scott.projectsomewhere

After almost two weeks of 49er sailing in China, it’s time to head home. I’m actually looking forward to the prospect of stepping off the plane and going Moth sailing. A lot of displacement sailing in 4 knots probably does that to you. Or maybe I’m just a bit crazy. Or both.

We didn’t get onto the water on our last scheduled sailing day. There was less than 5 knots of breeze, and the tide was strengthening to 3 knots - running with the wind. It wasn’t going to be pretty. It seems strange to have to take into consideration the difference between wind over water and wind over ground, and make a decision to go or not to go based on that. Some 49ers tried, along with a bunch of other boats, but it didn’t exactly look worthwhile.

It’s been an interesting time here though. Nath & Ben have apparently made big gains by having us around, which sounds pretty ridiculous, but might just be right. In the last day of training races both boats were around the top mark in 1st and 2nd almost every time, even against some very very strong competition, and with some ordinary starting tactics. There’s got to be a few raised eyebrows when wood-ducks like Dave and myself do that repeatedly.

Anyways. It’s time to pack and head home.

I’ve been spreading the good word about Mothing, and have piqued the interest of a bunch of people, all of them good sailors. Being pros, none of them want to pony up the 20k+ AUD to get a new retail boat on the water, and none of them would accept any compromises, so getting them involved might be a bit of a challenge. But I’ll keep hassling after August all the same.

The good thing about seeing the attention to detail at this level is that now I’ve got a whole bunch of new ideas to go and test out… time to go and try a few.

The boats did arrive after all, and we’ve spent the last four or so days tuning and training against some of the best 49ers in the World…. though that’s not too difficult to find when you’re a tune-up boat for the World Champions.

This place continues to surprise me every day. A different set of weirdness to contend with each time we hit the water.

The first day for example, we launched into no wind and big chop, rebounding off the breakwall to provide that nice washing machine effect. After a tow out for a couple of kms, we found a 15+ knot on shore breeze, which within 50m or so, would go from a good 15, to zero as we sailed towards shore.

A couple of days later it was the opposite, with an offshore breeze blowing at 15 or so, then dying off to nothing about km offshore. Strange to blast downwind then suddenly have the spinnakers go limp with next to no visual queues.

Then yesterday we raced in so much sea-mist that we couldn’t see the marks on the course in only 5 knots of wind, even though the races were only 12 minutes long.

This is going to be one weird Olympic regatta come August.

But at least we’re not completely embarrassing ourselves - on the water - with a bunch of good finishes in the 10 or so boat fleet we raced in over the last few days. Even with the best of the Spanish, Danes, the Ukranians and the Germans, we’re holding our own. Helps to have very fast boats to use I guess.

Anyway, it’s been a beneficial week so far for Dave and I. We’ve learnt a fair amount and hopefully the guys have made some gains by having us here. And there’s still a bunch of days left.

So we’ve arrived in Qingdao, ready to do a bit of sailing with Nathan & Ben. But unfortunately things aren’t going exactly to plan. Their container of boats haven’t arrived in the compound yet, so we’ve been spending some time looking around and buying dvds. What a cultural experience.

And to top it off, it’s currently blowing 18+ knots with clear skies. It’s a rare rare day in this place.

Even if their boats were here, Dave & I wouldn’t be hitting the water. We’re here for the light and shite, not the breeze.

Anyway.

The Moth preparations are taking a back seat for a few weeks while Dave and I head off to Qingdao for some 49er testing with Nathan & Ben.

Given the amount of weekend time that’s been devoted to Mothing lately, we haven’t taken the 49er for a run since our testing session in April. Surely it shouldn’t be too hard to learn how to trapeze again.

The past weekend’s Mothing was pretty successful, with 6 boats taking to the water at 8am on Sunday. I think everyone would’ve learnt a fair amount from the 10 or so races we ran before heading in as the breeze died at 11. It was pretty amazing how big the gains and losses can be in racing, rather than just blasting around or two-boat tuning. It was also interesting to see the different theories and designs all ending up in roughly the same place. We had a Bladerider, 2 Prowler Zeros, 2 Prowler 4s and a Gilmour. 4 CST high-modulus rigs. MSL10, MSL11, MSL12 , MSL13s and an ‘07 Truflo. And a sailor weight range from 58 - 88kg. If only we could get such close, tight racing every week, we’d be improving pretty quickly. At least there’s still plenty to learn.

But then there’s always plenty to learn when it comes to Moth sailing.

Anyway, I’ll see how I go blogging when I get to China. Then maybe I’ll try to dump some photos on flickr. If they’ll let me.

Dave and I got a nice mention in Ben’s latest AST 49er update.

… Finally, we have been extremely fortunate to have David O’Connor and Scott Babbage assist us with our on-water testing in the last couple of weeks and are grateful to the Australian Sailing Team for helping get these boys to Qingdao for our first training camp. The boys have been immensely helpful in helping us find that speed edge we are looking for and Nathan and I are extremely grateful for their time and effort.

Hopefully the time we’ve put in so far has been useful, and hopefully our time in China can help the guys bag the gold medal. Olympic glory by association would be nice enough in itself.

It’s rare that I’m the fat guy in a group of sailors… even in a group of Moth sailors.

But that’s how I feel at the moment sailing a 49er. I’ve got more rolls than a bakery compared to the guys we’re tuning against… and that’s saying something!

… back to the gym…