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January 2003

I hope you had a happy Christmas and New Year! Nick and I arrived back from training in Gran Canaria on the 20th December, and spent Christmas at home. Its nice to have a break over Christmas because all my friends and family are off and it feels like a proper break. It also gave me the opportunity to get a bit organised and do some fitness.

The training in Gran Canaria was really good; we trained with an Italian and French team and shared a lot of ideas together and all moved forwards. The first few days we were out there the waves were absolutely massive, I would guess at them being approximately 4 metres, we cleared the boat out of the water on a few! We did 11 days training in a row, which was exhausting, but after a long break we were fired up and wanting to do as much as we could.

We then had 2 days off followed by another 7days of training. The biggest gains we made were getting back in tune for the downwind boat-speed. It is all about the helm and crew being synchronized with their movements and balance, so after a long break you can be a bit a rusty. We also came away with a much better understanding of our rig, where its strengths and weaknesses are and how to set up for different conditions.

We have now got a group of trainings through January and February in Palma, the first one starts on the 6th January. It is a good training venue, its hardly warm at this time of the year but it is quite mild. There is normally no wind in the morning, which is when we do our fitness then a sea breeze in the afternoon. Flights are very cheap out there and the island is in general quite quiet.

Thank you for your support and I wish you happiness and success in the New Year.