Silver Medal at ASDS camp … calling tactics on Elliot 6’s

Elliots we sailed 4 up

Hey All,

Quick update, just finished the 10 race ASDS series in Elliot 6’s normally match racing boats. We raced against 9 other elliots in fleet racing capacity. I was hiking my arse off and calling tactics and strategy to the rest of the match racing oriented crew (Nina Curtis and Lucinder Whittey) and Steve a 49er sailor from WA.

Ended out leading at the end of the first day but after a lost protest on the second day with dubious reasoning and an average points judgement for the leader on the last day when she broke gear (which was totally against the rules and based on the arbitary decision of Victor, Erik and Fletch). It was argued that the boats were supplied and I said ‘we get worlds boats supplied in lasers and if something breaks tough cookies’ (well i may have used expletives)

Long of the short of it was they wanted to show her consistency would win the event. Kudos to the other team for consistency but just want to make it clear in the world of reality breakage is an accepted part of racing and it is what your fleet racing drops are for!

In Sydney harbour the most consistent will win and it is important that I agree with the ASDS message. You just need to keep locking in top 3 results and in the end you will win. Its just so hard to sail in those westerlies but over the years i’m getting the hang of it more and more with practice. It seems the geography of the harbour plays a large part in directing the wind and often tacking off points and using ‘geographic lifts’ saved the day.

The aim for me is to improve my skill set in shift picking, long term course reading and speed in my laser. I know i’m pretty solid in raw speed and have started to mitigate my risks but as shown in elliots I was still leading my team into splits and backing my judgement over the fleet at times to win and lose. I guess thats my gambling side and in the laser I can rely on speed to save the day but in Elliots speed is so simular that pressure and angles make the biggest difference.

A wise man once said ‘You can have all the speed you want but if your racing out to the wrong side what good is speed when your angles are poor?’

Big thanks to my team for putting up with me (and my stupid questions like what is a tweeker hahaha) … I do know alot of those things from my flying 11 and Manly Junior days but Lasering for so long has dimmed my mind to ’spinnakers’ and ‘gybe sets’ and ‘rig tension’ hahaha. You ladies and steve were awesome and i learned alot.

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Going back into heavy training

Hi all,

Back into heavy training after the QLD state titles logging a huge amount of time on the bike, and plenty on the boat and in the gym.

So far this week,

Monday – Racing lasers at Queensland States (final 3 races)

Tuesday – recovery swim, 1.5 hr gym session

Wednesday – 67km of cycling total, 4 hours of on the water training in shifty NW between 5 – 20 knots.

Thursday – ride to gym return 8kms, Gym session (1.5 hours of arms and sheeting movements with some stretching to help legs recover) and 28kms riding to and from club then light wind sailing for 2.5 hours in Rose Bay.

Friday – Epic day cycling clocking some 107kms in total over course of a day with Jarrard, Beyer, Benny and Mikey. Totally done!!! we cycled to the city from maroubra, caught a train to Hornsby and then cycled from Hornsby to West Head and back. Then ate a huge subway felt like death and then back on train to ride the 15km home from city … EPIC

Saturday – 2 races today!!! + shoulders gym session

Sunday – Racing again – ride to and from club 28 kms + a ride in centennial to take me above 250kms a week

Thus clearly getting on the program and raging away at getting fit again. Current weight as of this morning is 81.8kgs so looking pretty damn good. Going to slog it out for almost another month before going into maintainence training just before and in Holland. Then Delta Lloyd and hopefully see the fruits of some hard work on and off the water!!! will keep updating status and any interesting points in training.

A quick one for example was training on a light day in Rose Bay. At the start I backed my decisions and allowed myself to split in a highly shifty easterly breeze. It went hard back and forth but left chance as it could go either way. I learned that instead of splitting just to stay in phase with Mike and Jarrard and started winning more and more to the top mark. Once you can sail around others you can start to control their movements. The winner would reach pressure first and always be on a good angle generally in front so when the breeze shifted they could simply tack and loose cover their opponent.

Catch Up, China, ASDS funding and QLD state titles !!!

Been a while since my last post. I have been and done many things in such a short time.

In Jan I was contacted by the Shanghai Sailing Team and asked to come to China and work as a training partner for 2 months in two Chinese venues. Hakiou and Xiamen inside the PRC. I went and it was a crazy experience. 2 – 15 knots at best and more in the 2 knots area then the 15 … huge current (up to 10 boat lengths a minute!), flat water … it was like an alien planet to me …

I learned alot and also sailed quite well most of the time so it was a good experience apart from being sick all the time, huge translation issues, lack of fitness equipment and to be honest alien food …

I would go into more detail but I don’t know where to start. China is just so different to western democracies I have visited. Communism is still very firmly in control and the people work not for themselves but for groups or teams. The concept of the individual is foreign to them. They train so hard and I would comfortably say too hard. I have never felt more fatigued in my life with the 6 days weeks of sailing and gym work. I also got sick many times and partook in Chinese medicine (as seen in photos) insanity … they are very ancient forms of medicine and i believe the value of accupunture but not cupping (as seen) and also blooding (as not seen but i passed out from a needle in the side of thumb VERY PAINFUL).

I arrived back from China on April 1st and kissed the ground of wonderous Australia. This long weekend I flew up and chartered a boat to do the QLD state titles. I was definitely under prepared and sported the worst equipment I have used since maybe 2004 but I did OK with what I had. The old saying beggars cant be choosers comes to mind. Big thanks to Adrian Finglas for getting me some accom sorted on site at RQ and also helping out on the water in the coach boat which some solid advice. Also big thanks to Mike Leigh for lending me his old training sail which was much better then anything I had. Final big thanks to all the QLD boys including Ryan Palk, Jarard West and the Masters crew who helped me put a 16600 boat together to sail for the weekend.  Anyway was a great regatta and all my Chinese low wind experience paid off with the wind never surpassing 8 knots.

Day 1 I managed to hold my lane off the starts and get a clear 1st and 1st. Day 2 was lighter again and I had a terrible start after being fouled by a radial who was on the start line with less then 15 secs to go I had to go behind them and tack back and was late to the start by about 7 secs. It was about 2 – 3 knots so 7 seconds is a loss and the pressure was on the corners so I was playing sheep … 6th in that race with a high risk fail going left on the 2nd beat to try and split and catch.

Race 2 I pulled my sh*t together and was leading to the top mark after some minor shift tacking but alas only 100m out from the mark I got my first yellow flag in ages for accelerating out of the tack faster then i entered … couldn’t believe it !!! when has that ever happened !!! anyway fell back to second with a 720 penalty and lost the race to Ryan Palk who showed some skill in the lighter air which he excels at.

Day 3 leading by only one point I needed a good one and attacked all day managing to utilize a pin bias. I worked the left hand side and waited for knock to cross the fleet. Worked every time and I managed to get some good height and speed going after working out the old sail just needed compensation in gears (more outhaul off upwind for a deeper sail meant less height but more speed and once I had speed I could really torque the boat over the small waves).

I took home another championship titles which feels good and I also got in some valuable training in another venue. Now for this week keen to do some heavy training and will be sailing Wednesday with Brett Beyer and Mike Leigh (CAN) and cycling hard all week and in gym. Leading up to Europe now so keen to put in 110% arrive there super fit and ready for all conditions at a weight of about 81 – 82kgs. Super pumped … take me to the worlds!!!

Also in other news big thanks to ASDS who will fund me $10,000 this year as a GOLD level athlete. Its a good feeling to be recognised finally for all my efforts and I hope I can keep improving my results and gaining more support.

Stay tuned as I will be updating posts on fitness schedules and lead up training for big events.

Ash