Winter Woolies
Looking back at the great summer we had in the UK, warm and sunny for a change, and the great regattas we had during the season with some really good results posted. Starting off the season with our first World Cup event as a team in Palma and all the lessons we learnt there, to the UK Nationals where we saw a step improvement on our overall performance, which we then took into the World Championships in Santander in Spain. Where we managed to get the best result ever by a South African team at an ISAF Sailing World Champs since the 49er class was included in this event back in 2003 in Cadiz. Overall it has been a good year!
Now looking forward to the all important winter training season. This section of the year is the time for us to take stock of where we are in the international fleet and drill our weak points until they become our strong points! in between these sessions we will be doing some of the Sail juice Winter series, which is a collection of single day and weekend regattas around the UK in the dead of winter. The formats range from a single pursuit race to a weekend of handicap fleet racing. This will give us an affordable opportunity to sail against the top UK dinghy sailors in their classes as well as a busy start-line and race course to sharpen up our team work. All of this, we are looking forward to. However, the other side of the coin are those cold icy winter mornings, when you have to break the ice off the cover, and go sailing when you can’t feel your feet and most of your fingers in the blustery winter winds which come rolling in with the winter storms….BUT every minute we spend out there on the water, is another minute closer to our goal!
Having said all that, I think I need to go visit the local chandlery and stock up on winter gloves! More updates to follow!
