First national Squad camp, 420 End Of Seasons, 420 Lymington training and the 2nd National squad.

Kicking off the winter sailing was the first National Squad in Weymouth as a residential. Unfortunately the first day of the camp was too breezy to sail. So instead it was land drills, learning about the ways to make the sail flatter and the pros and cons of a flat sail and fitness tests. Then it was back to (not so great) PGL. Let's just say, not many of the sailors or coaches enjoyed the food.  
The second day breeze was tough. Very choppy and light. The focus was a fast flat boat and experimenting hooked and flat sails for light winds. 
Next day breeze was lush, 10-15knts. We looked at the correct seating positions for ourselves in the wind we had and scooping effectively off the start. The last day was pretty breezy but it was good to get in some windy training in 27knts. After a late start due to the wind we were finally out and getting in some good training. Lots of long upwind working on sailing and bailing quickly, body movement over the choppy waves and mainsheet controlling.

The 420 End of Seasons took place in Grafham. The past few times I've been to Grafham there's been no wind so hopefully there would be some this weekend. Typical; what a surprise, there was no wind. They cancelled it pretty early as we knew we wouldn't be able to get any sailing in. So to occupy our time we did a little bit of boat work and walked around the town. Sunday didn't look hopeful either sadly. Pretty much as soon as we got down there it was called off, so we packed up the boat and went home. Not much to talk about this weekend but we still had fun as always.

Due to no sailing at the End of Seasons, we really needed to get some sailing in. We went down to Lymington to do some training with Haydn and Mani as the coaches. Saturdays breeze was perfect for us (10-12knts). We worked on pole work, hoisting on reaches and downwind quickly; very productive.
On Sunday it was about 1knt in the morning which was really annoying as we desperately wanted to go sailing. Whilst we waited for the wind we did loads of boat work, making our boat in better condition. Thankfully the wind filled in! We focused on taking and the better technique to hoisting.

Back to the oppies. This weekend we were training in Draycote. The focus for the weekend was decision making. The wind was looking much better this weekend but very cold. On Saturday we looked at ways to spot headers and lifts and to know what the gust is going to do to you, lift or head you.
Sunday was even colder! In the morning we were working on pressure and gain features and in the afternoon there was lots of racing with the other squad.

It's been a great, successful year of sailing, lots of things to take into the future for 420's and oppies! To finish off the busy year is a national squad weekend taking place in Rutland, then a Christmas break and starting off the New Year will be another oppie squad.  #TheInsideEdge #Musto #BelieveItAchiveIt