So 2014 has kicked off with a busy schedule, I have already
had a great time in Rio training and competing for the past 2 weeks and I am
now waiting for my flight to Miami. December was very quiet with almost no
sailing at all to try and refresh myself and get my motivation back up after a
long season last year.
Overall I was close to achieving what I had hoped for and
would have been happy with when planning at the beginning of 2013. I achieved my
goal of top 12 at the European championships and also managed to reach a couple
of top 10 medal races at the World cups which was something brand new for me.
The only slight disappointment looking back was the final day of the Worlds in
November, I went into the last race with the opportunity to finish with my goal
of top 20 overall but picked up a poor race and finished 28th. It
could have gone either way and it was by far my best result to date at a senior
World championship so I was not upset with the result. After some good time off
and having got back in the boat in Rio I am really looking forward to making
this year’s worlds count and it’s going to be an important one as it’s the
first event to qualify your nation for the 2016 Olympic games.
Having finished training in Rio today, I am happy with how
things are looking this early in the season. I haven’t felt rusty at all apart
from a bit of fitness lacking which is all back up to speed now. I finished 3rd
and 5th in the two regattas I took in. It was nice to do some racing
against some of the top guys in the World again. Both of the events were really
interesting, a huge amount of tide on most of the course areas and more wind
then I expected and had seen when we came over in August which is their winter.
The tide effects are going to be key here and it will be really important to
know what it does with all the channels and land effects as well. Saying that,
it is a lot easier said than done here and can be very unpredictable!
For now it is time to get sorted in Miami with my boat and
get back out on the water over the next few days and try and get some lighter wind
practice in ready for the Miami Olympic classes regatta in a couple of weeks
time and also the OCR in Lauderdale just afterwards. The Miami OCR kicked off
my 2013 to a good start so I am very much looking forward to going back!
