Back into the Swing of Things

After a much needed and appreciated break from training over the holidays we have hoped right back into our training routine. We have gotten five days of sailing in since returning to Miami on the 5th and have seen a wide range of conditions from 5-22knots both in steady and shifty breezes.

The training has been quite constructive as we were able to really focus on speed with a few of our training partners. We spent a couple hours each day entirely working towards speed and feel in a much better spot in that department. On another positive note, our boat handling has continued to improve. Those countless days of tirelessly practicing our tacks and gybes this Fall are certainly paying off! Having the tacks and gybes become more intuitive and second nature has created more time to think about tactics/speed, which is undoubtedly very good.

Though this week has not been entirely convivial as we had a shortcoming with our mast. Our mast track, which we had problems with in December, broke again leaving us unable to sail one afternoon….so we bought a new mast (bank account took a hit). Our reasoning- we have put way too much time and effort (70 days since last Grade 1 Event) into this to run the risk of our old mast breaking during OCR. The other thing with that old rig was that it was the 1st generation of the carbon rig and has structural differences to the current crop of carbon rigs. Getting this new rig, allows us to eliminate one more variable as we match up our gear to the competition (who all seem to be getting new boats!).

So, with the new rig coming later this week, we are excited to get it rigged and tune it up! We plan on sailing hard for another week and a half before cooling out in the lead up to the first day of OCR on the 24th. Hopefully will get another day or two in with the GO PRO!