Issue date
Another busy month has come and gone. The beginning of 2015 is flying by! Since returning from Miami in early February, I have been back into my NZ summer training routine that has included lots of sailing and fitness work. The conditions have been ideal to work on some areas that were identified from racing in Miami, and it has been awesome to see some gains there. Besides having all the other NZ Laser guys out to train with, I have also been fortunate to have a group of international sailors training with us off off Takapuna for the past month which has made training that much more intense and beneficial.
After those few solid weeks of training were completed, it was once again regatta time with Oceanbridge Sail Auckland being raced out of Akarana Yacht Club in the Waitemata Harbour. It’s the one event each year that I compete in, racing with the Auckland City skyline in the background and it really is a cool spectacle. Being inside the harbour makes it a very tricky event, with so many different factors coming into play including the shifty offshore winds, crazy tidal flows, ferries and other general public water traffic making for a very confused sea state! The Dutch sailors that had been training with us the previous weeks, and a few other top foreigners made the entry in the Laser fleet really strong at the top so the scene was set for yet another tight battle.
Three of the four race days turned out to be very similar, with blue skies and light winds. There was a lot of waiting around for wind and some late days on the water fitting in a couple races in the late afternoon/evening South West breeze that would eventually make it down to our race area. The other race day was the strangest weather I have ever experienced in Auckland. With sunny skies in the morning, a couple hours of thunder and lightning, again followed by blue skies in the late afternoon made for a really interesting day on the water. It was a little scary to feel some tingling sensation through my mainsheet when one bolt of lightening struck so close to us that there was no time gap between seeing it and hearing the loud cracking noise! Back to the racing… There was nothing separating the top six of us over the first three days. After racing in mostly shifty light to medium winds, and having only completed six races going into the final day it was still all to play for. Light airs greeted us once again and only one race was completed. I finished 3rd in the race to move into the overall lead and because there was no more wind for the remainder of the day on our course areas, it meant I took the event out by the slimmest of margins! It turned out to be a NZL Sailing Team 1, 2, 3, with the overseas guys coming through in 4th, 5th, and 6th. Having been beaten by the foreigners at this event on our local waters for the past two years, it was a nice feeling to finally get one back on them!
With the foreigners here to train for only one more week after Oceanbridge Sail Auckland, we were quick to get back into it and make the most out of having them down here in NZ. Another productive week training off Takapuna was finished off in the most brutal way I can imagine, with no other than the OKI 24hr Race being held over the weekend! After winning the event last year with Dutch teammate Nicholas Heiner, we thought we would have a crack at defending our 2014 title and team up again for this years edition.
The OKI 24hr Race runs from 2pm on the Saturday, non stop until 2pm on Sunday. It really is 24 hours of hard work and this year was going to be no exception with a forecast of 15-30 knots of wind for that 24hr period, we knew we were in for the most painful experience yet! We arrived down to Lake Pupuke a couple hours early on Saturday to give ourselves time to really check over the boat and make sure we had safety systems and back up ropes in place where we could. It was definitely one of the main concerns, would everything hold together for 24 hours of windy racing… The atmosphere down by the lake pre-race was definitely a mixture of excitement, nerves and a few worried faces wondering around in anticipation for the start. Due to 15-25 knot strong winds at the start of the race around 2pm, the classic Le Man style start of the 24hr Race was replaced by a unique ‘gate’ start, which to be honest was just as exciting for the sailors and spectators alike. Being such a long race, I wont give you a play by play because you would be reading all day! The highlights for me would have to include; blasting downwind in 25knots along side mates numerous times throughout the 24 hours, battling upwind on Saturday evening in a five minute 30 knot plus squall, and then having an epic battle with Sam Meech/Mike Bullot over the final few hours of the race on Sunday afternoon. And finally, after 24 hours of hard work and minimal sleep, it was nice to be able to say that Nic and I had defended the title and were the OKI 24hr Race champions for 2015! It was all good fun and great memories to look back on. A massive thank you to all of the sponsors, and especially OKI for being the main sponsor for so many years now. It was cool to meet Mr Dennie before the race, the big boss of OKI and have him down there watching the start in which everyone was able to showcase to him what the race is really all about. Fierce competition, brutally hard work, and good fun all in one! Also, a big thanks to Murrays Bay Sailing Club for again putting on an awesome event, in some very testing conditions.
After spending a day recovering physically and catching up on sleep. It is back into training and off to Tauranga for another training camp later this week. Looking forward to mixing up the venue and getting back into the training down at the Mount. My next event is the first European ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta of 2015, held in Hyeres, France, in April. Looking forward to getting over there and lining up against the worlds best! I’ll be sure to update everyone again after that.
Thanks for the continued support!
Cheers,
Andy
