Coach is in the House

Jen here,

Our coach, Dave Hughes, arrived yesterday evening and so we've been busy getting the coach boat and his logistics sorted.  Today we and the three other teams that we're working with for the worlds spent the day re-tuning our rigs and doing more general boat work.  Fortunately, Dave was able to guide us through some of the remaining rigging problems that we've been experiencing with our boat and so we're keen to get back on the water tomorrow morning with our boat in better shape.
We've got a four boat training group for this regatta. There are two Canadian teams from Halifax- Teddy and Jono in the men's fleet and Dana and Karen in the women's.  We're also working with Barry and his crew, Thomas, who we bought our boat from. While we've been in Den Hague for nearly two weeks now, the other teams have just arrived and so it's nice to have our group together for the event, as well as our coach!
Tomorrow the measurement process begins and competitors start getting their equipment checked for the event.  While some sports grapple with doping issues, the main issue in sailing is whether or not your equipment is legal.  Boats are weighed to ensure that they're not too light, sails are checked for measurement stamps, rudders, centreboards, masts, and booms are all measured for length and angles and to make sure that sails can't be pulled up too high or to far out on the outhaul.  This is all something that we don't really deal with in Canada, especially with strict one design boats like lasers or 29ers.  It will be very impressive seeing all these boats go through measurement...especially now that there are 210 teams registered for the Worlds.  Every day new teams are showing up and setting up their boats.  The jam packed boat park just keeps getting more and more tightly packed.  To make matters more interesting, the harbour master has scheduled all of the bricks that pave our road to be re-laid.  This is absolutely hilarious as every few minutes a large tractor rolls down the thoroughfare amongst all of the 470's and nearly clips off a boat's rudder.  You see a spandex clad sailor running to create a human shield from the tractor in order protect his or her beloved rudder while trying to finish applying sunscreen to his face.

Jen