SF Training update

Well this coming week we will be moving base camp across the bay to the St. Francis Yacht Club, as we prep for the St. Francis Fall Dinghy regatta next weekend. It should be a relatively informal regatta (only 5-6 boats), but it will be nice to get back into some real racing and put up our nice sails. Also sailing at the city front increases our odds for good breeze this late in the sea breeze season. It has been great to dedicate all this time to training and being able to focus on a few things. Lately we have been working on acceleration coordination, gybing in big chop, tacking in big chop and managing the spinnaker efficiently at mark roundings. Our main trim is improving upwind and we are starting to hike harder (get lower and straighter) off the wire.

With our training partners, Alex and Val we have done a ton of small course racing and after us crews get knackered from the high intensity cardio work out, we work our way upwind, tacking and crossing intermittently and then bomb downwind trying to land all of our gybes. We have noticed a large difference between the 10yr old boat and the new boat, it is way stiffer and everything is more difficult on the older boat because it is all moving a little. We call it 'Nike Air Cushioning' out on the old wings...

Our sailing on the bay to date has been productive, but has taken a toll on our gear. The short, current (ebb) induced shop is tough to sail in and put lots of pressure on the boat. Since we have been here, we have broken a tiller, ripped the mainsail clew, ripped the bolt rope on the mainsail, broken down the centerboard lining and cracked the centerboard on the trailing edge. The lessons we are learning on boatwork (working with carbon fiber, west system, 5200, etc) are invaluable and the knowledge gained will help keep our campaign as self-sufficient as possible. We are happy to say that the boat is now watertight, after leaking gallons in Santa Cruz.

Our camera has been out of batteries for a while, but now it is reloaded and hopefully we will get some media to you ASAP. We had video of us from our friend's camera, but are still chasing it up. stay tuned.

-Zander