April/May...

Well I have hardly stopped traveling since the end of the ESS Qingdao in April. We had a good debrief of the event, hopefully we have ironed out some mistakes and will be in a strong place going into the next event in Istanbul. I had a day at home with Nicky before picking up a RYA Van and Rib and heading out to Eurocat regatta in Carnac. I was coaching the NYS including our ISAF reprentatives at this years Youth Worlds sailed in SL16’s. The guys are normally coached by Ed Barney my old Tornado crew, so it was of no surprise that they were a really focused professional bunch. They normally race in spitfires so one of the big goals was to learn as much about the boat as possible, which with heaps of wind on 3 of the days allowed us plenty of time for various bits of kit testing ashore which threw up afew useful facts for the guys ahead of the Worlds. The team did great, finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th with our other team suffering from some comings together with other classes in the 252 boat event, which adversely affected there finish! It was great to see whats going on in Cat land early in the season, I must say the Phantom and Cirrus R, F18’s really look like great boats, it will be interesting to see which make has the advantage come the worlds…. Following on from Eurocat, I quite literally got onto a ferry home, unloaded a boat and the headed for the next ferry to WOrkum, Holland where I just returned from 4 days coaching GBR youth Laser team. I love events in Holland, they are always well organized and speak impeccable English! This event was no exception, although with NE winds blowing it was definitely cold! The guys all improved each day, an d I think now know what they need to do to become successful Laser sailors! So I returned home on bank holiday Monday, had a couple of big gym sessions Monday and Tuesday, dinner with Nicky and some friends, Cut the grass and had a hair cut! As im now back on a plane to San Francisco, to sail an extreme 40 in the bay before heading down to Venice again to sail an Extreme 40. Very busy time at the moment, but coaching and sailing with different people each trip is keeping it fun and interesting, although looking forward to a few weeks back home to recharge the batteries ahead of Istanbul ESS leg 3.