Last week I left school to go race in Cancún at the RS:X North American Championships.
I was there as a member of the Quebec Voile International team.
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| Quebec Voile International at the Opening ceremonies. |
We had two training days, a rest day, a practice race day, and 4 days of racing (song to the tune of a "Twelve Days of Christmas").
On our second day of training we had a little adventure. We sailed to Isla Mujeres for lunch.
It was not quite as windy as we had hoped for, but
windy enough to be railing. Railing is when you are sailing upwind with the
centerboard down and have your feet in the beating straps. You are lifting up
the windward rail of the board and pushing against the leeward rail and the
centerboard. This can be almost as fast as planning upwind, but with a more
reliable angle.
We did different speed drills on the way. We worked on body and sail positioning and pumping. I enjoy long distance sails with speed testing partners because it allows you to get into the groove and test new things, but also requires enormous amounts of concentration. I was working on keeping my head out and using the uphaul line to get farther out and in greater suspension. This upwind sail was great for me to get by confidence up. It showed me that my technique was good, even in the chop. It is important for me to have confidence in my technique, especially at a mid-grade event like this, so that I follow my skill set and do not get sucked into making mistakes of those around me.
It took 2.5 hrs to get there and needless to say I was starving and exhausted. Our coach boat ran out of gas before reaching shore and a teammate slowly pulled her to shore! At lunch I fell asleep and kept taking catnaps until my team tracked down a way to fill the boat with gas. My coach had considered having us camp out on the island for night as an adventure, but I had homework to turn in early the next morning, so we sailed downwind to Cancún in a little over an hour. It took a lot of work because the wind had lightened to the point where you had to pump the whole way back.
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| Quebec Voile at the Event site. There was nothing there besides this sign protecting the alligators. (They eventually did put up tents for sun protection) |
My results were not nearly as good as I had expected, but
I earned the US a spot at the Pan American Games!
