Much as I love Weymouth it is slightly harder to convince yourself to go training in 2 degrees and a northerly wind than when the temperature is in double figures, especially when you need to be off the water by 16:00 due to lack of daylight. Hence my mind wanders back to Vilamoura and the great work Vilamoura Sailing did with the 2020 RSX Europeans and continue to do with the Portugal Grand Prix and hopefully the 2021 470 World Championships.

It seems forever since I have done any international class racing and the “rust” showed. Simple decisions can make all the difference and my decision making was perhaps not what it should have been!

Being out of practice I decided that it was definitely worth doing the Practice race and the conditions were glamour. Indeed, it turned out to be the best conditions of the whole regatta. Big waves and a strong sea breeze kicked in at 15:00 like clockwork. I picked up the boat from Jean-Luc Michon the day before the practice race. It actually belonged to his daughter Pernelle. We collected our Australian boats in Melbourne at the same time. Therefore the boat was only 1 number different from my boat at home and with my sail, tiller, and South East sailing ropes (plus Gareth Griffiths traveller) it felt exactly the same as my boat at home.

I always do my best to be prepared both as a Coach and a Sailor, and attention to detail on race day can make all the difference to one’s performance. We need to remember that weather forecasts are just that, forecasts: they can be wrong (or often it is just a case of the timing being off).

Therefore, when heading to the water I always try and be ready for anything. More food and drink than I can possibly use (and in the case of the Coaching RIB, more fuel) and suitable clothes should the weather turn significantly hotter or colder.

I guess my biggest project during Covid-19 crisis has been Restart Sailing. To get people back on the water sailing safely. We have of course seen extremes with some people very unwilling to leave their houses to others who just wanted to carry on as normal. Of course, this was perhaps led by their own personal experiences or scientific knowledge. Personally, I have had friends die and other friends who had the Corona Virus with absolutely no symptoms whatsoever. The good news is sailing is probably one of the best and safest activities we can be doing and the ILCA Nationals is one of the few Nationals going ahead this year and will be definitely be featured on the next show.

The aim of Restart Sailing was clear. To help people get back to sailing in a safe and fun way by carefully managing the risks. A packed changing room is obviously not a safe place if someone may have/be spreading the virus. Whereas once out on the water, hopefully on a nice sunny day and strong wind is perhaps the best environment you can be in! The RYA have done a great job here and I want to thank the RYA’s Racing Director Ian Walker for appearing on the Restart Sailing show.  The  show is shown live every 2 weeks on the Coach Yourself to Win Facebook page and then uploaded to the jonemmettsailing YouTube channel.

This weekend I did my 1st Sunday club race of the season at Castle Cove Sailing Club. The conditions in Portland harbour were great: 20 knots, gusting 26 although there are no photos to prove this because the race team of Kev and Dave had their hands full looking after the fleet and perhaps for me it was good there was no photographic evidence after such a long time out of the boat.

Well I was going to write a blog entitled, “We are going to the Olympics” and then… everything changed.

Laser2020 seems a long time ago and so much has changed since then. With the 2020 Radial World Championships being the final event in the qualification we did the best possible preparation. Indeed Sandringham Yacht Club feels very much like home and I do miss it. James Mitchell and his team did an amazing job and I also need to say a special thanks to Ajay and Hannah who looked after our stuff over the Christmas holidays. You can see many interviews from all these events (Standard Worlds, Radial Worlds and Masters Oceanic Championships) on the Jonemmettsailing youtube channel.

We are Going to the Olympics!

Well I was going to write a blog entitled, “We are going to the Olympics” and then… everything changed.

Laser2020 seems a long time ago and so much has changed since then. With the 2020 Radial World Championships being the final event in the qualification we did the best possible preparation. Indeed Sandringham Yacht Club feels very much like home and I do miss it. James Mitchell and his team did an amazing job and I also need to say a special thanks to Ajay and Hannah who looked after our stuff over the Christmas holidays. You can see many interviews from all these events (Standard Worlds, Radial Worlds and Masters Oceanic Championships) on the Jonemmettsailing youtube channel.

Looking back it seems a long time ago I won the Apprentice Masters Worlds in Holland and you may be surprised to read that I was not completely happy with my performance. Lack of practice in light areas showed and it is definitely something I need to work on. Read more...

“This is how it ends,” I thought to myself as the boom pushed down hard on my buoyancy aid, pinning me to the centreboard casing as the boat, slowly, ever so slowly, capsized. The relationship with a new boat is always a difficult one. The 49er certainly taught me a few lessons, the hard way, which I will long remember, and this was perhaps the Solo’s way of teaching me that you need to let the kicker off before you tack!

And now for something completely different! After 3 regattas in a row (Princess Sofia, Hyeres, and the Europeans) it was time for a well-earned holiday, and what better than have my first ever attempt to foil, and where better than Murcia!

