Part 2
I am really looking forward to the second
half of the first year of the 2 PEAKS project.
In both the laser and "Wellington
Match" I am hopeful of gaining some great results.
Match Racing:
By the end of
this summer our match racing team wants to be ranked
inside the top 35 in the world. We will be
competing in 4 Main regattas over the summer. We
will be competing in Centreport (Wellington), Youth
International (Auckland), Harken (Sydney), and also
the New Zealand Match Racing Nationals held in
Auckland in late November. We would like to win at
least 2 of the youth match racing regattas as well
as picking up a podium at the New Zealand match
racing nationals. We are also going to send a team
to the New Zealand Keelboat Nationals.
While I will be
skipper in the above regattas, Matt has stepped up
to take over the under 25 regattas to hopefully
build on his recent
success in the New Zealand Youth Match Racing
Nationals. Matt will be taking a team to both the
Warren Jones Regatta and the Hardy Cup, held in
Perth and Sydney respectively.
Laser Sailing:
This summer I am
competing in 6 key regattas. I am heading over to
Australia to compete in the Sydney
International, Go For Gold (Melbourne), and Sail
Melbourne regattas. It would be great to pick
up a few top 10 placings at these regattas. I then
come back to New Zealand to continue training in the
laser and for my first ever Triathlon on the 19th of
January. After the Tri I head off to try and secure
selection for the 2009 Laser World Championships.
This will be selected off both Sail Auckland and the
New Zealand laser nationals. I am aiming to pick up
my third consecutive podium at the 2009 laser
nationals in New Plymouth. But I would really love
to finally win it.
Key Dates to
watch out for:
November:
12-16 New Zealand Keelboat Nationals, Auckland,
fleet racing
19-23 Harken Cup, Sydney, match
racing
26-30 New Zealand Match Racing Nationals, Auckland,
match racing
December:
7-10 Sydney International Regatta,
laser
13-15 Go For Gold - Melbourne,
laser
16-21 Sail Melbourne, laser
January:
23-27 New Zealand Laser Nationals, New Plymouth,
laser
26-30 Warren Jones Trophy, Perth,
match racing (Matt
skippering)
February:
1-5 Hardy Cup, Sydney, match
racing (Matt skippering)
5-8 Sail Auckland, laser
12-15 National Bank Cup, Auckland,
match racing
18-21 CentrePort Champs, Wellington,
match racing
March:
7-8 Auckland Laser Champs,
laser
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Part 1
- Year 1
The first half of
the year was very successful for me. I finished
third in the New Zealand Laser nationals, I traveled to
Europe and competed in 3 international laser
regattas. If it were not for damages and forgetting
things I would have finished in the top 10 at Kiel.
I struggled my way through a windy Laser Europeans to
finish 38th, but I showed superb skills in the
light weather. I was leading the Youth Euros at the
half way stage but something went wrong and I lost a
lot of places. This is something I need to work on
and address.
I improved
everything I wanted to achieve before I went to
Europe and while I was in Europe. My starts were
good, my tactics were good and my upwind speed had
improved heaps, but I still have a long way to go in
terms of my speed.
Our Wellington
match team won the University World Match Racing
Championships. This has been our biggest success so
far and we are looking to continue our winning ways.
My website,
jjsailing.com has been hugely successful. The amount
of people following the website while I was overseas was
phenomenal. I am having so much fun
with jjsailing and the 2 PEAKS project and I
think we are well on the way to success. |
Part 1
2008 is an important year in terms of my 2 PEAKS
project. I have high ambitions for success in Europe. I
plan to start off by competing in Kiel week in
Germany, followed by the Laser Europeans, which are
to be held in Belgium. In the build up to this trip,
I will be training hard in Wellington with Matthew
and the other Wellington boys. Early on in the year
my main focus will be
on improving boat speed, then leading into the
middle of the year I will
be focusing more on boat handling including acceleration, explosive power, mark roundings,
gybing and fine tuning.
To improve my
boat speed I believe that I need to improve my
fitness, so this will be another aspect I will be
focusing on throughout the year.
I am not
traveling to Europe just to get results, I also want
to improve, I want to hone my big fleet tactics, my
starting techniques, as well as continuing to
improve my boat speed. Quote: The fastest sailor out
there is generally a tactical genius, but it is hard
to be a tactical genius if you are slow.
In the second
half of the year I
will have a similar programme building into the Australian
and New Zealand summer. Over this period I will also incorporate
match racing more heavily into my training programme as all
the Australasian regattas are over the summer
period.
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