Finally I’ve turned a corner (literally!)

The first open of the year (Grand prix event and Inland Championships) took place over the weekend at Queen Mary Sailing Club and what a great even it was. I won’t go in to detail as the report is being written up elsewhere by Si Reynolds but what I can say is that we had three races on butter flat water in winds of 12-17 knots and for the first time in any event, I completed two races without a fall downhill. (I missed the start of the first!)

I’m comfortable with the boat riding high and didn’t touch the adjustable wand at all in the flat water.

I’ve only sailed once since the winter training event last year and I think it actually helped to have time away to fully absorb where the gybes were going wrong.

I was even comfortable gybing around the start line where normally I just sit out the countdown for fear of pissing it in.

I even had a couple of shooting matches with Sam Tozer where we were locking horns downwind and having to out gybe each other to see who would get to the finish line first.

It’s weird looking at the pic above (taken on my iphone which will become relevant in a bit…)  to think that an hour before, we were tearing it up at full tilt on the track.

The biggest flaw in my game has got to be… why the f&*k can’t I get to the start line for the first race?  I’ve done that consistently last year at all of the events I attended and it’s really starting to piss me off. I’m going to focus entirely on turning up and trying to be the first on the water this year to try and rectify the issue.

The other thing is I left my camera lying around somewhere with pics of the prizegiving so if any of the QM boys find it let me know! (I think I left it on James Phares Mach 2 box next to his boat.)

Anyway, I’m really pleased with the 6th and 8th results in the two races I took part in and feel like I’ve turned a corner.

Congratulations to our new inland champion and new kid on the block young Chris Rashley.. definitely one to watch! Keep an eye on the uk site for the full report.