Getting to grips with the new 49er FX
by Kate Macgregor, Team Volvo 27 Mar 2013 20:08 GMT
27 March 2013
Kate Macgregor, Team Volvo © Team Volvo
I've just got back out to Palma after four days at home, which with the weather like it is was plenty long enough!
We have been training over in Palma for a few weeks now and there have been a few other crews out here too, which has been great as it is the first chance we have really had to see how the British squad is doing compared to the other countries and crews.
There has even been a training regatta, with about 20 boats taking part, which was so useful because it helped me get back into fleet racing again, while it was also the first time I raced a skiff. There were other boats on the course too, which helped because it meant you really got used to doing manoeuvres, something that in a four-boat squad is hard to replicate.
On day one I was completely out of my comfort zone, and it was a very different style of racing to what I have been used to, but on day two we picked up some better results.
Before coming out to Palma we had done all our training in Murcia, where it is quite flat water, and even when it is windy just gets choppy. But here is a completely different story; we have been hit with real waves for the first time and it has almost felt like starting again!
The first day we were here has gone down in squad legend as 'Big Wednesday', it was an epic sail! It was about 15 knots when we went out but the waves were massive the whole day and there was a LOT of capsizing. Although the wind got up to about 25knots average, that isn't an unsailable amount of breeze when flat but on the way back in, we were the only one of four boats not to end up with a broken mast! We all took a LOT of bruises...
I think the expression is 'baptism of fire'!
Read more from top British sailor, Kate Macgregor here.