49er #2 heading to Port Elizabeth, NJ

THANK YOU Bermuda Container Line!

For the second time in our young campaign's history, BCL has shipped our boat across the Atlantic for free! We thank them for coming onboard so early in the campaign and for being so generous with their valuable, regular service to the US East Coast. We look forward to vindicating their good faith given to us. They are the first Bermudian company to stand behind us and we will never forget their assistance in our time of need (these early, unproven days are not easy!). We hope as we continue to improve on the international scene that more Bermudian companies will stand behind us. For now, all we can do is train away, be thankful for the loyal sponsors we have now and trust as this campaign becomes more visible that more companies will want to get behind us.

Plan Forward:
Our older boat (still thinking of a good name for her) is heading to the States for training in California and Florida in the Fall and coming Winter. We will drive her across in mid-September and then immerse ourselves in big wave and breeze practice in Santa Cruz, California. We will be sailing with the top Americans and a world class coach from Holland. We hope to leave off where we ended in Weymouth and continue our windy boat handling practice. After Santa Cruz, we head just north to the sailing mecca of San Francisco Bay for more big breeze practice for October. We will also be coaching Optimists, Lasers and high school sailing to help pay the bills. We will head south to Southern California for November for more training and coaching. Plenty of logistics to work on...

-Zander

Biggest Breeze and Top speed to Date!

Between sessions at the Portland Bill


Action in Weymouth Harbour


Today was WINDY...the low passed (which had rained on us for the last 3 days) and a clearing Westerly ensued on the Dorset coast. The breeze built quickly in our first morning session and by the end of the practice, we were feeling a gear in the boat that we had not yet felt (we reckon we were solidly in the low 20's in terms of boat speed). It was scary, it was addicting and it was humbling.

The weather station on the breakwater had the wind averaged at 23kts with gusts to 30kts. It was blowing so hard, that if we were launching at that strength, we would have probably not gone out for fear of breaking our boat and bodies and the lack of a coach boat. BUT we were happy we stayed out because it proved to ourselves that we can handle it (as much as one can when this boat takes flight) and the speeds were addictingly fun. It was an amazing feeling with the kite up, to be hit by these big puffs, you just felt the boat lurch forward (from doing 18kts to 22kts) and then just steamroll over the waves. All we could do was hold on and stay focused to avoid any potential consequential wipeout - complete 'in the moment' focus.

We had one really close call, where we were almost bowled over by one of these mega-puffs and we barely held on to keep our feet planted in the straps on the wing...yikes, still gives me shivers. We had one pitchpole that would have been great on camera, we duffed a gybe in some waves and then planted the bow. I realized the boat was going down, so I bailed out with water surging all the way back to the mast and left Jesse in the straps, trying to postpone the inevitable. Well it ended pretty, with Jesse getting ejected from the back of the near vertical wing as the boat cartwheeled downwind...so much power it is not funny! The bear-aways are another heart stopper, each one today you got that weightlessness feeling as the bow made its way down to our downwind course - a very line from throwing us well forward of the forestay!

Still have lots to learn in these extreme conditions, largely gybes, tacks and mainsheet trim (learning to balance the flogging main and with the steering). It all seems elementary now, but it is another to do it in this boat at those speeds and wave states. Time on the water in stuff like is the key! The cool thing about being out when it was that windy, was that it pushes your comfort zones and it made our 2nd session in 15-22 seem much more civilized than it had been before.

One more day of practice in Weymouth and then back to Bermuda to recharge and get ready for our big breeze practice in Northern California.

-Zander

Still in Weymouth and its still Windy!

We have gotten back to business here in Weymouth after a furlough for a few days in Cornwall(far southwestern England), where we laid low and hung out with some old family friends in the shire. Thank you Bulgin's for your hospitality! Our muscles were appreciative of the reprieve and left us ready to attack this final 6 days of training.

