Final Round in Cadiz
Written by Dylan Fletcher | 14 March 2011
We have now finished our winter program in Cadiz, it has been a great winter training venue. The only problem is the Spanish Tax, its not a normal type of tax you get in the UK but more of a pikey tax.
Basically expect to get stuff stolen, here is a list of the things stolen over the 5 camps; Iphone, 2 trolley wheels, a lot of tie down rope, Longboard, pump and finally some old sailing boots. But then they did leave our wetsuits but that’s not surprising the way they smell.
So the last camp was a short stint with 4 days sailing and a day to pack up everything. It was great to get 3 days of breezy sailing in out of the 4, especially a couple of very windy days. The windy days had the wind coming from the SE called the ‘Levante’ that comes up from Tarifa. Its great conditions, flat water up by the beach or nasty chop down the bay so you get a bit of everything. We had a few swims, but it was really good to get some maintenance boat handling in and see where we were. Comparing the video to back before the winter you can really see how much we have improved.
Other than the sailing we had quite a bit of boat work to get done to get the boat ready for our next training camp in Palma. Along with a few broken bits from the very windy day, which included a pole from one of our pitchpoles. It always amazes me how much time we can spend doing boat work, or how much rope we go through. Especially jib sheet rope, they last 1 week. Which means we go through over 25 jib sheets a year and over 100m of rope. Good job Marlow Ropes give us good deal!
Anyway back to the camp, after the last session on the water, which was finished with a race. After all the training we needed a Cadiz champion, so everything on the line, 1 race, first helm to stand on the slipway won. It was tense, all 3 boats had a good start but the wind was left and normally the left was good on the way in with the harbor wall. We tacked and took the lefty, while Draper and the Austrian headed out left. The wind started to clock right and we took the shift early tacking back on to starboard.
We were looking good, they came back at us when the got to the wall but we sailed off to be the Cadiz Champions 2011. Then we had to pack up for Palma, it was touch and go whether or not it was going to rain but luckily the rain stayed away until we had finished packing up. After the result at the regatta with the training group 1-2, Coach Harv had volunteered to drive the Van, 2 49er and Rib to Palma for us. Well with a bit of arm twisting anyway…
So now we are back home getting some jobs done and spending plenty of time in the gym, the boats are in Palma ready for us to go out on Thursday for a full Skandia Team GBR 49er Performance squad camp. Looking forward to getting the whole group together and find out how our winter training has gone.
Dylan