SEIKO Development Program on the Junior World Championship 2015
Coach: Francisco Andrade
This program has an important role in young sailors that have recently started to sail the 49er and 49erFX and also for sailors that don´t have a coach. Each year Seiko allows the 49er class to hire top talent to assist and coach teams and coaches that request for help.
For 2015 Francisco Andrade was hired, the Portuguese veteran crew who recently retired and was fifth place at the 2012 London Olympics. He arrived 5 days before the event started and in Flensburg during with a few boats. The week began with coaching and tips for teams such as 49er ESP 161 Carlos and Dani, USA 914 Andrew and Mathew Mollerus, AUS 104 Harry Price and Harry Morton… in the 49erFX ESP 686 Paula and Inacio, SWE 25 Klara and Rebecca and also some teams that their coach was in other course at same time during the event like the world champions in 49erFx NED Jeske and Josca, and NED Odile and Robin.
Francisco assessed each team and individual according to their skills, their level in the boat and their racing skills. Each team had different needs, so demanded different approaches. Focus on the small details can make big differences in their improvement and great coaching can set a team up well for the long run. Some example are creating routines between skipper and crew, preparing for a race (priorities), setting up the boats, details in their boat handling and boat drive, simple things that in the beginning are huge.
In the last race for the FX, the wind picked up to more than 30 kts and some rescuing of boats was required so that they could avoid more serious damage in the gear, or on themselves, also an important coach service.
Francisco wishes to congratulate FSC and all the people involved in the regatta for their professionalism and dedication to this event. They understood the meaning of this Junior event and its impact on the sailors, consulting sailors and coaches to make better decisions. For the Medal Race the Jury explained the procedures to the young sailors, and how they should act.
For Francisco it was a really good experience and I want to thank Seiko and 49er Class for this opportunity. The happiness on the sailors was obvious, their feeling with someone to look for them, to make them push harder and to show how it’s done was priceless. For the class, keeping family like Francisco involved is also priceless!
Sailors Testimonials:
“Thank you for all the help that you gave us.
At first we thought about the quality of having a good coach and a group to train with. By having a coach like you made it possible for us to discuss all the good and the bad things that we did. Since I’ve only been in the 49erFX for 5 months it was a really big help with the tactic that I couldn’t really figure out by myself. The reason why you do different things with the rig, jib and so on. It was a very tricky area and by having you there helped us a lot to find out what we had to focus on by only reminding us about simple things.
We think that you acted like the perfect coach. You said exactly what you wanted and at least I tried to improve some of the things that I did wrong. You made it easy for us to focus on the things that we needed to do better. You always had really good things to say that we could do to improve our results and you made us think that it was possible. By getting this help from an expert was perfect for us and we really appreciate that Seiko and you did that!” Klara Wester SWE25
“During this days we have learnt how the boat really works: how to put the boat all ready to race, and how to put the setting depending on the weather conditions.
As we have learnt to sail the boat on our own and we only had a general idea of what means to sail a 49er, Francisco’s help in the water has been crucial to learn, not only to sail the boat in the proper way, but to sail it to its best. He gave us really important tips that we will keep on working in the future with.
For all this things, I consider that this initiative is really important to teach the rookies that start sailing in this class how to improve in the boat, and what it really does mean to sail a 49er. Once you see the improvements in the boat, you want more and more, and you want to spend more time on the boat.
And last but not list, we are so grateful to Francisco for his patience, he is such a wonderful trainer.” Paula Hoz ESP 686
Special thanks to JesSegelsport for the additional support for the program and ongoing help to the class!
