'Sled' is ready for Bahamas Shipment on Dec 17th!

Ready to Leave the Cold: Last shot before I left St. Mary's

I drove 'Sled' down the East Coast earlier this week, from St Mary's County back to our Florida Campaign Headquarters - My Uncle Bobby's and Aunt Sharon's home in West Palm Beach. Bobby and Sharon have been so generous letting us set up camp in their beautiful home numerous times. Amazing what 1100 miles of driving will do, I left snow and a bone chilling Northerly in Southern Maryland for the warm Gulf Stream breezes of South Florida. Little shout out to Bob and Sharon's real estate company, Illustrated Properties - If you are looking for a home in the metro Palm Beach area, contact me and I will get you in touch with them!

Final Preparations at Bob and Sharon's before the mission down to Port Everglades

After a final once-over on the boat/trailer rig I drove her down to Ft. Lauderdale to Port Everglades to await transit to Freeport for the World Championships. The boat is shipping out on the 17th and we will be there on the 27th to pick it up on the other side. We are shipping with G&G Shipping, I hope they take care of our Baby and we can get her without too much hassle in the Bahamas.

Locked and Loaded: 'Sled' awaiting to shipped at the G&G Shipping yard

Just a Heads Up on what are Winter Sailing Schedule is looking like:
-Training in Bermuda in the old boat, Dec 16-23
-Fly to Freeport, Bahamas, Dec 27
-Train in Freeport, Dec 28-Jan 2
-World Championships Start, Jan 3-9, http://www.49erworlds.org/
-Fly back to Miami, Jan 10th
-Sail North American Championships, Miami, Jan 15-18
-Train in Miami out of US Sailing Center - Coconut Grove, Jan 19-23
-Sail Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, (OCR), Jan 24-31

We are excited to announce that Zack Maxam, 2-time Runner Up at the US Olympic Trials in the 49er Class will be coaching us before the event and for several days into the event. He is a good buddy of mine and he was worked with us before. He knows many of secrets of the class and has finished in the top 10 at Worlds before! Thanks Zack!

-Zander

St Mary's Training a Success!

After 7 days of boat work and 7 days of sailing I am bringing 'Sled' down to Florida to put it on a ship for the Bahamas (where the World Championships are in January) next week. In the future, as we become more accustomed to all the nuances in rigging this machine, hopefully we can improve on this 'boat work to sailing ratio'. But for now it is all necessary as we learn how everything works in the boat. The boat held up great in the training and we are excited about getting her up to full speed.

As far as the sailing went, it was perfect for learning the boat as the majority of the breeze was light to moderate. We had a couple days with some solid breeze and what a blast to feel the boat get up and go. Every now and then we nail our wire to wire tacks, but more often than not they are tarnished with imperfections; hopefully with time our consistency will improve. We spent hours working on our light air tacks and gybes and were stoked to feel some improvement over the course of the training. We have been doing our best to cross the boat together during the tacks and only roll enough to almost put the leeward wing in the water.

The other key we have heard to light air sailing in these boats is to keep the weight forward and get the fat transom out of the water as much as possible. Also sailing on a river here, we dealt with alot of puffy conditions, which make the skipper and the crew reactions to these velocity changes paramount to maintaining a balanced, fast boat - Over reacting to a puff can be very SLOW because of all the leeward helm and winward wing dragging. We have found in light air, with Jesse full out, adjusting to puffs, can do most of the boat trim work; It is only with major velocity changes that necessitate me moving forward and in to keep the boat trim in check. Being used to slow boats, we were also shocked at the change in downwind angles due to pressure, you can literally sail through 40 degrees as you deal with velocity headers and lifts - a testament to the apparent wind we are creating!

Below are some pictures that my dad got of us over the Thanksgiving Weekend. It was light, but the weather was very pleasant for the time of year. Thanks to Malcolm for all his work helping our campaign getting off the ground! He has been there since the beginning and his trailer box is awesome! Also thanks to St Mary's Sailing and Adam Werblow for taking care of us and making us feel so welcome; the new boat house is awesome!

-Zander

New Boat is launched!

