Issue date
NZL Sailing Team Laser campaigner Andy Maloney updates us on some sailing ‘cross-training’ he’s been partaking in over the last couple of months…
I have just returned home from a month of exciting racing overseas where I continue to learn a heap from sailing with some of the best sailors in the world. I competed in two regattas over the past month, including Act 5 of the Extreme Sailing Series in Cardiff, followed by the Melges 32 World Championship which was held in Newport, Rhode Island.
I flew into London and caught a train to Cardiff where I met up with the rest of our Oman Air team for a week of training and racing in the Extreme 40 catamarans. Our race course for the week was situated close to shore inside a small bay, with boundary buoys everywhere ensuring that the spectators were able to view the racing up close. This tight race area coupled with windy conditions during the week made for some very exciting and close racing!
Our team sailed great over the first 3 days of racing, putting us in second overall going into the final day of competition and not far off the lead. The team nailed the final few races when it was most important, and won what was a very close event. It was great to win this Act after finishing 3rd in the previous one, and also end The Wave Muscat’s three regatta winning streak. We are now 2nd overall in the overall series standings, with two important Acts remaining.
I managed to have a couple weeks off after the Extreme 40 event, and had some time in the States visiting relatives and old friends. It was great to catch up with everyone when I had the time!
I then flew from San Fransisco to Newport, Rhode Island where the Melges 32 World Championships were held. I joined the rest of team ‘Warpath’ for a couple days of training followed by 5 days of racing to decide the 2012 Melges 32 World Champions. We were dealt a variety of sailing conditions from light wind races, to races in winds of 25knots plus. During the event was the first time I had actually raced on the Melges 32 in strong winds, and they are awesome boats to sail when it is windy! On the downwind legs in the strong breeze the boat sits on a solid 20knots of boat speed and it is all on, very fun racing!
The team sailed consistent throughout the whole week and we were in the top bunch of the fleet right to the end. We didn’t ever do anything spectacular during the week but kept it together and consistent to finish 3rd overall. It was a good result for our team and gives us plenty of room for improvement! It was great to be a part of the team and we definitely had a lot of fun during the week. The photo below is of our team, including our team chef ‘Crazy Pete’ (I am sure you can guess which one he is!!) in our ‘formal’ uniform for the regatta dinner at New York Yacht Club. The whole reason we had the crazy golf pants was because the yacht club is very fancy and doesn’t allow any denim pants, which is all that our team had brought. So Steve our owner bought us some nice golf pants which we were allowed to wear – funny that we are allowed to wear these crazy pants but not normal jeans! It was a fun night though and we did get a lot of compliments on our pants believe it or not...
In the middle of September ISAF began using a new world ranking system which only includes the past year of events. When the new rankings were released I am pleased to say I am now ranked Number 2 in the Laser World Rankings! It is cool to see my consistent results at the front end of the Laser fleet this year have moved me further up the world rankings to a new all time best.
I am home for ten days in which I have a lot of Laser training planned and quite a few meetings to make sure everything is in place for the Laser training and racing over the coming summer months as well as the whole of 2013. I’m looking forward to getting back in the boat!
I will then head to Nice, France for a week and a half for the next Act of the Extreme Sailing Series with our Oman Air team where we will do our best to continue our form from Cardiff and make some inroads on the overall series leader. After that I am back in NZ for a solid block of time to train in the Laser and get some good fitness work in which I am also very excited about and motivated to begin.
Here is a cool video of a race we won in Cardiff during the event;
Thanks to everyone for the continued support! I will update again after the Extreme 40 event in Nice...
Cheers!
Andy
