A funny thing happened on the way to the port side..

I've just finished reading Clive Woodward's book about the 2003 Rugby World Cup called "Winning" (Sorry about 2007 lads, you did us all proud). Clive laid out his plan for elite rugby in incredible detail but the basis of his approach to coaching was apparently always 'Coach the basics well'.

This resonated with a something I read in one of Eric Twiname's books where he talks about tacking. It goes something like "A well executed tack is a thing of beauty, but it can also win you a race". So I had a real look at my aims and objectives and realised that my training sessions are not nearly focused enough. They usually are pretty nebulous and go something like "I'll do a little bit of this, some of that, then some more of this" and the whole thing usually goes tits up when I get to the lake and decide the weather isn't advantageous to what I want to do.

So when it became apparent I could grab a couple of afternoons sailing this week I decided to work things out in a bit more detail and be more specific about what I want to achieve. I've read heaps about what makes a good tack but to be honest its hard when nobody is watching you to evaluate a tack properly. I thought about ways I could know myself whether a tack was a good one and decided on the following criteria:

1. Don't lose any speed going through the tack


2. Be bang on the wind when the tack is complete


3. Be ready to tack again the second the last tack is complete

Although I would try to fulfill all the advice I've gleaned from Messrs Tan, Ainslie, Baird etc. my instinct is that, a la Turing test, if it looks and smells like a good tack it will be one, and it will be good if it fulfills the above. I decided one of my goals would be to do 30 consecutive tacks. As I've said before, the lake I sail is small and the wind was blowing 8-12 mph across its narrowest part. The longest string I managed to get in was 10 tacks so I did 3 sets. I tried really hard not to analyse the tack as I went through it but instead just tried to 'feel' it through my body. I didn't judge the tack until it was complete and then just said to myself 'yes' or 'no'.

One thing I've always had difficulty with when tacking is going round far too much. I usually have a quick look over my shoulder to see what general direction I should be pointing in when I come out of the tack, tack then trim up. I usually have to point up considerably, which of course means my sail is over trimmed and stalling as the boat comes flat.

After about tack number 20 as I moved across the boat I was suddenly aware of where the wind was and immediately stopped the turn by centring the rudder, jumping up to the side of the boat and flattening (I can do that since I lost 12 kilos!). Bang on the wind! I though it might be a fluke so immediately tacked again and the same thing happened. The next few were utter disasters - I dropped the sheet (first time this autumn with full fingered gloves on), left it too late to cross and nearly fell out etc. etc. but then did another good one.

I think my new sensitivity was partly gained by a combination of not analysing what I was doing and the successive tacking which combined to give me a 'feel' for what I was trying to do rather than an analysis of it, if that makes any sense! Now for the hard part - making all this work for me in a race.

Faaaaaan Taaaaastic Daaaaaaaay (sing it with me)

About 20 years ago when my kids were still very small I used to do a charity event every year. More often than not it was a half marathon but when I crocked my knees playing rugby and had to give up running (I was useless at it anyway - running that is not rugby. I was almost mediocre at rugby) I started to look around for something different to do. At that time I religiously read one of the quality Sundays and one week an advert appeared for a sponsored static line parachute jump for a charity supporting people with learning difficulties. The deal was you collected £50 worth of sponsorship (which in those days was considered a lot of money) and got to do the parachute jump for free.



So I duly sent in all the forms and eventually trotted off to some backwater off the M4 just the other side of Reading to be confronted with a full on ex Para staff sergeant. At first I hated his (what I thought) cocky attitude and the way he strutted around with his chest out. By the end of the first days training I realised his cockiness was actually confidence and the chest out stance was his way of dealing with a back injury that had taken him out of the service. By the end of the second days training I would have followed him naked into a room full of pissed off, well armed Taliban.



On the day of the jump everything went as it should. Islander 2 engine prop to about 2000 ft, sit on floor edge of doorway looking up and in, "Goooooo", "1000,2000,3000 check!" and there we are, floating nonchalantly toward the ground. They had a PA system giving instructions to the jumpers and at about 100ft off the deck the ground crew were gesticulating madly to me and saying something about Kent Trees. Before I could process this into something meaningful I hit the ground.