Well after 7 long days of boat work and rigging we got on the St. Mary's River! Considering it was misting and chilly (ie. what you would expect in Maryland in late November), it wasn't the best of days, but perfect for breaking in the new boat.

It was a long week of slowly figuring out the boat, but we finally hashed it out and got out on the water. It is all part of the learning curve (to figure it out for ourselves - with the help from our 49er friends: Erik Storck, Trevor Moore and Zack Maxam), but at the time it was frustrating looking at our new machine and not being able to take her out for a 'burst'. Top two "fun" projects include spartiting the centerboard trunk/rudder head and figuring out how to rig the new rig; mixed in with fun trips to West Marine in Solomons and APS in Annapolis! Boat preparation is part of this whole program and we know ample time will always have to be set aside to get the boat ready wherever we sail. We still have numerous modifications to make on the boat before we take her to the Bahamas, but we are well on the way. After much dialogue, we have come upon Seamount Sled as the new boat's name. Not a cliche Bermuda name, but still rooted (literally) there and also an allusion to the exhilarating ride in the boat.

Seamount Sled with her Bermuda Blue kite.

WE NEED TO FIX THAT BRIDLE!

Let the Training begin!

After 11 days and 4500 miles of driving (from California to Grand Canyon to New Orleans to Miami to Charleston to Charlottesville) I got to St Mary's County with our new boat - fresh off the boat from New Zealand - to finally get down to some more training. The boat looks great and we can't wait to get it rigged and sailing ASAP. I got some good advice from buddies/US 49er sailors of mine in Florida; they know a ton about the boat and were real helpful. It kinda felt like that scene in Memphis Belle when the rookie pilots are picking the brains of the veteran crews to try and figure out how to survive flying B-17's over occupied Europe in WWII...ok maybe not the perfect analogy, but there are very specific techniques and rigging secrets that must be done to avoid unintended, expensive consequences.

We have an ambitious sailing schedule from now until February and we are excited to work hard and climb up the learning curve. Special thanks to our Dad for co-piloting the drive from New Orleans to Florida and for helping with the trailer box construction. I simply wouldn't have been able to pull it off without him.

-Zander
Stay tuned for training updates from SMC.

New Boat is on order!

Mackay Boats: Just Fast!

The new boat was ordered last week; many thanks to the recent flurry of generous donations (we have raised $38500 to date!), which made this possible. She will be delivered to Miami in October/November fresh from the factory in New Zealand and ready for our pre-worlds training in Miami in December. She is one of the New Mackay 49ers that was designed per the new rule changes earlier this year. She looks beautiful in the pictures and we can't wait to rig her and get her sailing. Dave Mackay was real helpful with the order and is excited to be building our boat.

Dog Days of August
We had to scrub our August training week in Coronado because Zander slipped a disk (C7/T1) in his neck - sustained by head trauma while doing a flip into the beach break at Warwick Long Bay and a compounded by a surfing wipeout in Newport Beach, CA. He is now focused on getting better and hopefully making it out East to train with Jesse at St. Mary's in the late fall. Zander is undergoing spinal decompression treatments three times a week at a local chiropractor and is slowly feeling progress from this serious injury. It was disappointing for the Brothers to not be able to practice, but they are doing their best to keep their eye on the big picture and ensure that Zander heals fully. They know they are racing against training hours before the World Championships in January, but they understand that he can't afford to re-injure this critical body part. Lets hope the disk gets sucked back into place and gives Zander full function and strength back.

Couple more pics from our first training week...fun times and a lot work!

Jesse's remarks after first clinic with Ramon:
It has been a great week of sailing! We could not have asked for better breeze as the first few days were in 5-12knots, while the final couple days it increased to 12-18knots. Having the guidance of Ramon with every facet of the boat, from technique to rigging definitely gives a sense of reassurance. The sailing has felt so much better since the first days over Christmas... I feel much more comfortable and in tune with the boat. However, having said that, there is still so much improvement to be had. Having a great center of balance is needed for steering whether it is tacking wing to wing, or going screaming fast downwind in waves. Over the last week, I have really noticed the composer and steadiness required by me while steering- any erratic movements on the helm can be an immediate catalyst to mistakes in the boat. But all in all, a great beginning to 49ering.