49er & Nacra 17 Sailing: Keep Up Racing Skills Without Regattas

Playing Safe

Many of us are returning to the water and thank goodness for that. It's been a long break and many locations are now allowing sailing to occur with more opportunities opening up weekly. To keep us on the water let's make sure we reduce the need for rescues.

Let's all make sure our boats are in tip top condition, no breakdowns.

Let's push the limits significantly less. It's fun to sail in extreme conditions, but dial it back two notches for a while so we can enjoy more sailing.

Gameplan well, go sailing with a buddy (in another boat or board) and if that's not possible make sure someone knows your plans.

Stay upwind of your launching area where possible. Drifting back to shore might take a while, but is a great option compared to being rescued.

Upcoming Regattas?

We might be heading to the water again, but will we race? One gold medalist was recently saying how thin the racing calendar looks in the lead up to Tokyo 2020ne. We went from an Olympic lead up of back to back Worlds, each with a full warm up regatta to a lead up of 18 months without a championship.

We're speculating now, but serious racing is highly doubtful for 2020, and there are only so many Spring Classics each year.  While we might be able to get on the water, getting people from 30 countries together to do a regatta seems beyond the horizon. 

Probably the defining point between being a sailor and campaigning for the Olympics is working super hard on a full year calendar. Top campaigners work tremendously hard balancing training, racing, peaking, travel, logistics, finance, and breaks. There are a variety of thoughts on the topic, most start with working backward from the aimed peak (Tokyo Games) and then put in place serious tests six months previous, then a break, then some hard work and lighter tests, another mini break, and a peak for the games. The previous regatta calendar made that pretty easy with the down under tour or Worlds. Tokyo 2020ne is looking much harder, with many speculating the next big regatta will be Palma 2021. 

Fact is, we don't yet know how this is going to play out, so while we don't have regattas, the only way to stay in game shape is pretending... Sailing is a mental game anyways, so to fine tune the brain, let's read and imagine we're racing as best we can.

As such, we've put a collection of the best sailing books on our site, so have a look and keep your racing stills up with deep thoughts.

Also, gold medal coach Jon Emmett has done a coaching tutorial online (he's also the author of a few publications.) Make sure to subscribe to their channel as they aim to put out weekly sessions.

Our expanded store has everything a sailor might need.

During the self isolation period we have been busy building out our classes sailing store with all the great sailing products you could ever need. From dinghy gear to big boats, exercise equipment to O2 sensors, we are aiming to get you any sailing product you might want along with items that are suitable for the times. Have a look. All proceeds of the website go to the classes - thanks for the support!