Its been a little bit since the last post, sorry to everyone. So i’ll do a little recap on whats been happening.
Since OCR we stayed in Miami for a little training with out AUT friends and Team Molly. We sailed from Miami YC (thanks Leandro!) for ocean access which was epic. I forgot how much the ocean outside Miami can teach you. We worked with Bunny on some new sailing techniques and really worked ourselves and the boat had.
After training I had to go home to fulfill my work duties while Stu got to stay. Hans Jensen (#2 crew) filled in for me since his skipper also has other commitments. Stu has been focusing on switching equipment to the super spar program which we decided was a good thing to move towards, being the only goldspar users. So if everything goes to plan Stu should have had enough time with the new main to be familiar with it in Palma.
Post OCR sponsor HARKEN decided to run a “Speedteam Spotlight” on us which is running on the back page of the current issue of Seahorse Magazine. If you dont have that you can check it out here.
While at home I spent my first weekend away at Mammoth Mountains ski resort. I had 3 epic days with lots of fresh snow. Its been a good 3-4 years since i last went snowboarding, but i was amazed at how quick it all came back to me. Ending up having a fantastic time and was so happy to have gone!
Just this past monday i had a appointment to follow up on my ankle with the Olympic Training Center here in San Diego. I ended up spending 2 hours doing therapy and was pretty worked after that. General diagnoses is lots of strength and balance exercises should help, but it looks like im going to get an MRI next tuesday just to take any precautions.
In moth related news, my boat is finally on its way and due to arrive in LA on March 6th. Giving customs a few days i think i should have it by the following wednesday! How exciting!
My first taste of moth sailing was over a year ago in Sydney Harbor. Since then i’ve only dreamt about owning one and being able to fly again. Well owning one can be checked off the list, although it still hasn’t been delivered, but thats another story. Flying again can also be checked off thanks to Brad Funk for letting me use his boat to practice.
I headed out from the US Sailing center with a solid 10-12 knots, and slight chop. I capsized only once before getting out into the bay. As i headed out it seemed to build and it topped off around 16 knots i believe. Immediately i started to encounter my first learning curve. Anticipating the lulls was really difficult and i kept over healing the boat and therefore crashing. After improving my reaction time i started to keep the boat foiling longer through the lulls which made me happy. Second thing i noticed was the mainsheet bridle. It was to low and an extension had been added, but it was nowhere near centerline. I think i was losing a lot of power and after a while my arms were pretty tired.
Next came tacking practice. I started to get the hang of it but still am not timing my turn and weight well enough to have the real good ones, but i understand them a lot better now.
After working for almost an hour upwind i thought it would be a good time to practice downwind. I took it pretty seriously and went for a bear away as if i was rounding a top mark. Quickly i was swimming after a massive pitchpole. I started to slow things down a bit more and at times sailed for quite a long time downwind before wiping out again. After a lot of swimming i finally figured out my rudder had like no lift on it which is why i think the bow was flying so high. I wound the bow down and then took off! I tried a few jibes with no success but also no capsizes, so thats a start. I came back to the harbor exhausted but happy to get some quality sailing time in. 2 1/2 hours it turned out to be!
So today i was even more pumped to get going, but quickly i decided it was maybe a little to windy for me and it was gonna be a sketchy launch with the wind really puffy and offshore. I set about doing some boat work for Brad as a thank you. I replaced the bridle with an adjustable one, gave him a new samson mainsheet, and re-tied the shrouds onto the prodder. The wind never died so i packed up and came home. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit lighter so i can get back to it!
We finished off our great series with a great medal race to finish 2nd overall in the regatta. Our 2nd place finish gave us another 19 points in World Cup points to boost our World ranking to 1st! We now hold a 18 point lead over the 2nd and 3rd place teams which hold an equal 20.
Looking back on the regatta we still have some areas of improvement. Overall we had great starts but in some areas we were still lacking in speed. Moving forward we will focus on our speed with a new mast and sail combo. With ourselves being the only Gold Spar users, its a bit of a liability so we will switch to the gold medal equipment and start to make changes starting there.
In the mean time we will do a little bit of training before heading off to Palma to defend our world cup ranking!