Training by yourself in any normal boat is usually hard to motivate to create a productive practice, but in this boat at our level, it is fine. We have had breeze over 15 kts the entire time, with the bulk of it being in the 18-20 kts+ range, so "the beast" is quite handful in itself. Our first two days we sailed double sessions, logging a solid 4 hours both days, enough to be sore and falling asleep on the couch before 10 (so lame, but that's the reality of what these boats do to you). Don't get me started on how much I am eating, lots of protein and carbs!

Today was windier than the past few days and as we sailed into the harbor, right as we lowered our wires and powered her up, bammm...both of us fly into the water to windward. We look up and see the main down three feet from the hoist...we ripped the head out of our main! The eye fitting in the head pulled out of the kevlar/mylar head, leaving the main sagging and us in the water. We got her back to the sailing club, got the sail to the sail maker and got the sail back and made it out for a quality, early evening session in a solid 15-25kts. It was a good session with some good breeze gybes and tacks. Also I am focusing on my trimming from staying straight out, fully lowered, which is easier said than done, but essential at the international level.

Although this extra practice time is not glorious (we are alone, the weather is miserable and the wind is relentless), it has been great for our sailing and just what we needed...

sore, chilly and desperately longing to return to summer weather,
Zander

Final Day of Sail for Gold

The final day of Sail For Gold was the longest day of the event, and in fact, the longest day of 49er sailing we have ever had. Having left the dock sometime around 12, we did not reach the ramp till 7pm! What an exhausting day of sailing- especially for the Zan working hard up in the front of the boat. We completed 3 races, and had one race abandoned in an incredibly shifty North Westerly of 5-18knots.

Racing wise, it was probably our best day at this event as we were able to string together some good things in each of the 3 races (and the race abandoned). In the first race of the day we were in 6th at the windward, and they were able to improve on it by gybe-setting and putting our nose into the current seeing us move up to 3rd! However, the breeze died as we approached the leeward mark and they abandoned the race. AH! In the resail, we managed to match the quality of the abandoned race, and rounded the first windward in 7th or 8th, and finished in the low teens. Race 2 saw us round the first windward pretty deep, but we were able to grind it out and pass a few boats by the finish. In the final race of the day, we put together a really good first upwind beat where we were winning for a little bit! But ended up rounding 4th. Soon after the breeze got really funky, and our downwind speed in light wind and chop was not great seeing us fall back. Not how you want to end the day and the event, but nonetheless there certainly were a few highlights on the day.

We were quite pleased with our starting as we managed to get off the line in good shape in all of the starts. The best start of the day for us came in the second race when we won the boat in a committee-favored starting line- what a great feeling to look under the boom and see the entire fleet! Unfortunately we got caught on the wrong side of a lefty half way up the beat as we got caught too far right (what we thought was the favored side… ) But nonetheless, we were quite happy with the start, and starting by and large on the day. Another positive on the day was our heavy wind gybes and tacks where we were becoming competitive with the fleet AND we did not flip on the day!

So, as we move forward, again we will aim to tackle the boat handling while also start focusing on getting consistently up to speed with the fleet. When we reflect on the event, a few notable things stick out. 1. Our starting was good! We managed to have around 7 good/front row starts. 2. Our speed and pointing is not quite there on a consistent basis, BUT, not surprising as have focused primarily on boat handling, not speed. 3. As I just mentioned, we focused on boat handling for a majority of the time before the event, and we certainly saw a significant improvement.

Now, we are going to take a 3 day break and explore the Cornwall region. After sailing 9 out of the last 10 days your muscles and mind get pretty tired! Then somewhat rejuvenated, we go back to Weymouth to do some more intensive boat handling practice before heading home on the 25h.

Silver Day 1

Battled today in a shifty, blustery 10-22kt NW'ster out in Weymouth Bay. We hit some good shifts at times and stayed upright, but continue to be plagued by little things that we need to work on to put together at good race at this level.

