Today will be the second and final day of our split weekend group training sessions leading into the Darwin Tasar Nationals with Simon Reffold. Really looking forward to having an external opinion on how we are tracking. Sitting in the theory session at the moment chatting about boat handling and automatic sailing… talking a lot about how Dad and I sail together. Some really great experiences to learn from for my own sailing; very lucky!
The first day was on Saturday 2 June, at Dobroyd Sailing Club. We had five boats out: Hugh Tait and Sophie Holt, Michael Quirk and Maurise Hannaford, Brad Stephens and Clare Woods, Chris Thompson and Deb Apthorp and ourselves. It was not the best day; next to no breeze and rain at times. We made the most of it, and were on the water for almost three hours – practicing tacks, gybes, holding the boat, trigger pulls and a bit of racked up speed. I was really happy with our performance uphill, I think we were the fastest boat on the breeze. While not as happy with my downhill speed I did have a major break through in batten “popping” for both up and downwind – so that made my day completely!
On Sunday 3 June, we headed to Woollahra for an early morning session with Hugh and Sophie. The heavy rain would have been more bearable if there was any breeze… We waited onshore for a few hours, and at our “time limit” we rigged up in the hope the breeze would come in. We managed to get the best breeze of the day – and spent an hour doing mini races in the moorings around at the sea plane base. We got in and packed up just as the rain really started to bucket down, only to see the beginner Tasar group that were meant to be at Dobroyd re-rigging at Woollahra. What a mammoth effort to be that dedicated to improving! Very impressive!
Last weekend I headed south to try and get some training in. Saturday there was zero breeze, which was just as well as Dad was not 100% and we had to head to Cowra. Saturday night we watched my sister perform in the Cowra Eisteddfod Gala Performance, she won the Aria competition a few weeks prior. While I did pause to listen to my sister (I don’t think anyone could not listen to her amazing voice), for the remainder of the performance I was madly tweeting and keeping up with the Sail for Gold happenings via my Blackberry. Hectic to say the least – partly because I wanted to be there and see the action, partly because my limited technology was next to impossible but mostly because the Australian were just sailing so awesomely (yes that is now a word!)! Check out #aussiesailorsrock on Twitter – or my Twitter feed @nic_douglass or at the top right of this page to see how intense it all got! A massive congratulations to the whole Australian Sailing Team including the support crew! So amazing leading into London!
We got two sessions in on Sunday 24 and Monday 25 June working heavily on starting. I had some major epiphanies in terms of triggering that will hopefully help out over today and through all of my sailing!
Right! Just got the word to get out on the water!
Enjoy your weekend!