The beauty of Provela is there are several boats all designed to foil such as the F101, Whisper, Whazp, Moth, rather than retrofitting hulls which for example may well weigh 3 times as much as a Moth if not more. The F101 is a trimaran with code zero, meaning it can foil in the lightest of winds and when it comes off the foils it is super stable. Think of foiling with stabilisers. The Whazp and Moth are the other end of the scale, a tiny boat (think body of Waszp or Moth with wings) and just 1 sail. Finally, with the Whisper you can tick all the boxes: twin trapeze, jib, main and asymmetric spinnaker. With Simon Cooper, we got it to foil both up and downwind, admittedly on quite hot angles due to the wind.

Hyeres has always been one of Tuula’s favourite regattas, and Hyeres 2019, just like 2017, came down to the final race with Tuula guaranteed Silver but needing 4 boats between her and Mari Erdi to guarantee Gold. A good start and good positioning gave Tuula the points difference she need. You can see her celebrating her win here.

Finishing 4th is always frustrating to say the least and this is where we ended up at the Princess Sofia regatta after a photo finish in a big wind and big wave medal race…

After racing in Miami, it was back to Europe for our next training block, this time in Spain. Having done 2 camps in Vilamoura, we moved to Cadiz for this one, and started training as soon as Tuula had finished her latest exam. The advantage was it also meant that we were able to do a regatta, Andalusia Olympic week, where Tuula finished 3rd behind her training partners for the week, Sarah Douglas and Emma Plasschaert.

Jon will once again be doing book signings at the 2019 Dinghy show.

Well I am writing this blog, like so many others, on a plane heading back home from a regatta. This time the regatta was the Miami World Cup, and shortly after landing I will be meeting Tim Hulse who looks after the GBR Youth training for the UKLA (check out his interview on the UKLA Facebook page).

Jet lag! Well I was truly suffering at the beginning of January, not because of the holiday season festivities which were quite some time ago but due to the severe jet lag caused by travelling from China to Miami (with stop offs in Helsinki, London and New York on route, so as to keep the cost down). I was so exhausted, not just with the physical tiredness, but mentally, and nothing to do with old age as several of my peers have recently admitted to putting a credit card in the fridge or finding themselves half way up the stairs and too tired to remember if they were on their way up or down! In an effort to kill the jet lag I finally went for a run after 3 days but even then, I managed to get lost in Miami, the place with the most local street names ever. Coming back after having been away for over twice as long as expected I found a very worried Tuula who had been googling how to contact  people regards a missing person!

Summary of the year so far...

A summary of 2018

Well the year is gradually drawing to a close and I write this as I pack to head out for Vilamoura, Portugal, for our 2nd Camp there. With the temperature in the UK dropping sharply we are able to access much warmer training here, on the same time zone, with just a 2 hour flight. Tuula enjoyed a long break from sailing after Japan and now is on the way back up while Lucia is working hard in Argentina, where the weather is much better than Europe this time of year!

It was wonderful to see 4 of our training group make it to the top 10 in Japan and therefore qualify for the medal race, with Josefin Olsson with  SWE coming top with silver overall (Hannah Snellgrove GBR 4th, Tuula Tenkanen FIN 5th, and Alison Young GBR 8th)… with less than 2 years to go to the Olympic Games themselves and most MNAs (Member National Authorities, for example the RYA) are  starting their Olympic trials in the next 6 – 12 months it is going to be a very busy time. Although it is interesting to note that Marit Bouwmeester NED not only won the event but her MNA selection as well (qualifying for her 3rd games at Tokyo 2020).

As I write this the World Cup finale in Marseille seems a long time ago. Indeed next week I shall be jumping on a plane to Japan to start preparation for the 1st World Cup of the 2018/2019 season and it may be the last full World Cup series we do in this cycle because in the Olympic year the World Championship (in Victoria during February) and venue specific training in Enoshima take priority.

It seems as if I have been spending all my time in France recently, with Hyeres (World Cup), La Rochelle (Radial Europeans) and now Marseille (the World Cup final.) It makes me feel it would have been very helpful to have learned French better when I studied in school. Although I guess it is not just French, as in recent years I have been encouraged to learn Spanish, Finish, Chinese and even Hebrew!

It was with some sadness I travelled to Hyères in 2018 for the last Hyères World Cup. Hyères has been part of my life for well over twenty years and having probably spent an average of 3 weeks there every year during this time, I have effectively lived there for over a year of my life. A lot longer than I spent at some addresses in my younger life! From 2019 onwards, the European leg of the World Cup will take place in Genova.

I am writing my first blog of 2018 from Sunny Miami preparing for the 1st World Cup of 2018 where we have so far enjoyed hiking conditions every day, I am working with Tuula Tenkanen from Finland and Lucia Falasca from Argentina and we have enjoyed some super productive training days working with Alison Young and George Povall from the UK, along with their coach Penny Clark.