Saturday, 2 April 2016

Spring Season begins - more work to do

For us, this weekend was the start of the GP14 Open Series, which always starts with the running of the Venetian Trophy at the Welsh Harp.

I think the results were a bit disappointing. Gerry did a great job, particularly with his spinnaker handling, and we had some flashes of excitement, but in the end we were near the bottom of the fleet.

The important thing to remember, for me, is to focus on the process of sailing, and learn from every outing, no matter how good or bad the result is.

We had a reasonable start on the first race, but gradually slid back at each lap. My personal consolation was that at least I beat my friend David Innes - a rare occurrence.

After lunch, feeling more encouraged, we had a very good start at the second race, and were able to keep near "mid fleet", with some good spinnaker work, but ended up 22nd out of 25 boats.

The third race was a very embarrassing start - we managed to ground the centre-board and were stuck (literally) and got off the line significantly later than anyone else. Unfortunately, we were not able to catch up very much. So we ended up near the back again.

Gerry was probably more alert than I was during the races - he called out changes in wind conditions.
I was the one that was not paying enough attention.

Lessons to bear in mind:

  • ensure you get a good nights sleep the night before!
  • go through the motivational log before sailing each time.
  • mentally and physically "warm up", so that you can pay attention and focus during the duration of the race.
  • Keep your head out of the boat, and look for wind conditions. 

Have I learnt anything? I think so - here's looking forward to the next race.

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