Hey everyone,
The last few months have really flown by and I cannot believe that it is almost Christmas! With the days being a lot shorter and temperatures being a lot colder my training now has to be even smarter and more organised in order to still get the quality time on the water in.
Despite the weather and limited sunlight every day, November was still a very busy month. I attended one of the British Sailing Team squad camps which included a very useful race weekend to keep our racing skills sharp. Straight after this I was lucky to be offered the opportunity to sail a Nacra 17 with my brother Ben for one day. It was great fun for both of us and a nice change where I could learn about another boat.
Sailing the Nacra 17 catamaran with my brother, Ben.
After this I had a nice week to work on my program myself, catch up with emails and admin and recharge before another upcoming block of training. I got up to quite a lot of things including repairing a friends MacBook Pro (see photo below!) and going for a few rides with my friends.
Repairing a friends computer - one of my many hobbies I enjoy in my free time.
The view from the top of Portland Hill overlooking Chesil Beach and Weymouth in the distance.
Other notable events which have occurred is the British Sailing Team Awards Dinner, an event designed to celebrate the achievements of every sailor over the past year. It was a very fun night and great to meet so many new people! It did feel weird not seeing everyone in sailing kit though!
A fantastic evening with many friends new and old at the British Sailing Team Awards Dinner.
I've also been looking at how I could maximise my learning from every session I do. Personally I learn the quickest visually and so knowing that video footage is particularly effective at maximising my learning I've been interested in buying a Laser GoPro mount to properly film my sessions and replay them back to analyse my performance at a later time. Instead of paying £100 for a third party mount I thought I could design and build my own which was a great experience. I ended up only spending £17 for materials and after a couple of hours work I had a mount which would fit onto my boat!
My home made Laser GoPro mount -made of a carved wooden base with copper tubing.
My £17 GoPro mount fitted to the back of my Laser.
Now all I have to do is test it....
The picture from the GoPro mount was insane! Big thumbs up from me.
Despite being December the weather this particular day was stunning and I captured some amazing pictures whilst training.
So the GoPro mount was a huge success! I captured some great video and it was very interesting watching myself back on the video.
Unfortunately it was all short lived. I put the mount on for my next training session and whilst out sailing my friend Jack accidently crashed into the mount, destroying it and ruining any chance of using it again. I did manage to save my GoPro from sinking though! Oh well I'll just have to make it again. Watch this space...
On another note I am currently working through half a weeks training with one of the best coaches in the country. I have been working on a few key areas which could make a big difference to my sailing and I feel like I am moving in the right direction.
After this I am down in Weymouth until next week before preparing for the Palamos Christmas Race, a regatta held in Spain just before Christmas.
Thanks for reading!
Sam