SPEED 2010

January 14th and I am well on the way with preparations for the forthcoming speed sailing season.

What’s been happening since Weymouth 2009?

Weymouth was great and really showed how competitive the Hotsails 2010 sails are going to be. I had a prototype 7.3 and 8.0 for the contest. Very light winds and a tight course, just the conditions that I am NOT competitive in, yet with a board I had never sailed before the first day of competition a fourth place was great. I did say at the start of 2009 I was looking for podium finish’s but in retrospect after my first year back I’ll take the fourth.

After Weymouth I had a family holiday to Cyprus. No sailing over there but training didn’t stop, I ran my 3 miles a day to keep in shape. November was very windy but cursed with Flu. I say flu, man flu as my wife would just say a cold, obviously not bad enough to stop a woman from working on through.

Before I knew it November was drawing to an end with very few decent sessions yet probably the windiest month of the year. December was very solid with wind and waves. 18 -25 knots and plenty of great wave sailing sessions and a couple of slalom sessions. No speed sessions but that looks to change this week.

January has come and brought the cold. We have had freezing to 2 degree temperatures for the past 2 weeks. It has ruled out sailing completely. I sail in a lot colder weather than I did 15 years ago, 6 degrees is about the minimum now but noway am I going in at 2. I got kitted out with a new Billabong 5/4/3 winter suit at the end of the year and the difference is unbelievable, toasty warm. If it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t sail with gloves I could probably sail in even colder conditions, wetsuits have certainly moved on.

The temperature has risen since yesterday and there is a forecast for 25-30 knots southerly winds on Saturday. The tides are good for speed and I have Pierre Bisson ready with his new Canon for a photo shoot.

My new 2010 sails arrived this week and I logo’d them up last night with my Starboard stickers ready for a photo shoot.

Equipment 2010

Sails

As I mentioned I will be using the 2010 Hotsails GPS sails this season. 5.5m2 to 8.8m2 this year which is a bigger quiver than last year, in 2009 my biggest size was a 8.0m2.

Boards

Starboard boards again for 2010 but again a bigger quiver. I have the 122 Isonic from Weymouth and have the new Isonic speed 58 coming in March. The 58 is a dedicated 84 ltr speed board. It will be perfect for me with the 8.0 and 8.8 or in gusty conditions with a 7.3.

Board quiver

Starboard Isonic speed W49
Starboard Isonic speed W53
Starboard Isonic speed W58
Starboard Isonic 94
Starboard Isonic 122

Booms

Areon carbon booms

Fins

C3 fins

Training

My training regime is made up firstly of sailing whenever possible, this is the most important because you can’t do any off the water training that replicates windsurfing. Keeping fit in between sailing sessions really took off again at the beginning of December. Up until then it was very sporadic but December was when I knew I had to step it up once again. It’s a month earlier than I started for the 2009 season and with Christmas coming up it felt right. During December I ran 3 miles at least 4 times a week. January 1st and it was time to step it up again. With the cold weather and no chance of sailing it’s been a 3 mile run every day and fifty sit ups. This will carry on to February and then I’ll start adding the weight training again to build up for the first competition which should be at the end of March.

I hope to have some picture on Saturday which I’ll post as soon as poss.