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2PEAKS
Plan:
New Zealand Summer
October 2010 - March 2011
The development is set to continue. Some key points
that have come out of the world champs include
nutrition, pre race planning, starting and first beats along with loosing a little bit of weight not
to mention maintaining or even improving my all
round speed. I have a couple of months to get a bit
more of a handle on these before I head over to
Australia, which will be the next opportunity to
re-evaluate before the New Zealand laser nationals.
Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club has formed a team
called the Wellington Spirit. My involvement in this
is to be the helmsman of the Match Racing Team. Our
Goal is to win the 2010 New Zealand Match Racing
Nationals.
Key Dates to watch out for:
16-21 November, New Zealand Match Racing Nationals, Auckland, match
racing
6-9 December, Sydney International Regatta,
laser
14-19 December, Sail Melbourne,
laser
22-26 January, New Zealand Laser Nationals, Torbay, laser
2-6 February, Sail Auckland, Takapuna laser
Late
February, Wellington Match Racing Cup
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2PEAKS
Review: Europe
Summer
March 2010 - September 2010
What an intense half of the year. It has been tough
and long. My trip to Europe was good, I went there
with the mission to work out what the next step was
going to be, what was it that I needed to do to do
well at worlds. One big thing was sailing in 5 to 7
knots and also massively improve my fitness.
On my return to Wellington I got right back to it,
training harder than I ever had before, really
pushing the fitness, and utilising the time I spent
on the water better. I travelled up to Auckland 3
times, and continued to give it my all, and while I
sowed brilliance at times, and a big improvement in
the light, I was not going as good as I would have
liked. On my last trip to Auckland I was at the
point of getting fed up with it, but I was still
pushing really hard. But after that trip I had had
enough, and went on holiday down south for a week.
I retuned to Wellington, excited and hungry for
sailing, I put in 2 more hard weeks of training, and
then was off, and I had ticked all the boxes in New
Zealand that I had planned to work. (and although I
it wasn’t showing in training I believed it would
come though at some stage) the one thing I had left
to work on was the head game, the ability to sail
though the fleet and stay focused and to always
believe. During sail for Gold I felt I made major
gains in these areas. And my hard work in New
Zealand was starting to show, with some fantastic
performances, but with 2 really bad races I was
pushed back to 14th. But I was happier.
It just got better and better from there with
everything coming together just before worlds. I was
ready and excited. I sailed amazingly well with an
ability to sail though the fleet with some extra
ordinary speed downwind. I finished the Laser World
Championships in 6th place. And to cap it all off I
came home and won the New Zealand Youth Match Racing
Nationals with the Wellington Spirit team.
Mission
successful....
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2PEAKS
Plan:
Europe Summer March
2010 - September 2010
So
now the big build up begins, again...
With
just over 6 month until the next World Championships
my preparation has just began. I have got 3 weeks
until I head over to compete in two European
Regattas, Palma and Hyeres. In the next 3 weeks I
will be trying to spend as much time in the boat. I
will be trying to get as comfortable as I can in the
boat, working mainly on boat handling and
speed.
On
23 March I head over to Europe. At these to big
European regattas, I want to continue to work on controlling
the start and nailing the first beat. These two
regattas will also be a good chance to re-assess and
work out what needs to happen in the following
months leading up to the world championships.
I
will then return home in early May to put in the
hard yards back at Worser Bay. I will spend a little
over 2 months in Wellington before I head back over
to England. In early August we will have a training
camp in Hayling Island (which is where the worlds
are to be held). We then head down to Weymouth (which
is where the Olympics are to be held) we will have a
week training there before we compete in Sail For
Gold (also sailed out of Weymouth) after which we
head back across to Hayling island for pre worlds
training, before the Laser Men's World Championships
start in early September.
Keep an eye
on the 'updates' and 'comments' sections to see how
I get on.
Key Dates to
watch out for:
27 March-2nd
April, Princess Sofia Regatta, Spain,
fleet racing
23rd-30th April, Hyeres, France,
fleet racing
9th-14th August, Weymouth, fleet racing
27th Aught-5th September, World Laser Championships,
Hayling Island,
fleet racing
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2PEAKS
Review:
New Zealand Summer October2009
- March 2010
Match
Racing: The New Zealand summer has been very successful
for our team. Our goal leading into summer was to
get our ranking back in to the top 40. We have
scored three 1st places at the New Zealand Keel Boat
Nationals, the Musto Cup and the National Bank Cup.
We also placed second in the Hardy Cup. In addition
Matthew Steven took the helm at the CetntrePort
Champs and won to back up his third place at the
Harken Cup. It has been a great summer and I
personally am very happy with how things have gone.
Laser:
I have had a massive focus on the laser over summer.
Determined to make the worlds I trained hard and I
felt I improved the whole way throughout SIRS and
Sail Melbourne, I trained with he rest of the New
Zealand team after Christmas and brought a new boat.
I felt ready for the nationals. Andrew Murdoch
showed his class in the stronger wind, while I was consistently
finishing in the top 3. After a solid regatta I
finished 2nd equal. with only 3 spots available for
worlds, the sailing was intense. Sail Auckland was
our second qualifying event. I sailed well, and
after a second in the medal race I managed to finish
3rd overall, After these two events I am ranked 2nd
best New Zealander
I have
achieved everything I set out to achieve this
summer,
Mission
successful....
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2PEAKS
Plan:
New Zealand Summer October2009
- March 2010
My goals for the new Zealand summer are to move
my match racing ranking back up into the top 40, and
to qualify for the 2010 Laser World Championships.
