I have always trained myself when I can't get on the water. Either running, biking or swimming but I have decided to change this year. I have joined the gym and we will see how that unfolds over the next few months.
I am 3/4 of a stone, almost 5kg, lighter than last year. It made a big difference in getting going in the canal BUT there is still more to loose. It is very noticeable that the days of the big super heavy speed sailor has gone. By super heavy I'm talking about over 110kg.
When in the past we competed the courses were never as broad as Luderitz. It's easier to get going on a tight reach then a broad reach, the sail does more of the work on a broad reach then on a tight reach exhausting the wind so the less need for a big lump holding down the sail.
We didn't get strong winds this year so couldn't compare what difference a sailor at 110kg would have over one at 95kg. There were three outstanding sailors there this year that always were at the top and one that had one good day. When I was there apart from the top 3 the next 5 were all tightly bunched within 0.5 knots of each other. I won't mention any names because more than likely I'll upset someone so I'll keep quite.
I am 112kg, 2.02cm tall and on my best day with 25 to 30 knots of wind I used a Patrik Diethelm speed 43 with 61 litres of volume, Neil Pryde Evo5 6.4m sail and Black Project Fins X50 which is 20.4cm long. I had the X55 ready in my PD custom speed 41 which is 19.3cm long. I also had a 3.5kg weight jacket on and reached a speed of 45.52 knots. With a sail that big you are starting to have a lot of drag, it's 10% bigger than my next size down. Unfortunately being that heavy meant I needed that size to get going on such a small board.
The weight jacket makes a huge difference in keeping you locked into position. I only used it one day as the other days had less wind.
It's all about your overall balance concerning weight, board size, fins & sail size (I hope this is coming across the way my brain is thinking it). I went to Luderitz to break records and travelled with a 41 and 43 cm board 5.4, 5.8 and 6.4m sails. The 6.4 was taken just to get on the water if the wind was light, the 43 board to get a couple of warm up runs then swap onto the 41 with the 5.8 but hopefully the 5.4 to get some big speeds. As it turned out I only sailed the 6.4 and 43.
If I had been lighter I may have been able to swap to the 5.8 sail and been a bit faster but on the other hand we weren't expecting only 25 to 30 knots of wind and no records could of been broken in that wind strength.
So the decision has been made to shed the pounds and see the difference. My thinking is that there won't be a down side to being lighter as I can put more lead in the weight jacket.
My goal now is 105kg with the advantage of putting on a 7kg weight jacket. Lean and mean seems to be the way forward.
BUT NO ONE SAID IT WOULD BE EASY, WISH ME LUCK
Gym session 1
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