Monday, February 11, 2008
Life after the worlds
whats next for me? i dont know. I have i14 sailing and canoe sailing for me this comming summer. my goal is to make it to australia in 2009 for the i14 worlds and i plan on the 2011 ic worlds in germany. i met some really amaizing people canoe fleet and i feel at home amongst this fleet.
im slowly going to change this blog to a general sailing blog. ill record all of my adventures and what not.
once again, i would like to thank everybody for their help. it means alot to me.
cheers
Mikey
Saturday, January 19, 2008
sailing pics
Friday, January 11, 2008
story of aus


after a few wrong turns, i was dropped off at any empty house, appropriately nicknamed the the Cathrine street bachelor pad, dropped off my junk and went down to the club to find my house



the next day (30th) is measurement day. i managed to get there early and put my boat in the front of the line. i started getting a little bit nervous, not about my boat not measuring in, i was just worried about finding out how much over weight my boat was. turns out everything measures and my boat is not fat! the min weight is 83.5 kilos and my boat weighed 86.5! i was excited. as soon as that was done, i took a ride to melbourne to pick up john's moth. john was unfortunate or fortunate enough to sail the sock puppet. the pre-cursor to the developmental rule. very interesting boat. anyways we decided to go pick up the moth to play around on lay days.





the morning o the worlds i had major butterflies. it was the moment of truth. rigged up. double checked everything. dressed and even sailed out early. and of course i capsize with 30sec before the start. at that point it was blowing 12-15knts. it looked like a decent day of sailing. right after the start the wind died off and not only did i screw the start, but i picked the wrong side of the course each and every time. i finish the race in 13th. by the second race the wind gets a bit more steadier and a bit windier, have a great start, full speed and in the top of the pack. unfortunately a competitor to leeward me tacked on to starboard which forced me to make the decision of either cut him in half or crash tack. so i crash tacked and ended up going for a swim. the rest of the race i played catch up, and i finished in 12th. not the best day of sailing.

the next day we had 3 races schedualed but it was to windy, so we had a layday. the day after that was good enough to go sailing. 15-18 knts in the morning. looked like a good day. i was excited because i do better in wind. i reached out to the race course having a good time and then all of a sudden i hear this wiered sound... i thought it was just a wae crashing across my bow. next thing i know everything felt sloppy and depoward. capsize the boat and there is my daggerboard broken. 15 min of cursing and getting my mainsail down, i got the boat upright and and sailed back to the beach. and that was end of my day of sailing. this is the second thing that delaminated on the boat... oh well. shit happens.


eventually i borrow a spare daggerboared and case. so the next day i was out on the water. not that i wanted to be. i dont think anybody wanted to be. it was light. really light. and it was supper wavey. the wave must have been 4 feet tall. it made launching interesting. the wind continued to die. we only finished one race. the final day of racing, the 6th, was another blow out. winds ranging from 25-30 knts of wind. that didnt stop me from going out and sailing. haha. that was fun. i think everybody enjoyed the pitchpole i did right before the beach. it was stupidly windy. (yes there are pics, i just dont have them yet.)
the 7th was the new york cup, but most people were more interested in sailing. alot of people swapped boats to see what people have been up to. also there were two moth flying around. yours truly took one sailing and foiled and all. it was alot of fun. later that day was the closing dinner/award ceremony. it was a fun evening. i was third place junior and i won a watch in a bit of a popularity contest. after that we had a great dinner and an awsome party. it was a great way to end the event.



the next couple days were spent getting boats ready for the container, putting boats into the container and enjoying the landscape. it was quit special.

i had an amazing time. i met some people that i will never forget. i learned so many things and tried many new things. i think the most important thing that i learnt is that there are some really amazingly nice people out there. i got so much support in australia. i am new to the fleet and yet after this event i felt like i have been part of the ic family for twenty years. this was probably best 3 weeks of my life. i wil never forget this amazing experience. and once again, i would like to thank everybody who has supported me.

cheers
mikey
Thursday, January 10, 2008
hey guys!
cheers
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
no sailing today
more to come
cheers
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
G'Day from the land down undah'
cheers
mikey
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Australia, Here I Come!!
Thank You all!
I will update from the land down under!
Cheers
Mikey