on Thursday and/or Friday before getting back in the NS again on Saturday and Sunday, in Canberra this time. After the day off today I am itching to get back on the helm tomorrow! I am definitely addicted to training at the moment, which as some have said to me this week is definitely not a bad thing with everything that I want to achieve. The best part is that training breaks the phases into even smaller chunks, with no pressure. No consequences!
Hope all is going well for those training in Perth for the ISAF Worlds, and hope to see a few others on the water in Canberra over the next week!
