Dear Dave

Dear Dave,

I have been a very silly girl.  Despite knowing I was a little on the large size for my chosen craft I have persisted with my pie and chips diet, as made famous by tt, and so now have a dilemma: How can I lose a stone ready for my world champs next month?

I have surveyed the lovely mags offering me a 'beach babe body' in time for summer with a critical eye; I doubt their idea of 'beach babe' ties in with what is needed to power sixteen foot of single handed trap boat round the Baltic, but even so, I do want to look my best and impress all the lovely foreign sailors I know will be there.  Plus there will be five other foreign girls all trying to get their shapely hands on the very ugly ship in a bottle that constitutes our women's world champ trophy and I do not want my extra ballast to ruin my chances.

what's a girl to do, Dave?

How about, forget the diet.

Place all effort into practice sails and fitness runs (thats everyday for one or the other) until a 4 days before the event.  I bet the extra practice out weighs the weight loss and I bet you'll have lost weight aswell.

ps.  The hunky sailors will be just as impressed by your gybeing

Regular and frequent capsizing should help a great deal - this has all the ingredients of a decent gym circuit if done correctly (or should that be incorrectly?) - swimming (anerobic), weight lifting (pulling yourself onto the board), stretches (leaning back to get the boat back upright) and finally some warm-down excerise in the form of a) bailing-out or b) sloshing about in a cool bath trying to get going again!

Well chaps (including English Dave  )

I have been endeavouring to follow your sage advice but the weather has not been sharing my ideas.  This has meant that I have been spending some time on my sofa watching my sailing vids and dvds in an effort to learn things.  I now know, for example, how not to gybe a 29er.  I am sure this will be useful knowledge one day.  I have tried very hard not to accompany this activity with wine, pizza and chips, but have not been successful as often as I would have liked.

However, all is not lost; I am, after all travelling first to Germany where, not being a fan of the fleisch, I will not find much to eat, and then to Denmark, where I won't be able to afford to eat...so although my dieting might be a tad last minute I will be making an effort.  Of sorts.

I am now praying hard for wind.

Dear Dave,

I have a problem, i seem to have a bit of a thing for Gillian Mckeith!  No one seems to understand!  Do i ring the SDA phone number as suggested by Jimbo, Chemically castrate myself, or just use 2 bricks?

 

Please help i feel so dirty and backward!