Freezing temperatures and 30 knots of breeze - GREAT !
Squad points for commitment
Winter Talk 2 - Rules At the Mark
I won the first cream egg J at our rules session with Natalie, the UK National Squad Head Coach - this time concentrating on mark rounding.
It was another interactive session with lots of Q&A and I am looking forward to having more confidence on the race course.
SW Topper Zone Squad Camp 4
This got off to a good start with mum forgetting the food for the squad so we went into Weybiza via Sainsbury’s, not so easy in a motorhome with a boat trailer in tow!!
We had just set up camp in the WPNSA Boat Park when another member of the VR Race Team arrived, Bryony - she forgot the gate code so dad had to let her in and we had time to chat over the weekend. We love the new shiny trailer Bryony.
Our Zone Squad Camp was a joint squad camp with the South Zone so lots of racing involved.
The Olympic and Paralympic classes were also here for their ranking events so WPNSA had lots going on.
Winds were looking good with early teens gusting mid-twenties.
Coach Duncan tasked me with concentrating on starts not results so my focus was on hovering, acceleration and mark rounding.
In the evening 34 of us headed over to the Cove Inn on Portland and had a social evening with lots of food. No puddings as we had birthday cake complete with firework candles for 2 parents who were celebrating their 50th Birthdays.
Sunday started with poor visibility thanks to the mist that had descended overnight. I had a terrible start in one race but managed to work my way back up through the whole fleet finishing 12 so my coach was very pleased with my commitment and hard work.
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| Mixing it with TeamGBR |
SW Traveller Plymouth
South Westerly gusting into the early twenties saw us moved to the Cattewater for safety but still offering a challenging sailing course.
The variable conditions saw some interesting racing and it was good to welcome some new Topper Sailors to the circuit.
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| Nice new sail stickers |
National Series 3 – Queen Mary
I beat National Squad sailors in the last race on Sunday, when I pulled out a 21st place.
we left Somerset at lunchtime on Friday so that we could arrive before the club gates shut at teatime and dad could get my sail numbers from VR.
Once you had climbed the 62 steps from the carpark to the rim of the reservoir on Saturday morning you realised we had a strong breeze as well as freezing cold water to contend with.
Ideally you needed to stay upright and dry but with a forecast of late teens gusting mid-twenties that was actually stronger out on the race course there was plenty of getting wet! I finished 50th in the first race but having capsized and death rolled numerous times I was cold and bruised so headed back to shore, along with quite a few fellow sailors.
By Sunday launch the wind had dropped to early teens, gusting late teens, dropping all the time, as well as being very shifty. This proved a headache for mark layers and competitors alike but I managed to pull 2 good results out of the bag including a 21st which was a great way to finish the weekend.
SW Topper Zone Squad Camp 5
Paignton Sailing Club was the “not so sunny Riviera” for our camp.
We headed out playing follow the rib at full speed with the winds gusting mid-thirties.
There was lots of screaming, laughing and capsizing so “lets go yachting at full speed” turned out to be great fun.
We did a windward leeward course, then a triangle course to practise keeping a flat boat under pressure and in strong conditions.
A relaxed social end to the day with squad lasagne in the club and planning for tomorrow being a spiders web of ideas to be decided upon at the time once the weather conditions were known.
Sunday was as windy and blustery as expected with gusts reaching mid-forties at times.
Keen to repeat yesterday’s sailing at speed we prepared to launch in two groups of six following the morning’s briefing. Perched on the slipway 6 of us were ready to go, marks laid, ribs on the water when the wind picked up even more and Duncan decided making the short dash out of the harbour safely was going to be too tricky so we had to stay ashore L
As if to prove mother nature agreed with that decision, just as Duncan said abandon launching, the wind lifted my boat clear of its trolley and dumped in on the slipway with my centre board skating off down the slipway coming to rest under Millie’s boat. No boat repairs required but some serious wet and dry work is now in order.
Being shore side meant we completed the bleep test.
I took Duncan’s description of the bleep test literally and ran until I could run no more and was slightly unwell. I tried my hardest so that’s fine and I intend to work on this so I can improve my result next time.
The rest of the day was theory setting goals for lots of different sailing situations and then we discussed transitioning. I am still not sure where to go after Toppers but I have quite a while yet and I may look at some of the less obvious choices as well as the popular ones.
