Ramon Olideen, our Argentine 49er coach was everything we could hoped for and more in our first 6 day training camp in Bermuda from June 7-12. He was very knowledgeable, calm, tough, yet fun at the right time and he knew when to call it a day when we were too exhausted to sail any more. He helped us with all the facets of the boat and sailing it, from the complex rigging and boat work associated with the boat, to showing us the 'go-fast' boat handling techniques (which his Spanish 49er team used to get a Bronze Medal in China and a Gold Medal in Athens) which maximise speed and efficiency. We are still in the infant stages of our 49er sailing endeavour (7 days logged) and will need countless hours to practice, practice, practice, but we have made the all important start and inertia no longer weighs us down!
Nice Press Coverage:
http://www.royalgazette.com/siftology.royalgazette/Article/article.jsp?sectionId=70&articleId=7d965b33003000c
Zander's view on the boat after 2 days of 12-18kts:
My arms are beat after dealing with the big kite (same size as Etchells kite) and I am going to work on my fitness and strength for the next clinic in August. Right now going downwind in breeze feels like a constant arm wrestle with someone much bigger than me and I am always just on the verge of losing the battle. Upwind, the big struggle is keeping the main trimmed perfectly/boat flat and working on the wire to wire tacks, but we are we were getting better at them towards the end of our last session (great way to end the week!).
A few of the lessons learned after sailing these boats in breeze:
-Not possible to take a break on the boat, the boat is too inherently unstable to let your guard down. Take rests standing up and holding on.
-Don't try and get air on charter fishing boat's wake, you will either break your boat or make an ass of yourself or both! (We stomped the landing on Playmate's winward wake, but couldn't pull the bow out of the leeward wake). Sometimes in these boats you have to learn the hard way. But next time we will bear away/depower and luff the kite!
-Constanly replace your spectra, it all gets so loaded up, it needs to be perfect all the time. We broke the jib sheet and vang in 2 days.
-Trust Jesse! So much mutual trust out there (I have the kite and he is driving, both equally powerful forces on the boat) and thats the only way it will work.
All for now,
Zander
Next Training Week is planned for late August in California. This summer Jesse will be doing the BUSA tour representing ICSA and Zander will be running the Jr. Sailing program at NHYC.
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