To qualify for the Worlds you have to be ranked in
the top 3 in a combination of New Zealand Laser
Nationals and Sail Auckland.
I think the events I have chosen to do will give
me the best opportunity to achieve both of these
goals. Through this whole period I am having a big
focus on the fitness side of things, I want to be as
fit as possible.
We have got some strong teams together for all
the match racing events and we hope to get some
fantastic results. We have been doing quite a bit of
training and we are almost ready to go! I’m not
only going to be sailing my laser in Wellington but
I also plan to do some training in Napier and
Auckland to help improve faster. Over the summer my
main focus is going to be on building my boat speed
Its going to be super exciting so be sure to be
watching the comment page to follow all the action.
Key Dates to watch out for:
November:
4-8 New Zealand Keelboat Nationals, Auckland,
fleet racing
10-15 New Zealand Match Racing Nationals, Auckland, match
racing
18-22 Harken Cup, Sydney, match
racing
23-27 Musto Cup, Sydney, match
racing
December:
4-8 Sydney International Regatta,
laser
15-20 Sail Melbourne,
laser
January:
21-26 New Zealand Laser Nationals, Timaru, laser
February:
3-7 Sail Auckland, laser
8-13 Hardy
Cup, Sydney, match
racing
17-21
National Bank Cup, Auckland, match
racing
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2PEAKS
Review: Europe
Summer
March
2009 - September 2009
The first half of year 2 has gone fantastically
well.
I have traveled to Europe to compete in both
Princess Sofia, and Hyeres regatta. In Princess
Sofia I went from strength to strength moving though
the fleet every day to finish an amazing 11th
overall, and only 2 points off the medal race. If
that was amazing Hyeres was spectacular, finishing 8th
overall. If not for a dubious OCS in the medal race
I would have picked up my first ever medal at a
world tour event.
A lot of positives came out of these events.
Along with some things to work on! Here’s a few.
Positive:
- The ability to come of the line well, and get
myself onto the first shift.
- Just sailing consistently well
Work on:
- decision making in the top half of the beat.
I then traveled to America, where I worked in
Houston coaching local optimist and laser sailors.
this was an awesome experience Although it was a lot
of hard work, coaching, training and sailing all at
the same time. I traveled down to Corpus Christie
with the Optimist Kids which was fun, and I also did
the long drive up to Brant Beach, New Jersey, where
the laser kids and I competed in the US laser
Nationals.
A 4th at the US national was not
really good enough for me, I had the speed but
needed to get my head back into racing. So I
traveled up to Halifax, where I continued training,
with 70 boats out on the water every day doing gate
starts. This was perfect, I improved every day I
went out training, and went into the worlds firing.
I again sailed consistently well throughout the
whole regatta to finish 11th over all.
Like al sport, I improved on 2 thing, but found out
I’ve got 5 more to work on.
I have exceeded all my goals for 2009 so far,
bring on the next regattas.
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2PEAKS Plan:
Europe
Summer
March 2009 - September 2009
Part one of year
two of the 2PEAKS project is one big build up for the 2009
Laser Men's World Championship in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada. The aim is
to improve as quickly as I can, get stronger,
fitter, faster, smarter.
The ultimate
goal in the laser class this year is to pick up a top 16 place at the
World Championships. I am planning on doing two
World Sailing Cup regattas in
Europe in April, hopefully gaining more experience
to move forward with, and to give me more direction
leading into the worlds. The first regatta is
Princess Sofia in Palma Spain. The second regatta is
Hyeres in France.
I return to
New Zealand for May where I will doing some training
in both lasers and Match Racing. In June I head over
to Houston Texas for nine weeks of coaching and
training before heading up to Canada in August for
the World Championships.
Keep an eye
on the 'updates' and 'comments' sections to see how
I get on.
Key Dates to
watch out for:
April:
4th-10th Princess Sofia Regatta, Spain,
fleet racing
18th-24th Hyeres, France,
fleet racing
August:
17th-26th World Laser Championships, Canada,
fleet racing
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2PEAKS Review:
New
Zealand Summer
August 2008 - March 2009 During
the second half of year one of the 2PEAKS
project there was a big focus on match racing, and we got some great results. Our
ranking has now moved into the top 50 in the world.
Our goal was to get into the top 35, and we should
be close when the next rankings come out on 4 March.
We won the
National Bank cup in Auckland, this is the first
Trans Tasman match racing regatta we have won. We also placed 3rd
in the New Zealand Keel Boat Nationals, which was
awesome considering we were racing some of the
biggest names in New Zealand Yachting. We also got
smacked by Dean Barker in the New Zealand Match
Racing Nationals which wasn't so enjoyable.
With such a
big focus on match racing, my laser sailing ended up
taking a back seat over this summer, and it showed
when I went to compete in Australia. The amount of
dumb thing I did, (capsizing, etc) was far too many,
but I still
managed some reasonable results. The "Go For Gold"
regatta was my highlight in Australia. Although
there where only really New Zealanders there, I
sailed well to win this regatta, beating Michel
Bullot.
I also managed
to Qualify for the Laser World Championship, even though I had a
shocker regatta at nationals finishing 11th, (two OCSs may have
been the culprit). The Laser World Championship is to be held in
Canada later in 2009, and this will be main focus
for the first half of year 2.
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2PEAKS Plan:
New
Zealand Summer
September 2008 - March 2009
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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2PEAKS Review: Europe
Summer
April 2008 - September 2008
The first half of
year 1 of the 2PEAKS project was very successful for me.
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.
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2PEAKS Plan:
Europe
Summer
April 2008 - July 2008
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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