I hit the ground so hard I swear my balls went down my trouser leg, bounced on the floor and went back up again. "Ah," I thought to myself, "Bent knees". I had landed with my legs virtually straight. I made a really good show of gathering my parachute and walking to the repack area but I was in agony. Like a fool I didn't go to casualty as I was late for work (I used to work shifts) and just took pain killers for a couple of days.



Eventually the pain virtually went but there was a legacy. My left hip area has been stiff and painful in certain conditions ever since. I really found this out to my cost when sailing in light winds downwind. On starboard gybe I couldn't get my left leg comfortable without twisting my body around and virtually kneeling in the boat. Combine this with a chronic core strength imbalance through years of playing prop forward, which resulted in a real difficulty tacking from starboard to port and it was clear that if I wanted to meet my goals something had to be done.

Someone I worked with did a Pilates class and enough of were interested to get a class going after work twice a week. At first I didn't feel any physical benefit but really appreciated the relaxation side of it. Pilates is a subtle exercise form. You don't really feel you are doing much for much of the session, but our instructor insisted that the small adjustments you make to balance and posture add up in the long term. I've been doing it for 3 years now and I really look forward to the sessions. I also got religious with my stretching as well and now do my stretching set after every workout session.

Sunday was another light day with winds barely getting up to 5. Yet again I made 2 bad starts and ended up well down the fleet but something felt really different going down wind - I was actually comfortable on both sides of the boat and didn't need to twist my body around - I could sit on the side and lean into the boat to get on the centre line, and not have to virtually lie along it. Not only that, I could roll tack the boat just as effectively from starboard to port as well! Normally in these conditions I can't wait to get off the water, but I stayed out an extra hour or so just enjoying the freedom of movement in the boat. Why this should have happened so suddenly I don't know. Maybe the changes have taken place gradually and I haven't noticed so much because we've been lucky and haven't had light conditions so much this summer.

So my message to anyone over 50 is to have faith that your body can change for the good even at this age. It might take a bit longer, it might take a bit more effort but with the right program things will happen!

Fantastic day.

Light air

Spot on with my guess about where the boat was letting in water. Just a hairline crack of about 5 cms but that was enough on the plane to let in all that water. Even more worrying was that when I stuck a screwdriver in to get out any lose stuff, the crack doubled in size really easily. At some stage all that old filler is going to have to come out, but that's a job for next spring/summer.





I used a West system epoxy with some of the white filler in to fill the crack. After rubbing it down today I decided to get out on the water for a bit but the wind had dropped to almost nothing. As is usual at my lake the wind would fill in a bit and then drop so I decided to go out for the race.



Only 7 other boats were on the line so it wasn't going to do my series average any harm even if I just finished. The port side was favoured so I lined up there bang on the line, not wanting to move to far away from the line as its embarrassing when you're a few boat lengths away and the wind drops, leaving you struggling to cross the line when everyone else is away.



I was lined up a bit to bang on and was OCS, so had to go back. I wasn't hugely upset as I could see the windward mark, which was only about 10 boat lengths away, was in a shadow and the middle of the fleet was already caught up around it. I went wide around the bunch and caught a little puff with a clear lane and pulled back 5 places. What is it they say? If you're not OCS occasionally you're not trying hard enough!



But as is the way in these fickle conditions, it didn't take too long to go tits up. I got myself in a nice little hole and then started going backwards. A couple of other tactical errors mainly associated with not reading the shifts (as far as they are readable) left me going backwards even further, so I ended up with precisely my bottom line - 8Th!

I've really decided to throw myself into a weight loss campaign before Christmas so I have a new mantra: 10k in 10 weeks. The first week was good but this week has been difficult and I've learnt something really interesting. I've been feeling really tired and listless and I've found it even more difficult than usual to do my morning training sessions. However, looking back at my nutrition profiles for the last few days I found that I really overdid protein at the weekend (went over to my dad's to watch the Rugby World Cup quarter final. He lives with my sister and they are all real carnivores!) at the expense of a lot of carbohydrate. As the week's gone on and I've been eating my usual 55-60% I've started to feel better. I thought that as I wasn't full on training, imbalances such as this one wouldn't have much effect, but now I'm not so sure. Of course, there might be other reasons for my lack of oomph but this looks to be the root of the problem.

A whole weekend on the water to look forward to - Disabled sailor's club on Saturday and a Thames Valley Grand Prix event at Burghfield on Sunday. Better make sure I get some extra carbs in before Saturday!