Getting Our Boatspeed Back!
Written by Nic Asher | 16 June 2010
In Feb and March we put a lot of hours on the water out in Palma, Majorca with the Mens 470 Squad. This was very good training, but still something was not quite correct with the feel and speed of the boat in full power conditions.
In April we had two regattas to check in with the rest of the 470 fleet to see how we were going. The first event was the 470 Spring Cup, held in Marseille. This was a great event, and we were sailing very well.
The next event was the 4th round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Hyeres, France. This was a disappointing event for us as we felt we were sailing really well, but our boat speed was not great. We ended up 16th overall, not a disaster but we felt with the way we were sailing we should have been on the podium.
At the start of May our new boat arrived from New Zealand. This has kindly been bought by Williams Lea, through Richard Dell. We also had a long sit down and thought about what we could do to improve the feel and speed of the boat. So with a few changes made, we headed down to Weymouth to train with the rest of the 470 squad. We sailed out on the first day and immediately felt a difference. It was incredible how different it felt. The relationship between the mast stiffness and centreboard stiffness is crucial. We changed our rig last year, and the boat has not quite felt right since. So we changed the centreboard we were using, and now I think we have found a good combination. We had a great week in Weymouth, not losing any of the training races.
We headed out to Medemblik, Holland for the 5th round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup with new found boatspeed and confidence. The regatta started very well for us with a 1,2,4 on the first day. We soon found ourselves heading into the last day with a 20 point lead going into the final two fleet races.
Day 3 of the Delta Lloyd Regatta 2010: A conservative day was needed to keep a nice points margin going into the medal race. However things did not quite go to plan! We picked up a disqualification for a premature start in the first race of the day. This dropped us to second overall going into the last fleet race. However we bounced back with a fifth to see us back in pole position with a margin of seven points over the Aussies going into the final 10 boat medal race decider.
Medal Race: The first two laps of the medal race were very comfortable. We had a good start and sailed round next to the Aussies pair. However on the third lap, a big rain cloud came over and the wind went whacky and dropped. We were overtaken by two boats, which meant the Aussies were now in Gold medal position! However down the last leg of the race we managed to overtake 2 boats and finish 1 position behind the Aussies, winning the gold medal!
It is so nice to have our boatspeed edge back, as we sail the boat better than the majority of poeple, its gets a little disheartening when they go faster!
From Medemblik we drove the boat to Scheveningen on the dutch coast, the venue for our World Championships 12th-18th July. We have just returned from there having completed a week training camp. Everything went well, the conditions are very similar to Lowestoft.
We have another camp 22nd-28th June, then we go back out on the 7th July for the World Champs.Our goal for the event is a medal, to secure our top level of funding for the next 2 years and to put as in the best position for Olympic selection next year.
Hopefully my next update will be a happy one!
Thank you for your support