Peter and Chris update us after returning home from Cadiz
25 January 2011
Well we are home safe and sound after another really good training camp. The last few days of the camp did exactly what we asked for with a bit more breeze to play with. We trained hard in the mornings with Dylan and Alain and then raced with all the other teams based out there in the afternoon. A bit more breeze brought some different faces to the front in the races which was great and some uncharacteristic mistakes from a very tired group of sailors.
So far we haven't missed a single day training out in our Andalucian training base, touch wood that will remain the case. We have been working super hard and it was safe to say that after the same daily routine, 5 hours water based training, all the de-briefing and all the gym sessions we were very tired. We are progressing really nicely, this prolonged training is exactly what we needed to iron out some of the errors that cost us so dearly a couple of times last year. Even though we've both been sailing 49ers for so long, with good structure, planning and de-briefing we are learning every day. We are very lucky that as sailors you can never stop learning, even when you might have foolishly thought you knew it all, someone or something will come along and show you that you most definitely haven't.
As we go over each little piece of the puzzle after every period of training, slowly we are ironing out the 5/6 out of 10's and turning them in 8's. Hopefully come the season they will all be 9/10, that is the plan ! We could take the Spinal Tap approach and take it to 11 but right now we will settle for straight 9's ! Harvey our coach, Dylan and Alain and Simon Briscoe who joined us again for this trip are all working really hard and we are very grateful for their commitment. We have one week of rest, back with our amazing and very supportive families before we head back out to Cadiz again next Friday. Thank you all for your support, Kind regards Chris and Peter