Saturday, January 2, 2010

New Year's Training Camp

We returned early from our Christmas in Calgary so we could get in some training before going back to work. We had a variety of conditions to deal with during our New Year's training camp, which kept us on our toes. Wednesday was light to medium wind from the SW, perfect breeze for getting back in the boat after a few weeks. The time off seemed to help, as some of the boat handling issues we had been struggling with before Christmas went more smoothly.

Thursday the breeze picked up out of the SE (winter storm direction) as soon as we got on the water. Training with the lasers was a bit crazy, as we go quite a bit faster in that much breeze and kept having to dodge other boats. We headed back into the bay where there was a bit less wind so we could focus on some boat handling, and then the rudder made a cracking noise. Since we have already sent our race boat down to Miami for the regatta later this month, we were sailing my training boat, which isn't used to being sailed that hard! We had in fact cracked the rudder blade, so we called it a day and went to the gym to do some rowing.

It stormed early Friday morning, and then the wind died off. It left behind some lovely 3-6 foot rolling waves like we rarely get in Cadboro Bay. Light wind and big swell is typical in some parts of the world (San Francisco) so we headed out to train in it. In really light wind the crew (me) sits facing backwards, and rolls the boat through the tacks- note to future crews: pack your gravol! We headed up-wind practicing our tacks on the big waves. Then wind died off and we bobbed around a bit. We headed in and watched some video and debriefed.

Saturday there was no wind, so we went running. Sunday was light to medium from the North, and we managed to get in a good four hour session. When the wind is from the North it is usually only in the bay, we focus on short course work and boathandling. We did some intense short races. With my old boat acting up, it was a challenge to get the spinnaker up, flying, gybed and doused in time to round the bottom mark. I think we finally managed to squeeze it all in on the 15th race or so. It was really good practice repeating the same skills and trying to make them faster every time.

Overall it was an effective training camp. We nailed down the timing on our starts and made some good improvements on our boat handling. We will sail one more weekend in Victoria and then head down to Miami for two regattas. Check back here next week for regular updates on these events.

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