Friday, September 24, 2010

Good Day on the water

After a couple days of seemingly endless frustration, yesterday we were able to make the most of the wavy and windy conditions- and without any breakdowns! It was a another beautiful day in Santa Cruz with the standard Northwesterly filling in around midday. We were able to make some good headway in the difficult conditions of 15-20+knots, combined with a groundswell mixed with the wind swell.

The drill of sailing round a windward leeward course for the day was simple in theory, but provides much challenges in practice! The breeze isn't the biggest problem in this kind of sailing, its the massive waves. With these big waves rolling through the courses, challenges can be met both in the upwind and downwind. Upwind, keeping the boat level through the troughs and peaks of the seas, as well as keeping yourself balanced on the wing as you get some air are the main concerns. Not surprinsingly, bearaways prove to be little more difficult in this stuff as well because of the concern of plowing into the backside of wave and pitch poling in the most powered up angle to the breeze! On the downwinds, keeping the bow out of the upcoming waves is priority number one as one slipup and your over! Also, when it comes to gybing, timing is essential because you dont want to be crossing the boat as the bow stuffs into a wave.

So, all in all, a much better day. We were able to identify some points to work on, and we also tried some new things. One particularly was Zander trimming the mainsheet for the bearaways instead of me. We found this to be beneficial as he has more ability to trim in and out through the larger sea state- will work more with this today.

Anyways, off to another day of practice. Hopefully another good day!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Santa Cruz Training

Well we have been in Santa Cruz for a week now, after crossing the country in 45 hours, with the boat ontop of the car. The training so far has been frustrating because we have been dealing with breakdowns in the harsh, breezy Santa Cruz conditions. We have broken a jib halyard, 2 sets of vang arms, 1 vang lever and destroyed a jib. The jib was destroyed as I went through it on a failed bear away attempt. Part of the reason for the trouble bearing away was that the vang lever had bent and we couldn't release enough leach tension and hence the boat was too powered up to bear away. It was scary as I was launched through the air heading towards the jib, it was all I could do to avoid the rail! Jesse quickly followed me through the front of the jib and we knew the sail was done. The whole bottom panel had a hole the size of me, oh well. Live and learn. A) Go on in when you notice vang lever is starting to bend and B)Stay south of Steamer Lane, where it is more protected. We always seem to learn everything the hard way in this boat! It must be noted that all three boats that day, came into the harbor under jib alone, so it was not just us having issues with the strong wind and breeze!

Hopefully today will be more productive for us and we can log some quality hours in the wind machine outside the harbor.

Pictures when we can find a cable to upload our photos.

We have been graciously hosted by the Lezin's (parents of Ben) and couldn't more stoked on our housing. Thanks guys for being so welcoming and taking us in!

-Zander

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Front Page and Info Session Tonight!


Shot by Scott Tucker for upcoming Bermudian Magazine Article, Sept 2010

Big Day for us! Front page on the Bermuda Sun and our 1st Info Session at RBYC this evening at 6pm. We have a fun, informative power point lined up, hope people enjoy. See you there!

Check article at:
http://bermudasun.bm/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=121&ArticleID=47956

We head to the States tomorrow. We leave for our drive across California early next week, with our boat ontop. Training camp starts on the 17th in Santa Cruz. We will be sailing with the top American teams and their world class coach; we are excited to be included!

-Zander

Monday, September 6, 2010

BODA Clinic with de 'youts'

We just finished a clinic for the new crop of Bermuda’s sailors this past weekend. Unfortunately Tropical Storm Fiona’s close pass to the island Saturday saw us cancel the first of the two-day clinic, but we were able to make up for it with a couple good sessions on Sunday. There were definitely lots of potential in these youngsters, and not one over 12 years old! On top of that, the group was evenly mixed between boys and girls providing a well balanced pod. We hope this group sticks together and continues to progress together in the coming years. Always to nice to give back to the next generation of Bermudian sailors!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Cross Training and Recharging



Back home for some R&R after a full summer of 49er sailing, in between coaching gigs, I was able to go surfing and get some fun waves at home - a rarity indeed. I feel surfing is great cross training for 49er sailing because it is an amazing upper body workout and it is great for your balance. Both balance and upper body strength are essential to crewing in a 49er. The other great thing about surfing is its ability to clear your head and revitalize you, something I needed after 3 windy, cold weeks in Weymouth. Now I am all fired up on training in California in a few weeks (we start the 17th hopefully). Thought I would share this with you because this cross training is more interesting than my normal routine in the gym.
-Zander