ESS 1: Muscat, Oman

So the final boat checks and practice sail happened this evening, we are now back at the hotel looking forward to the start of racing tomorrow!
I have been in Oman since the 4th of febuary, firstly boatworking, followed by a good training period down the coast at Mussanah, but am now really excited about finally starting racing for real!
We have a new team for this season, Ian Williams continues as skipper and helm, and i remain on jib/kite trim. New to the team are Mark Bonkley on mainsheet, Adam Piggot on bow and Mark Ivey coming in with a change to the rules as our 5th man as tactician. The training in Mussanah went well for us, nailing the crew work, and getting the best out of the extra pair of hands onboard.
The racing starts here at 2pm local time (10am GMT), and all results and from wednesday live video should be available at www.extremesailingseries.com.

Hopefully we will kick the season off with a great regatta!

Happy 2012...!

WEll 2012 is upon us, i am sure i am everyone like me, will be looking forward to the 2012 Olympics as one of the sporting highlights of the year. I cant wait to watch the sailing with so many friends involved.
The year looks exciting for me on the sailing front, ill be racing on GAC Pindar again in the extreme sailing series, i really enjoyed crewing last year, and with a strong team lineup to be confirmed soon im hopeful of a great season with Ian Williams and co.
So I kicked off my January training with a 10K with a kick, called Brutal10.co.uk, the run was on Longmoor army base in the south downs, the above picture gives a impression of the tunnel and water features much of the run went through! 6 friends did the run which was great fun if exhausting! The rest of the month has plenty of gym time for me, whilst i continue to work with both my squad of Feva, Oppy and laser sailors over the weekends...

ESS Singapore

The final of the Extreme Sailing Series, finished on Sunday. Luna Rosa sailed an immaculate event to win the final act and claim the overall title for the year. Groupe Edmond de Rothchild finished a frustrating second overall for the 3rd season running, with Emirates team New Zealand in 3rd.
Singapore was a frustrating regatta for team GAC Pindar, while we felt we sailed well around the race track, we were not starting well which in a short 8 to 12 minute race is all important. Considering this we were quite encouraged by our racing with another new team for this event. The team which i joined in Act 4, ended the season in 9th Place Overall in a top quality field of 11. All in all a good effort for what was always going to be a "learning" year for newly crowned 2011 World Match race champion helm Ian Williams.
Personally it has been a very enjoyable season, and Like Ian, a big learning oppurtunity in a new role within the crew which I have really enjoyed.

Final ESS Singapore....

Two days into the five day event and we are in 8th place out of the fleet of ten, but the points as always are really tight, so looking forward to hopefully moving up the leader board...
Check out the cool shot of us hull flying in front of the city, in the early evening light.

A great Final 2011 Feva Squad weekend

A really productive weekends coaching with the Feva Class National Squad, we prioritised gust response sailing and windy boat handling over the two days. The forecast had been for upto 30 knts of winds, which fortunately we didnt get, but we were tested with 20 knt gust on the saturday. Every body improved over the two days, in particular our straight line upwind speed by working harder, talking more and being proactive with there technique.....

Next up for me is the final Extreme Sailing Series in Singapore, follow me and team GAC Pindar at: www.extremesailingseries.com

UKLA 4.7 Training Datchet water

28 Sailors turned up to Datchet water, for the second UKLA 4.7 Class training, despite severe weather warnings for much of the UK! The training has a different racing theme for each of the 5 weekends culminating with a coach supported race weekend, at the ESSO championships.
Andrew was joined by assistant coaches Clare Chapple and Matt Goodbourn, who together focused the training around the main theme of tactics and boathandling around Mark roundings, but with winds touching 25 knts at points, windy weather boathandling was a big part of the training too!
With a building forecast on Saturday, the sailors hit the water straight away to take advantage of the lighter conditions first thing. The sailors were put through there paces on tight courses designed to put the pressure on there markroundings, and as the wind increased towards 25 knts before lunch time, all types of boathandling was put to the test. Star performer of the morning was Cameron who seemed to love the heavy winds, but everyone improved massively by pushing themselves in the strong conditions. The sailors then together broke down the skills required for a good windward and leeward mark rounding over the lunch debrief, before heading back out for the afternoon to put there ideas into practice. The afternoon, consisted of more around the course exercises with 2 sailors breaking off with 1 coach for some specific 1 on 2 coaching.

Sunday dawned with a consistent 22knts on the water, but with big gusts coming across the lake. The sailors and coaches therefore decided to use the morning for theory and then having a early lunch and long afternoon session on the water. A mixture of topics were covered including some rules of thumb wind strategy, correct setup and technique for different wind strengths and a great session from Clare and Matt on what the sail controls actually do to a rigged 4.7 sail inside the classroom…..
The afternoon was very productive with a mixture of races and exercises using the length of the lake, with the sailors split into two groups. Probably the biggest improver of the afternoon was Melissa, who really improved her upwind sailing after starting to use the sail controls properly to depower her sail.

The 3rd Open 4.7 training weekend on the 10th and 11th of December, is open to any UKLA member, and will focus on Boatspeed and starting skills across the weekend.

4th place for GAC PIndar in Almeria!

Well the light winds of france followed the tour to spain.... Almeria went very well for the team, leading at the halfway stage and finally finishing in 4th overall.
The racing was a mix of stadium racing inside the port and outside windward leeward style courses. With Mischa back on mainsheet, myself in my favoured crewing role of trim we were joined by Brad on the bow. Brad had sailed the first event of the season where the boat struggled to perform, so was as delighted as the rest of us to hold the lead after day 3. We lost count of how many races we sailed, but in the generallly downwind/reaching starts, we had really found a strength, great starts made boat speed and tactics easy and we moved from around 7th to 1st in one day.
Day 4 was not so good for us, An OCS and some boathanding errors in the course racing outside meant a bad start to the day, which proved to be one of the longest in the series history with around ten races sailed over a 6 hour period on the water.... Suffice to say we did not spend much time debriefing the day, instead eating then hitting the hay!
So going into the last day we had slipped back to 8th overall, but with very tight points between all of the teams. We again started with w/l course racing outside. We started brilliantly with 2 firsts and a second on the offshore race course. Returning inside the port again, for the growing crowds, the format again switched back to downwind starts. We sailed really well with a 7,3,10,2,4 scoreline giving us a 2 points win over Groupe edmond de rothchild and 4th place overall.
The tour now moves to Singapore for the conclusion to the 2011 series, and we go there with a bit of belief that we can get onto the podium for the last event which would be a great way to end the year.