COOL, CALM and COLLECTED Aug 25, 18:01
The headline pretty well sums up the day -- as well as our superb sailing team manager, Craig "Monkey" Monk (NZL), with whom I caught up for a few minutes after the yacht had returned to shore and he got into some warm, dry clothes.
I paraphrase, but Craig had the following observations in no particular order:
+ Cool: it was cold out there. Not only the water, but the air, too. We won't ever complain about Valencia being too hot. We miss sailing in shorts and t-shirts. The guys' hands were especially cold, and we all will be adding a layer or two of warmer clothing tomorrow.
+ Calm: routine, even fun day at the office. The 22-24 knots in the second race was as much wind as we have raced with since Marseille [Act 1] a year ago. The broken spinnaker pole aside (which was not a design or contruction problem), the boat was great. Shore team have done a nice job. Only problem was that all the wind blew the couscous out of our lunch packs and made the cockpit floor slippery. No more couscous in the lunches!
+ Collected: Dicko, Gavin, Eric, Fresh and Larry [the afterguard] were a solid unit. Won both starts handily, and they got us around the track well. Larry probably sailed two-thirds of each race, taking the wheel on the second leg and finishing out both*. Shosholoza were quicker than +39, and Shosholoza has made a nice step forward since Valencia -- good to see.
Craig Monk (NZL), has collected an Olympic Bronze Medalist in the Finn Class
(1992, Barcelona) and two AC wins (1995 and 2000 with Team New Zealand).
"Monkey" is our crew boss, and is a cool and calming influence throughout
the team.
*update Saturday morning 05:30 -- spoke with Dicko last night who said Larry actually took the wheel both races after the gate (start of the second lap) of each race. Monkey, who is a grinder, and others forward in the boat are so busy, and the handover to Larry normally seamless, that they often don't know for sure when the change of helmsmen took place.
I paraphrase, but Craig had the following observations in no particular order:
+ Cool: it was cold out there. Not only the water, but the air, too. We won't ever complain about Valencia being too hot. We miss sailing in shorts and t-shirts. The guys' hands were especially cold, and we all will be adding a layer or two of warmer clothing tomorrow.
+ Calm: routine, even fun day at the office. The 22-24 knots in the second race was as much wind as we have raced with since Marseille [Act 1] a year ago. The broken spinnaker pole aside (which was not a design or contruction problem), the boat was great. Shore team have done a nice job. Only problem was that all the wind blew the couscous out of our lunch packs and made the cockpit floor slippery. No more couscous in the lunches!
+ Collected: Dicko, Gavin, Eric, Fresh and Larry [the afterguard] were a solid unit. Won both starts handily, and they got us around the track well. Larry probably sailed two-thirds of each race, taking the wheel on the second leg and finishing out both*. Shosholoza were quicker than +39, and Shosholoza has made a nice step forward since Valencia -- good to see.
Craig Monk (NZL), has collected an Olympic Bronze Medalist in the Finn Class
(1992, Barcelona) and two AC wins (1995 and 2000 with Team New Zealand).
"Monkey" is our crew boss, and is a cool and calming influence throughout
the team.
*update Saturday morning 05:30 -- spoke with Dicko last night who said Larry actually took the wheel both races after the gate (start of the second lap) of each race. Monkey, who is a grinder, and others forward in the boat are so busy, and the handover to Larry normally seamless, that they often don't know for sure when the change of helmsmen took place.
Racing | by TFE
