Zander Kirkland reflects on he and his brother Jesse Kirklands progress, “We have gotten back to business here in Weymouth after a furlough for a few days in Cornwall (far southwestern England), where we laid low and hung out with some old family friends in the shire. Our muscles were appreciative of the reprieve and left us ready to attack this final 6 days of training.”
“Training by yourself in any normal boat is usually hard to motivate to create a productive practice, but in this boat at our level, it is fine. We have had breeze over 15 kts the entire time, with the bulk of it being in the 18-20 kts+ range, so "the beast" is quite handful in itself. Our first two days we sailed double sessions, logging a solid 4 hours both days, enough to be sore and falling asleep on the couch before 10 (so lame, but that's the reality of what these boats do to you). Don't get me started on how much I am eating, lots of protein and carbs,” continued Kirkland.
Kirkland went on to say, “Today was windier than the past few days and as we sailed into the harbor, right as we lowered our wires and powered her up, bammm...both of us fly into the water to windward. We look up and see the main down three feet from the hoist...we ripped the head out of our main! The eye fitting in the head pulled out of the kevlar/mylar head, leaving the main sagging and us in the water. We got her back to the sailing club, got the sail to the sail maker and got the sail back and made it out for a quality, early evening session in a solid 15-25kts. It was a good session with some good breeze gybes and tacks. Also I am focusing on my trimming from staying straight out, fully lowered, which is easier said than done, but essential at the international level.”
“Although this extra practice time is not glorious (we are alone, the weather is miserable and the wind is relentless), it has been great for our sailing and just what we needed,” concluded Kirkland.
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