Pre Worlds Training in Santander, Spain

The last block of training for Walshy and I has been spent out in Santander, Spain which is the venue for the ISAF World Championships later this year.

After Sail for Gold Regatta (which turned out to be a great week for us winning the event and learning plenty along the way) we turned on our logistics roles and packed up one boat in the container for Rio and our other ready for Santander. With the wedding of a good sailing friend from back home taking place last Saturday we decided to chop and change our dates a bit from the rest of our GBR squad. One of the disadvantages of a job like this is the number of special days you miss at home, birthdays, weddings etc. When you do therefore have the opportunity to make a wedding without it disrupting your training too much, I am always a fan of making it happen so last week I made the 24hr ferry over to Santander to deliver our Nacra, to fly back for the wedding then head out again on Monday (luckily it was an excellent wedding and well worth being back for!)….Thanks to Brittany Ferries for supporting Kate and I with our campaigns, it makes a huge difference, specially with a venue like this for the Worlds. We were then back with the squad and ready for a full week of training.

Last September I came out to Santander for the ISAF Test Event to get a feel for the place before this year. We had a great week sailing then and this week has been no different. Depending on whether you sail in the harbour or bay you can get every sea state from dead flat to huge swell and that, matched with a good sea breeze makes for some awesome sailing. This week has been all about reacquainting ourselves with the venue, trying to work on the techniques needed for the big swell and making sure we have the right setup in our rig to help us achieve a good technique. Some of the conditions we have experienced we haven’t sailed a Nacra in before now but both Walshy and I really enjoying working out these  new challenges. Both the Russian and Kiwi teams have been about this week too so we have also got in a good mix of training races in which is a good reminded after tuning runs that you can’t both focus 100% on speed 100% of the time when you then go racing!

Today the rest of the GBR squad head back to the UK, Walsh and I took a day off, chilled out a bit, cheered Hamilton and the GBR Athletics Team on (in between the Spanish adverts!) and then we will be training the next few days before heading home on Wednesday. We are actually both looking forward to these few days and a bit of time training on our own as it will allow us to focus on some of the things it is hard to get done in a big group.

Next up for us is the European Championships which are taking place in La Grande Motte, France and then before we know it, it will be Rio time for the Olympic Test Event! Wow it is all coming around quickly!