Just a quick update from my latest travels. I’ve just spent the last week in Japan competing in the Enoshima Olympic Week. I had a fantastic host family looking after me and feeding me and I’m already looking forward to staying with them again next time. The sailing in Enoshima was tricky with some pretty random shifts but in all a lot of fun. I was really happy with most of my sailing but I felt I let myself down on the last day losing third place. All part of the experiance though and I was really greatful for the opportunity to sail here. Next stop is a 12 hour layover in Singapore 😛
The amount of stuff that has happened in the last three months is just insane and I’m going to have a hard time fitting it all into this post. As always though it’s time for another update as I’ve just finished a regatta and if I don’t post soon I’m going to forget it all. Starting from the beginning…
July was time to get back to coaching. I landed home from Europe for the first time in five months and rolled straight into work the next day coaching a clinic at SOPYC. Thanks Tessa! The next week I coached a huge 4.7 development camp with Ben and Connor out at Fremantle before finally returning home to Esperance for four days. Always great to see the parents even if it’s not for that long. The next week I was back on a plane headed for Kiel in north Germany for the 4.7 World Championships. It was my third time in a row coaching the National Team and by far the biggest squad, 16 sailors! The event was great and I had such a good time coaching such a keen bunch of sailors. I had a great time and I’m really grateful to continue my work developing the youth of the sailing community.
Fremantle 4.7 CampBriefing the 4.7 Worlds TeamOn water antics
After two weeks in Kiel I headed back to Perth (got a free upgrade to Business, so stoked) 🙂 to get stuck into my own training. Meanwhile the Olympics raged on in Rio and I keenly watched as Tom somehow sailed to gold on sailings biggest stage. I was so pumped. To cap it off Kiwi Brother Sam got the bronze medal. In all the Australian Sailing Team did a great job with three silvers and a gold medal which makes me really proud to be a part of such an amazing organization.
Tom Tonci and Sam Olympic medalists
While Tom was winning gold I had my own event to prepare for, the World Cup in Qingdao, China. This was to be the last time the event was going to be hosted in China and I had to take to opportunity to compete there at least once. My training in Perth was intense but that’s one of my favourite things, putting my head down and getting to work with minimal distractions. This was a really productive period I felt, I rebuilt my gym program with Greg (my physiologist), went through my first ever FTP Test (Functional Threshold Power) on my new bike (old bike was stolen while in Europe L) and scored 351 watts for a 20min effort. Stoked!! I also went through a stack of information and ideas with Adrian (my WAIS psychologist) and caught up with Arthur and Belinda who were both getting back from overseas coaching gigs. On top of all that I was out on the water again, being coached by old mate Palky and training with Spero and Wongy again along with the rest of the FSC Laser crew.
New Radial cut sail
Palky getting creative with his photography
To keep things interesting I decided to take up an invitation to skipper a M32 in the Perth inter club series. Great boats, super fast and really fun to sail. I got a taste of what the World Match Racing Tour guys experience and I can see why Catamarans are the future of our sport.
That’s us on the green boat
Before I knew it I was on a plane to China, eager to race for the first time since Weymouth. The venue was way better than anything I had expected and everyone was really friendly and happy to have me there. The sailing was really interesting with massive amounts of current and tricky winds. I felt great and I was really confident in the preparation I had put into the event. Unfortunately once the event started we had very different winds to training and I couldn’t find my way up the first beat very well. I finished a disappointing 18th but take away some valuable experience sailing in such strong currents.
City skyline acting as our launching ramp back-dropQingdao water front at sunset
The next day after I got back to Perth I was down at Westsail, WA’s biggest youth development camp coaching some of the states best youth sailors before flying home to Esperance once more where I am about to start coaching another youth development program all this week. Next weekend I am in the air again on my way to Japan to sail at Enoshima, Tokyo the Olympic venue for 2020 and host for next years world cup event. Before I know it, it will be Christmas.
