Volvo

After a bit of a disappointing weekend at the 470 North America Championships, Sarah (Ayton) and I are looking forward to putting a few things right ahead of the start of the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta next Monday (24 January).

We’ve been out in Miami for most of this month training and been really pleased with how training’s been going but unfortunately we didn’t quite transfer that onto the racecourse at the North Americas and missed out on qualifying for the medal race.

We’re not too downhearted though because everything is still a learning experience for us, and we’re chatting through and learning from everything good and bad. It is amazing thinking Sarah and I only started sailing together a year ago and I feel very positive about where we are in the process.

To have come fifth at our first 470 Worlds together, and Sarah’s first ever 470 Worlds, last year was a big achievement, which has really given us a lot of encouragement heading into the second year of our campaign.

Credit Richard Langdon

I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive when I called Sarah this time last year to see if she would be interested in coming to helm for me at Miami.

I’d enjoyed sailing with Pippa (Wilson, Ayton’s Beijing gold-medal winning teammate) and when she decided she needed some time away from the sport I spent 24 hours deciding if I wanted to carry on. But I just felt I had unfinished business with Olympic sailing and Sarah was at the top of my list to helm. I was unsure what she was up to, whether she was match racing or even wanted to get back sailing again, but the fact it was so last minute actually meant we had no expectations or pressure on us and we could just enjoy getting to know each other and learning how to sail the boat together. It’s really pleasing how it’s all moved forward from there.

We had a day off on Monday and myself and the British 470 boys headed off to the Everglades. It’s about an hour’s drive from where we’re staying in Coconut Grove and when we set off it was a nice Miami day. As we got further south though it started getting overcast and started spitting until when we arrived at the Everglades it became a full-on monsoon! We sat in the car for 10 minutes wondering what to do and then gave up and went to a mall. Not really what we had in mind!

The rest of the week has been training for the Miami OCR, with the mornings spent doing squad stuff and then in the afternoon taking part in the coach-organised racing that’s going on, with around 40 boats international boats taking part. Our racing communications, including tactics and strategy, were always our main focus for this part of the year and that’s what we will be really concentrating on at the Miami OCR.

It’s always nice to get a good result but the bigger picture is more important. 

Follow us and our fellow Team Volvo for life sailors as we campaign for 2012 on Facebook www.facebook.com/volvocarssailing

Saskia Clark

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