SNT Sailjuice

Ha ha thanks Graeme.  To be honest and in all seriousness the attitude thing is spot on.  just been texting Dan about it.  As unbelievable as it may sound   I am a stress head, i don't cope with it well never have.  It troubles me in life as well as sailing.  I am often blinkered by it and this weekend was no exception.  

I hate being in a rush and helped my pal rig his boat in the process snapping his traveller, meaning I had to re-splice him a new one with not much time to spare.  It stressed me out.  I lost the plot.  My boat speed was very good looking at the replay's, my starting was fine.  But I was concious not to get into to many battles for fear of exploding and making a show of myself ala the Aero sailor.  

If I keep myself calm i perform much better.  Its a failing I have in life as well as in a boat.  I get it, just learning to cope with it.  

I have always been a very, very bad loser but i have learnt to deal with this (had to being sh*t at most things) however it has meant i have lost some of the 'Killer' instinct.

So to improve my performance and move on to the next step I need to keep calm, remember it doesn't really matter and concentrate on my tacticks.   I hope that doesn't sound like i am making excuses, My result is a result of exactly how I sailed.  I am fairly happy with how to sail and setup a Zero now, my boat handling is pretty good  its just my head that needs really sorting.

But thanks for the kind words Graeme, from someone with your experience in both life and on the water it means allot.

It's been troubling me that I could sail that boat to pretty damn near it's handicap on a pursuit but never in an actual race, yesterday we had similar light conditions which is where like it or not I'm quite quick, so I ran the course got all my tacking angles dialled, got a rough idea which way the wind was shifting when it did, lined myself up for a half decent start then punched out with the first rank, rounded first and pretty much held the lead all the way round. Then about the time I usually lose focus, the Bandito Bros in their Buzz got through me so I had to re focus sharpen the f**k up and get them back and by them pushing, I managed it, won over the water and got a 2nd on corrected which for me on a sunday morning was a major breakthrough, so now I've done it twice, once in the pursuit and once in an actual race, but.. and here's the clincher.. only because I wanted to and needed to prove to myself it could be done rather than just accepting that EPS was never going to cut it on the small lake, it's all head stuff, nothing physical or settings, or any other clap trap, it's just your head, ninety percent of the time, get it straight, well informed, calm, collected and focussed then use the force..

There's a rider mind you, it only happened because the bandido bros had bribed the race officer to lay an assym friendly course (for the kids in the feva, not them of course.  )