The Worlds officially kicked off yesterday with a day of measurement, with the practice race and welcome function on today. It has been a fantastic week, and has definitely felt like a Worlds since about Tuesday when we had eight plus boats out training seriously. The atmosphere, location and sailing is quite simply pretty awesome!
We sailed the Friday before the North American Champs, the two days of the champs with 9 races, and Monday – Thursday with two sessions on some days. We had training partners to push us in all of the sessions in very windy conditions. On Thursday it was too windy until about 5pm in the evening to go sailing. Check out the video below from just up river of Cascade Locks near Hood River… it wasn’t too windy for the windsurfers!
By Friday we were ready for a rest, and I called in to the Sailing Chix with Nix show to touch base with home. I also caught up with some of the Seattle guys before the official business all kicked off of Friday night! There was an awesome lightning storm, and a rainbow as well one one night – looks like there will be a bit of everything over the course of these Worlds!
As mentioned, yesterday (Saturday for us), it was measurement day. We are all measured (below our rig is getting measured) except for our sails which we will put through today, before the official briefing and practice race this afternoon. I am proud to say that I managed to gain 3 kilograms for the event. of muscle – might not seem like much but it took months! No girl but a sailor would find it normal to want to gain weight! But I did! This takes our total weight to exactly where we want to be for the event which is awesome.
I did have fun yesterday when the Seattle guys all hovered around a mast for a good hour… made me ask the question, how many American Tasar sailors does it take to fix a mast? Apparently just two, and a few to watch!
We also went for a quick sail yesterday before measuring with all our good gear just to check it is all working. We have been training with our spare gear as it has been too windy. With 25 knots of breeze, and 3 knots of outgoing current (river flow), the apparent is well past breaking point for Tasars. It was so so nice to get on the water after a day off. We still have a few little jobs left to do before we are ready for tomorrow and official racing, but we should be well sorted by this afternoon, including a quick polish.
As always, for more frequent updates check out Facebook or Twitter. As the practice race and welcome function are today, I am not sure when I will post my next update, but I will try to keep you posted as often as possible! The event website is available here.
The fleet is going to be so competitive with the addition of more quick boats to the already challenging fleet that we raced in last weekend… Definitely have that ‘Worlds’ feeling in my stomach now! Let’s see what happens!
