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We flew into Holland this morning to cloudy skies and light drizzle, a massive difference when we last left Schipol airport. After a search in the long-term parking for our vehicle, we drove to Scheveningan to pick up our trailer, only to find that a circus has taken over the trailer park that all the 470s were left in. Our trailer got moved somewhere else in the harbour, behind closed fences. After several phone calls which were met by grumpy harbour-master, we still had no way to access our trailer and our ferry to Harwich, England is tonight. Luckily, 15mins of waiting at the gates, it opened for a car to come out, and the kind fella opened it for us to get access to our trailer.

With tricky part of trying to get access to the trailer-park on a Saturday done, we drove to Hoek van Holland where we will wait 8 hours for our overnight ferry to Harwich. Though there’s nothing to do in this part of Holland, we’re lucky to get access to a cafe with internet where we can kill time. The reliance on technology in this era where the internet becomes such a necessary part of our life seems scary.

A week of good solid training with new inputs from Daniel Smith turned out great. Dan agreed to help us work on a few issues from Kiel to the lead-up to the Worlds while Craig focuses on the girl-pairs as Kiel is one of their selection events for the Asian Games.

Massive gains were made in what little time we had with Dan, working on both our techniques and teamwork. With only so few races that were completed at Kiel, it wasn’t an easy week as several of the days proved to be very trying as we squeezed as much in as we could. And it all worked out well in the end. We took it upon ourselves to absorb as much as we could and really trying to leapfrog our progress but also being careful not to try doing too many things and end up being confused and not get anything out of it. Focus was the key and we dare say we achieved the few focus we had for the week.

The hectic week of intense training was followed by a 4-day break where we relaxed and recuperated both physically and mentally, ready for the second charge before the Worlds.

Finishing only 4 of the 13 scheduled races, three in the first day and one on the last, we were disappointed at what the weather permitted. Having funded ourselves to Kiel, Germany, to do this event as a lead-up to the World Championships in 3 weeks, the lack of racing proved disappointing.

Race Day 1 saw winds of 16-25 knots. Beautiful sailing conditions except for the freaking cold temperature(11 degrees celsius on water)! A capsize at the top mark in the first race from a high-risk maneuver saw us drop way out of the top 10. A quick recovery from it and we managed to salvage a 19th in that race. The following races saw us float in and out of the top 10s with mistakes that were costly but also with opportunities that were captured, landing us in 28th position.

Light winds prevailed the following day and after 3 hours of waiting on the water, the Race Committee(RC) cancelled the day’s racing at about 1.30pm which I felt was too early for that call as the forecast for the next few days were similar if not worse. True enough, Day 3 saw us waiting on shore till 3pm when the RC made the call to cancel racing that day as well. Day 4 was slightly better and we were sent out after two hours of waiting on shore. After almost 2 hour’s wait at the race area, the RC managed to squeeze one race in before the wind shut down completely again, totaling the 4 races we have. We finished 31/81 boats which proved disappointing results-wise but we know we have gotten a lot more gains in our race-craft which we will bring to the World’s on July 12 (day 1 of racing).

For now, it’s the drive to the Netherlands and a solid block of training before racing starts.

Third day in Kiel and first time out on water. Due to circumstances, we couldn’t get more days on water before racing tomorrow. Dusted the cobwebs early in today’s session and lots of boat-work on shore as well.
Feels great to be back on water after almost 2 weeks of being left high and dry. Nothing beats the excitement of preparing for a race and racing.

Sorry we’ve not been updating our site for so long. It’s been a hell of a time the last 2 months juggling sailing, gym, school and traveling for competitions!

We flew in to Amsterdam 4 days before the start of the regatta and jumped straight into the chartered boat that we got on the day we arrived. Jet-lagged and tired, it was just a short sail to get used to the new systems in the boat and to make sure everything works. Coming into an event with so little time and a boat we’re unfamiliar with, every hour that we can get on water definitely counts.

Arriving to some sunshine and warm weather was a pleasant surprise for us but a short-lived one. With only the first 2 days being nice and ‘warm’ (by warm i meant 18 deg celsius), the weather started turning on us, returning to the usual bleak Medemblik weather. The day before racing started, the temperature fell to a high 0f 13 degrees in the day and this stayed till the end of the regatta. Making it bloody cold, especially when the wind picks up.

Day 1 of the regatta didn’t get off to too good a start for us, finishing in the 20’s for the first two races. A turnaround in the last race of the day saw us rounding the top mark first but we fell back slightly to finish 6th in that race; a bit of an uplifter after two bad races at the start.

When we thought day one was bad, we didn’t see what was coming in day two. Finishing in the teens in the first race was pretty average but in the second race where we rounded the top mark in the teens saw us finish with a DNF (Did Not Finish)! The light prevailing winds of the day started to deteriorate and shut down by the third leg of the race making the racing very tricky as guys on one side of the course would get a fart and start moving and then stop after a minute and the guys on the other side of the course would get the next fart and move. Positions shuffled and see-sawed heaps throughout the race ending with more than half the fleet scoring DNF.

