Gametime in MIAMI

The Rolex Olympic Classes Regatta begins tomorrow with a more competitive field than last year’s event (4 from the top ten in the World this year). After a rejuvenating furlough at home being spoiled by our mums cooking, we returned to our winter training grounds in Miami. The sailing has been very productive, especially since the return of our coach, Ramon Oliden, this past Tuesday. We are stoked to have him with us for the event! With Ramon we have been working on the boat, getting it optimized (to Ramon’s world class eye) for the event. We have also been working on clean maneuvers around the race course under Ramon’s eye. The more confidence you get with these, the more you can get your head out of the boat and anticipate the next wind shift/pressure line.

Looking ahead to the week, we have one goal above all in our minds…RACING WELL. After squandering many great opportunities at the Worlds, we realized the need for us to shake off the rust in the fundamentals of racing (after a year and a half mostly focusing on boat handling, this can naturally happen). With our newly-found self-belief in our boat handling and speed, we have been working hard in practice to be on top of our tactics and putting together solid race-long performances. Ramon incessantly saying “head out of the boat, head out of the boat!” has certainly helped our focus (especially Jesse’s) of looking around more, focusing on the big picture.

With a promising breeze forecast for the next week, we are hopeful to put together a good championship as we are feeling ready as ever. Keep posted on the racing!