Team OConnell & Peel - Star Campaign Update
by Maurice 'Prof' O'Connell 13 May 2005 19:53 BST
This is the first official update of our Star sailing campaign. We have refrained from sending these out up to now as we felt we didn’t have a story to tell, but the time has come to inform you of what we are doing.
In six months, we have taken 32 flights, taken five ferries, freighted one boat over and back across the Atlantic in a 40-foot container, acquired 10 new sails, lost a total of 11kgs body weight, driven 6000km, completed two ISA squad weekends, competed in three ISAF Grade 1 events and two other events, done eight days training in Dublin Bay, had three personal fitness consultations, eight strategy meetings, spent countless hours in the gym and on the road, acquired two boats, registered a company name and a website, established relationships with three World Class training partners, worked with two coaches and hired a third. It’s been busy!
Nov 2004 to Jan 2005 was aimed achieving a sufficient level of performance in order to finish in the top 40 of the World Championships in Feb 2005 in Argentina. We had to do this in order to qualify for Irish Sports Council International classification. This would give us access to the essential NCTC sports science services and a small amount of financial support. We spent November, December & January training and competing in Dublin Bay and Miami.
As you can see from the photo before our very first sail in November, our similarity in size makes for easy sharing of sailing gear - an obvious economy of scale for any clothing sponsor.
In January, we were pleased to finish 13th from 40 boats in Miami Olympic Classes Regatta (OCR) - our first ISAF Grade One event. We were “Boat of the Day” on the Wednesday, scoring a 4th and a 5th.
We then travelled directly from Miami to Buenos Aires for the Worlds in February and were delighted to finish 16th. In doing this, we achieved World Class 3 classification. This has been a major boost to our campaign and thus justified the decision to travel. Pic below shows us (bow number 42) rounding the windward mark just after 6-time World Laser Champion Robert Scheidt.
In early April we competed in the US Spring Championships in Nassau. We finished 15th overall there. That was a real learning experience, big waves and more than 20 knots of breeze every day.
That event was also memorable for other reasons. British Airways cancelled Prof’s flight from Heathrow to Nassau after he had left Dublin resulting in an entire day and night holed up in a London hotel. The hotel in Nassau then refused to allow Ed to stay, despite his name being on the reservation! Apparently, they didn’t like the look of him and wanted Prof to be there in case Ed stole the towels. BA then cancelled Prof’s return flight and routed him home through New York and Shannon rather than direct to London! What a palaver!
2005 Programme Remainder:
So, here is what the season looks like this going forward. We are looking at each event specifically and have developed key target areas that we wish to improve.
May - Europe Spring C'ships - Lake Thun, Switzerland
May - Holland Olympic Classes Regatta - Medemblik, Holland
June - Kiel OCR - Kiel, Germany
July - 10 day training camp - Varberg, Sweden
Aug - Europeans Championships - Varberg, Sweden
Oct - Training camp - Cascais, Portugal
Nov - Training camp - Miami, USA
Dec - Zag Cup - Miami, USA
In addition to this, Ed has been busy on the Dragon circuit, teaming up with Johnny Ross-Murphy and Andrew Cantwell on “Rigmarole”. They finished 4th overall from 101 boats in the Grand Prix De Douarnenez last week – a fantastic result.
This has been a tough and rewarding experience but also a thrilling one. Our learning curve over the past six months has been a vertical one. Our challenge now is to keep pushing this forward as time is so short. We only have 2 years and 2 months left to the 2007 ISAF World Championships in Cascais, Portugal (only one of two opportunities to qualify Ireland for the Olympics).
Our sincere thanks go to The Irish Sports Council and the Irish Sailing Association. They have been a tower of support. Joe Carton of Euromode, Teddy Daly in Irish Ferries and Frank Norton in Commercial Fleet Truck Rental helped us out with some logistics challenges. Seanie McGrath’s knowledge of exercise science and physiology has been awesome. That, blended with his unique West Cork humour has made our gym sessions with him a real highlight of our work so far. John Twomey has helped us out with our accounting headaches. Steve Mitchell has been generous with his time and solid advice. Denis Lavery of DPL Tara Ltd provided us with a superb new laptop for a great price! Our clubs, the Royal St. George YC, Royal Cork YC & Bembridge Sailing Club have also been tremendously supportive.
Last but definitely not least, none of this would be possible without the support of all our friends and families. For this, we are blessed!