Day 3 was the first day of the ‘Final’ series where the fleet is split into Gold & Silver and we just managed to get into the Gold fleet. Our turnaround came when we finished 5th in the first race of the Final series, only to have our mainsail halyard break 5 secs before the start of the second race causing our mainsail to fall on us as we watched the fleet take off at the start gun while we retired for the race.

A few more ups and downs occurred in the last 2 days of racing with us clocking an OCS (disqualification from a premature start) making this regatta one that we had heaps of letters on the scoreboard instead of numbers. Finishing 38/81 overall wasn’t where we thought we would be but learning from the bad and taking the good away from this event, we know we will grow from strength to strength as we get more racing under our belt.

For now, it’s straight back to Sydney where we face our Uni exams in a week’s time. Of course, not without first indulging a couple of stroopwaffles…

We arrived to a great warm weather which was thoroughly misleading as the temperatures dipped after the second day to hover around 18 degree celsius. Half the regatta consisted of strong winds above 20 knots and the other half was light. We didn’t mind the strong winds and big waves (>3m) but the cold… thats horrible!

A couple of mistakes in the race strategy and it’s execution towards the end of the regatta cost us some points but the crucial thing is that we know we will not be making the same mistakes again come year end.

We finished the regatta with the Bronze medal. Racing was delightedly tight and it all came down to the last race to decide the colour of the medals for all top 3 placed boats. Racing in varied conditions of big waves, strong current, fog, strong and light winds proved quite an experience.

The team sitting around on a foggy day while AP was up

Installing new Zhik hiking straps

Our friend Seng Leong riding down one of the huge-ass waves

Launching off a wave

On the podium

Monkey face

Another podium finish for us

Team photo after prize presentation

But the real experience for most of us was the little village where our ‘hotel’ was located.

'He Gang Cun' - The village name

The houses in the village

Another house

The locals get their clean water from these water pumps installed outside each house. Seemed like a step back in time where taps weren’t invented yet.

Every house's water pump - Their source of water

Another house's water pump

Village Center

The local wet market

Now, we’re glad to be out of no-man’s land in rural China and onto Perth for the next part of our training & racing over Easter. Coming out of the racing at the ASC, one thing we know for sure is that we have risen in our level of sailing. Hopefully, we’ll still constantly keep climbing up on the learning curve.

A 4hr bus ride after we landed in Guangzhou brought us through villages and places we hardly call towns. With the nearest supermarket a 40mins drive away (Shanwei’s town center) and the nearest place we can get amenities or snacks is a couple of road side convenience-stores 5mins walk away. Despite all that, the hotel’s been surprisingly good, decent rooms and internet connection!

We flew in the day before to meet up with the other half of the contingent that was already here. Went sailing for the first time here in a beautiful 18-22knots of wind with some big waves.

It’s Practice Race today and Race 1 starts tomorrow. With no internet access to many weather-sites (due to China’s infamous internet regulations), we are unable to get our hands on any forecast and everyday’s almost a guess as to what kind of winds and temperatures we’ll get.

With the ASC as the test-event for the Asian Games at the end of the year, it certainly is relieving to see more ongoing construction.

Below’s the link to an article from the Today newspaper covering our recent success

First a bronze, then a silver for Tay and Koh

As it turned out, sailing was a roller coaster of events. On our own budget, without a coach, we rocked up the day before the regatta and hoped to have our 6 year old charter boat working ok. After a short sail at 5pm, we were dismayed to find out the gasket had fallen out which meant at least 2 hours of repair. Not to be discouraged on a trip with no support team at all, we opted for before-the-first-race repair. So Roy and I headed to the club nice and early the next morning to fix our race craft.

The first day’s racing was mixed and saw us in second spot. However, a super light and insane second day race surprised even ourselves as we finished the only race of the day more than 5 minutes ahead of the next boat and pushing us up the leader board to gain pole position. A pitiful third day with more downs than ups lost us our lead and slip to second. The last day of racing was smooth sailing as we managed to increase our point differences between the boat behind us and catch up with the leaders. However, the penultimate race which carries double points was not enough for us to overhaul the eventual winners despite us winning the race. In hindsight, the third day of racing lost us the regatta. We lacked the consistency when needed and it cost us. However, if anything, this experience will go a long way, having taught us what is required to stick our elbows out that inch more to win it.

All in all, we had a great outing in Auckland and felt the money was well spent! Thanks for supporting us… SQ… =p

TeRence

Carrying the yellow sticker off the start.

Going around the top mark.

Top mark rounding

Photos courtesy of Snow-Hansen

Prize Presentation