29er Invitational Training supported by Noble Marine at Datchet Water
by Suzie Hammett 9 Feb 2016 05:20 GMT
6-7 February 2016
The inaugural 29er Noble Marine Invitational Training was planned for the weekend of 6/7 February on the South coast. With an extreme wind and tide forecast, a quick decision was made to relocate from RLYC to Datchet for Sunday. A huge thank you to both RLYC and Datchet for their flexibility and the result was a truly epic training session. A few videos have already come through which we hope to post as the photo's don't quite do justice to the conditions and the resilience of the sailors.
Phil Walker (the 29er National Squad coach), Henri Lloyd-Williams (twice 29er Youth Champion and ISAF 29er Representative) and Oman Sailing's Niall Myant led a full day in 18-30 knots with plenty of crash and burn as well as high wind work. The 10 pairs that were selected from the new 29er Class ranking list (excluding youth squad) enjoyed a wild day and pushed themselves and their boats to the limit. By the time the picture with the Noble Marine banner was arranged quite a few sailors were still patching themselves up and amazingly there was little recourse needed to Noble Marine the event supporter!
A huge thank you to Noble Marine for their support and assistance from the RYA. Further Invitational Training sessions are due at HISC with Olympic squad sailors Alain Sign, Sam Batten, Chris Taylor as well as Tom Walker. At Draycote we will have ex-National Squad coach Steve Irish leading the team with Emma Loveridge among the coaches supporting. Lets hope the next two weekends are a little less wild than this one.