We found our bridle was off to one-side and was part of the reason we were having height on starboard. We also watched the gold fleet racing on the big screen and have figured that we are too far forward in the boat going upwind, so that is something else we will try tomorrow when going upwind in the breeze. Also another thing hampering us today was our spinnaker pole was not getting far out enough and hence were not able to get a sufficiently tight spinnaker luff, which made it harder to carry in the breeze and also less efficient VMG downwind. We believe the reason for this was because I tied the spinnaker tack too tight and prohibited the pole from reaching its full extension. Live and learn. The other thing we are still working on is our communication amongst ourselves in the boat in the heat of the moment. It is one thing when everything is relaxed and the boat is going slow, but it is a whole different deal when the breeze is up and we are trucking along and dealing with converging boats and current on the race course! This will come with time as we adjust to sailing with each other and to being in such a machine at such speeds.

We are looking forward to our boat handling training which we will be doing after the event at the venue - in these boats boat handling is the name of the game! After this event, we hope to be more prepared for our next event which will be Miami OCR in late January.

Also a big thanks to Paul Hiles for watching us today and observing the racing and offering an interesting perspective on the racing. He trooped it out in a cold coachboat all day for us! Thanks Paul. We continue to remain indebted to you for all your work for us! We look forward to him watching us tomorrow as well. It also allowed him to see us in action and gain some understanding of the "beast" we are trying to tame! He was awed by the boat's performance and called it "a F-1 Ferrari". He said it is like no other type of racing and people really need to watch this level of racing to grasp how tough it is. He watched the gold fleet race too and said everyone was having issues and it was just a matter to get through it ASAP and get back up to speed. That's what we have to keep in mind, as we continue to battle with the boat.

Keeping on the good fight,
Zander

Racing concludes for us tomorrow.

Day 3

Day 3
Today brought similar conditions to day 1 with a shifty 12-16knots from the southwest. And though the current was pretty slack for race 1, it picked up to a significant level for the remaining races (almost directly against the wind). So, as there was no racing yesterday, the Race Committee set and completed their goal of 4 races in our fleet for the day…to sum it up, it was a long day!

We had a couple good starts today where we were able to get a lane soon after the start, which has been one of our goals we set before the event. In one of the good starts, we were able to play a few shifts on the beat, and round the windward mark in 10th. After a well played gybe-set to the favored side of the course, we over-compensated into the adverse current on our starboard gybe to the leeward mark and overstood. We loss a handful of boats, but still managed a decent finish (this adverse current on the downwinds definitely throws a curveball when sighting your laylines). Unfortunately we soon found out we were over early, BUT its not so bad as it’s a sign we are pushing the line with competitive acceleration.

Now onto our boat handling. It is definitely improving-we are becoming more comfortable with both the tacking and gybing(our tacks are now getting competitive with the top boats in the fleet). Further, our mark rounding’s are also getting cleaner. Now the frustrating part. Despite all these gains we have made refining our boat handling we have not seen major changes in our placement in the fleet. But, this is not a total surprise as Zach Maxam once told us that when you make gains inside the boat cleaning up boat handling you will not seen big changes in your position in the fleet. SO, we can not get too upset, but nonetheless it is a little disheartening.

So, onto Silver Fleet tomorrow. The forecast calls for more of the same, maybe a little bit windier. We are hoping we can continue our progression in the boat handling department, and combined with some good tactics perhaps squeeze out some good finishes!

J

BLOWN OUT

No racing today for us as an Atlantic low pressure system approached the British Isles and made for misty, windy conditions that were not suitable 49er racing. The associated cold front kicked up 25-30kts of SW breeze for blue fleet's (yellow fleet was able to get two races off) scheduled afternoon races, so we will race early tomorrow and then re-seed and race again in a new group in the afternoon...going to be a long day. The breeze is forecast to go NW as the cold front pushes through tonight, so it should be puffy, offshore conditions with sunny periods!

We were very close to launching late this afternoon, but the wind built too high and today's races were abandoned. We were relived because it was windy enough for the good guys to look a little skittish...

-Zander