Exams almost over - preparations for the summer

With Ed having finished his summer university exams and myself within a fortnight of finishing my A-levels, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and can't wait to get racing again on the international circuit. Unfortunately with Sail For Gold overlapping with some of my exams we were not able to do the event down in Weymouth this week but instead watch with interest at the Olympic selection battle!

Ed is spending some time prepping the boat with new ropes/blocks ready for the European championships in a months time. The European championships are in Helsinki in Finland, the event website is http://www.49ereuropeans.org/ and it should be a great event for us to learn from and continue to progress up the international ladder. We then head on to the 49er Youth world championships which is the first time the event is being run, with a maximum age of 22. We hope to finish in the medals in this event as we feel like we are amongst the best of the people in this age category in the world in the 49er, despite the fact that we will still both be only 18 at this event.

To see the ropes we use on the 49er visit http://www.englishbraids.co.uk/.

Also, check my Facebook for the latest training videos!

All the best,

James

Princess Sofia Regatta

Ed has been ill recently with Glandular fever. This has been a large setback for the team as we have not been able to train since mid February. I Made the late decision to sail with another crew for The Princess Sofia Regatta that took place 2-8th April. I wanted to do the event with someone that I thought I could learn a lot from, namely, Simon Hiscocks (Simon won Olympic silver in Sydney and Olympic Bronze in Athens crewing the 49er so isn't short of a bit of knowledge). I found the event incredibly useful and sailing with Simon was a great opportunity.

We both hope that we can get training again this week. However Ed's recovery has been relatively slow with the possibility of the illness returning if we go in too hard.

All the best,

James

Palamos Review

Hi everyone, just a quick update and review of our performance at the Palamos Christmas Regatta in Spain.

18 European 49ers were at this event, four of which were Brits.

We didn't let ourselves get disheartened by a slightly disapointing first day. We felt we had actually sailed relitively well but lacked the finishing touch. This may have been partly because it always takes us a while to get back on racing form with such long gaps between events.

Racing was cancelled on day 2 due to lack of wind. The breeze had switch round to the south and it had gone from close to freezing to 15 degrees c in one day! Shirts off football on the beach resulted in a good few minor injuries.....Still felt good to be doing this on the 19th of December!

Day three and we showed some form over 5 races. We were on the water for close to 5 hours making it an extremely tiring day. We got 3 3rds, a bullet and a 6th shooting us up the overall results. We were easily the most consistantly performing boat of the day and we felt we had sailed well in quite challanging conditions at times.

Day four brought large swell and a stronger southerly breeze. We didn't sail as well as the previous day but came out of the day with some great positives to move forward on. By the end of the day we were lying 5th overall but extremely close to 2nd.

Medal race day and we are keen to gain as much experience in this situation as possible. We are 19 points clear of 6th and therefore have nothing to loose. At the last windward mark of the race we are second and choose to gybe hoist with the leader. It was the long gybe and seemed the sensible option in the extremely light conditions. Unfortunately the wind filled in on the right looking downwind comprehensively meaning we finished the race in 5th place with our close rivals both just ahead meaning we stayed were we were overall.

So 5th overall in an international regatta and first Brit (unfortunately all the best Brits were not here), but still it was good to get some racing practice and give us some clear goals before the 2011 season.

Our next event is Palma at the end of March in which we hope to improve from last year's result of 41st. Our support from sponsors Ocean Air Blinds, RS Racing and English Braids allows us to compete at this level and concentrate solely on performance (and passing a few exams).

All the best and a Happy New Year,

James&Ed

Sail For Gold Review

The first race went as badly as it could have done with a black flag. However the first day ended well with a 10th. A result like this in the strong winds is great with the limited training hours that we have been able to have so far.
Day three for our flight was blown off despite a short sail before it was abandoned which was somewhat good fun.
The third day will always be one to remember. It was a steady 10-14 knots and swell coming into weymouth bay round Portland bill. On the first beat of the first race we started averagely and rounded the windward mark in pretty much last place, we pulled up slightly to 22nd position. We had overstood the windward mark because we had underestimated the tide sweeping us from right to left looking up the racecourse. For the rest of the day we were determined to use the tide to our advantage rather than loose out again. We did this very well showing our good boatspeed and handling finishing with two 10ths. These are very good 'gold fleet standard' results. We can explain the results being 10ths rather than top 5's because of our inability on the starts to 'punch out'; from the boats around us. None the less these were conditions where you had to do the basics very well and we showed we could sail to a gold fleet standard.

We missed gold fleet by a slim 9 points that we can hope to close by the next grade 1 event. This was a very high standard event with all the olympians attending at the olympic venue.

We sailed a distinctly average silver fleet regatta and finished in 11th place putting us 36th overall out of the 59 entered boats.

For results and photos exc please visit http://www.skandiasailforgoldregatta.co.uk/

James & Ed

New Boat 1187

After deciding that investing in a brand new boat was a crucial step in our improvement plans, we took the long trip up to newcastle and back to collect the boat. We spent a good few days race-preparing the boat. This was greatly helped by English Braids for supplying all the best racing ropes that are of the very high quality we need to race with.

We took 1187 out for the first time at Weymouth in the week before sail4gold. It felt great and we couldn't wait to get her racing.

European Championships Report

Dissapointing but essentially positive would be the best way to sum it up.

The first race of qualification started with a 6th in a steady light breeze. Our boatspeed was one of the best in the fleet and on the odd occasion when we do everything else right, we have the opportunity to make it count. Lack of experience on the startline of race 2 leaves us without a gap to leeward. It wasn't that we didn't know that this was very important, more that we didn't react fast enough or have the time to re-position.

Going into the last day of qualification, we should have been lying comfortably half way down silver fleet (35- 40th probably) had it not been for a German protest. We were disqualified unfairly because we were not aware of the fact that we were being protested even though the noticeboard was checked with 10 minutes to go until the time-limit. Again lack of experience and attention to detail meant that we had it all on as our 2nd best result (10th) is now replaced with a DSQ.

Windy and wavy and our boathandling was holding up well rounding the last windward mark of the first race in around 12th. A large wave on the last few meters to the finish resulted in a capsize whilst trying to lay the finish line. 10 boats stream past us. Average next race, miss silver fleet overall by 2 points.

Absolutely gutted and feeling fairly hard done by, we focus on the final series and win confidently by a good 15 points.

So much to take from the event, it is one that would be easy to forget but we are both aware of the importance of taking the learning points from it. The new English Braids ropes held up significantly better than the previous rope which is a major positive.

Ready and rearing to go for training in weymouth in the build up to Sail For Gold.

Summer Schedule

1. 49er European Championships, Sopot, Poland. 1-11th July
2. Olympic Development Squad camp, WPNSA, England. 19-23rd July
3. ODS camp, WPNSA, England 27-29th July
4. Sail For Gold, WPNSA, England 9-15th August