After 15 days of training and 7 days of racing our first 470 World Championships is complete. It was a long and exhausting regatta and Jen and I had hoped our results would be better. However, we have learned a ton of things we would not otherwise have learned. The 470 fleet is one of the toughest fleets in the world; with the top sailors competing full time. The World Champions in both the men's and women's class have both been competing in the 470 for 12+ years. While Jen and I are both experienced sailors and mature and intelligent individuals, we were probably the youngest team at the event in terms of our sailing partnership. This became apparent in the strong winds, as a small mistake by one of us was not instantly compensated for by the other - a necessary skill to prevent crashing! This will come with time and practice. Our starts and upwinds have improved immensely. We can now get off the line and round the top mark in the midst of the fleet. The next stage is to work on our downwind speed and our maneuvers and get as much practice as possible in strong winds and large waves.
Our next event is Sail For Gold in Weymouth, UK. The event is from the 9-14th of August. We will arrive in Weymouth and begin training on the 1st of August with our training partners Teddy and Jono from Nova Scotia. It is cheaper for us to stay in Europe rather than return to Canada so for the next 1.5 weeks Jen and I are going on separate holidays to re-cooperate and have some time apart.
We would like to thank everyone at home for their support and encouragement. Please feel free to email us as we love hearing the latest news from Canada. We will continue to keep the blog updated over the next few weeks but not as frequently as we have been.
You can check out the results and photos from Worlds at the
event website.
That's an awesome trap(?) picture. You people are insane. That wave looks as though it is going to swallow you up! Have a good break, and good luck in the UK. - WJP
ReplyDelete