Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Subject: Brits, Team Racing and Kingston!

Hello to all!!

I know it has been a while, and boy has a lot happened in one month for
me! As you know from my last e-mail I was off training with the British
Team for a few weeks. That went really well and I was very happy with my
sailing during that time. I started out slow, but managed to get myself up
to speed with the rest of the girls. The coaching that we had there was
also quite good as there was a lot of information on what to expect at the
worlds this year. My friend Andrea and her family took good care of me
while I was over there and on the days when there was either no wind or when
it was a proper rest day, I was off to be a tourist. I managed to see
Petworth House, Windsor Castle and the Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth. It
was really cool to see how much history there is in that country! I got to
sail in several different venues in the UK as well... All along the south
coast though. Highlife, Paignton, and Hayling Island. Not too bad for my
first time over in the UK! Its funny when you go to new places though... I
was expecting the traffic to be on opposite sides, but I was not expecting
the handles to flush the toilets to be on the opposite side from what we
have in Canada!! It was strange!
I had a really great time and I thank all of the British Girls who are very
strong sailors, and to the coaches for allowing me to train with them.
Special thanks to Andrea and her family for taking care of me and making me
feel at home.

For two weeks between training with the Brits, I managed to scoot back over
to North America and jumped right into the Team Racing Worlds held in
Newport, Rhode Island. The New York Yacht Club was the host and it was
beautiful there... Can you say "POSH"?! I felt a little out of place there,
but it didn't last too long. We were well looked after for sure. Did I
mention that I have never really done and Team Racing before? On top of
that I had also never met most of the people on my Team until two days
before the event started. It was great fun to meet lots of new people from
Canada as well as from all over the world and to experience something so
different in sailing. The Irish and the New Zealanders were especially
helpful to our team and I really appreciated the tips they gave us along the
way. Thanks soo much guys! Team Racing is a completely different ball game
to fleet racing and it was quite bizarre at first, especially since my rules
knowledge wasn't quite good enough. We were sailing Vanguard 15s which was
a lot of fun for me as they are just an oversized laser with two sails and
no spinnaker! So it was a comfortable boat for me, but when it came to boat
on boat tactics, my learning curve was VERY steep! I think it was for the
entire team as well! It was funny as I sort of took on the role of coach for
my team, even though I didn't really know what I was doing there. The best
part for me was being able to watch the finals with the best teams in the
world competing for the top 4 positions. The brits and the Americans really
know how to do it.
I wanted to thank all of my team for coming out and experiencing a new
aspect of our sport and representing out country. Thanks to David Sprague
for organizing it all and allowing us to literally kill his van on this
trip!! (minor breakdown on the way home!!)

After all the team racing, I was back in the UK for two more weeks and then
I flew into Toronto and drove out to Kingston for the Laser and Radial NQRs
(National Qualifying Regatta). It is Monday the day after the regatta and
all I can say about that event is: BRRRRRRR!!!! My goodness, its events
like this that really make me wonder why I chose this sport! It was very
very very cold for the regatta, but the sailing was good with winds around
12-15 knots (daily high temp of around 8 degrees Celsius with rain). It was
shifty and quite tricky to make your way around the windward leeward course.
Lisa Ross won the event hands down having won all but two races. She was
very aggressive on the starts and shot out in front right away. I was quite
cautious with my starts, for no good reason really, but I managed to finish
2nd overall with all of my results being either 2nds or 3rds (save for the
last race which was my drop). I always perform better when there is no
stress, and I didn't feel too stressed at this event. I do know that I can
sail better than this still. It was really nice to be back in Canada though
and to see all of the new up and coming sailors in both classes. I managed
to get in contact with lots of people who I should have been connected with
earlier in the year, and so it was important that I came here for that
reason as well. I do hope that the weather we had at this event motivates
the organizers to move our nationals to earlier in the fall! Its just too
cold at this time of year!!

With the NQRs now done, I am moving on to training again right away.
Today I will fly to France and do two training camps. The first one is with
the French Sailing Team and several other teams that will come. The second
one is with Sailcoach. I am really looking forward to both of these camps
as they will be a good push before the worlds. The French team is very
strong and I am hoping to be able to match their speed.
The training with Sailocach will be with a smaller group and we will have
Alp Alpagut and Vasilij Zbogar coaching us. Vasilij is a Bronze medalist at
the Athens Olympics last year and just recently finished 4th at the Laser
Worlds in Brazil. I hope to get some top tips from those coaches!

So that's the latest!! I have got to go and wash my sailing kit now... It
is pretty potent at the moment... Ewww. Other than that, its just some
re-packing and then I'm off! Two more weeks until I can sleep in my own bed!
Doesn't sound like that long, right? On the 14th of November I will fly
home and ten days later I will be flying to Brazil for the Laser Radial
Worlds. I will send another e-mail before I fly to Brazil and that will
have the links to the regatta.

I do hope that you are all well. I look forward to hearing back from you!
Take care,
~~Keams~~