Late on Thursday the call was made to run the next round of the Irish Speed Sailing Championships in Belmullet, County Mayo so first thing Friday i rang the usual B&B, the Leim Siar Bed and Breakfast to book my accommodation for Friday and Saturday night but unfortunately Hannah wasn't taking bookings that weekend so tried to find alternative accomodation. I couldn't find anything for Friday night but managed to get a Twin room in the Broadhaven Hotel on the way into Belmullet for 120 euros a night for myself and Steve Flannagan so it worked out as 60 euros each which is pretty cheap for a Hotel. The hotel itself is very comfortable and the Breakfast is a buffet where you can have as much as you want so keeps you pretty full for most of the day.
As i didn't have anywhere to stay on Friday i had to drive up on Saturday morning so tried to get some sleep and got up at 3.30am and left to drive up to Belmullet from Tralee, County Kerry at 4am. First part of the journey was pretty quick as there was not too many people on the road but once i got North of Galway the roads got worse and had to slow down a bit and got there just after 9.30 so made decent time, although i was really tired after not getting too much sleep and having to get up early.
Anyway i started to rig and as it was blowing 23-25 knots i decided to use my Starboard I-Sonic 87 with 30m Vector Maui EX Speed fin and 5.8m KA Koncept. Once on the water it was really choppy and hard to get any decent speeds and no matter what i did i couldn't get over 28 knots. I think my main problem was after having a couple of pretty big crashes earlier in the year I'm having a bit of a mental block sailing fast when it is like this, something i will definitely have to work on as my kit is not the thing holding me back. I decided to go and have a break for lunch after a couple of hours on the water, gather my thoughts and Psyche myself up to get better speeds.
After lunch i had a quick look at my kit and loosened the out haul which made the sail a bit baggier and lowered my boom and hit the water. It seamed the wind direction had changed slightly and was at a better angle to sail parallel to the chop and managed to get a 30.87 knot max speed which i was a bit happier with. One of my other problems i had was as i havn't been on the water alot due to injury or lack of wind i have lost a bit of muscle endurance and i ended the session with massive cramps in both of my Calf's in my legs and Cramps in my arm's. Now the wind is back watertime shouldn't be a problem but i have invested in a cross trainer to work on my fitness.
I ended the competition in 1oth place (6th Master) and am now 6th in the overall rankings so have dropped 1 place from 5th which i am not too happy about so i will have to focus on getting back up the rankings so hopefully i can finish higher when the season ends.
Looking forward now to competing in the Europeans in Dungarven next month, unfortunatly the first round was canceled due to a bad forcast. We would have had wind for maybe 2 days but really marginal for the rest of the week so the right decision was made to wait until the forcast improves, just hope we get wind for either of the last 2 rollovers so the event will take place and i can work on increasing my PB's .
Got to use my Pro Motion 5/3mm Winter Suit for the first time and it is very warm when on so should be perfect for this winter. The no fatigue forearms worked well aswell not restricting my arms and never felt tight at all which was my my problem with my last winter suit
Only picture i got from the day was when i was walking out.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment