Malta49er

Short Course Training

Christmas is well and truly over and we’re back to business. Long lazy meals by a cosy fire are merely a fantasy as I step into my soggy wetsuit for the second time today. The cold winter wind is crisp. Motivation is hard to come by but I push my feet forward and hope my body will follow. It’s always hard to make the first step, but once we’re out on the water the drowsiness gets forcefully washed off and we rise up to the challenge: to qualify Malta for the London Games.

15 Nations have already been selected: Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Great Britain, Austria, USA, Ireland, Germany, Poland, France, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Portugal and Croatia.

The remaining 5 nations will be selected in Croatia this May and what a fight it will be for those spots. Italy will surely take one. Then it is quite an equal fight for the other four places between: Canada, Brazil, Malta, Japan, Russia, Greece, Uruguay, Belgium, Estonia, Bermuda, Chile, Mexico…those are the main contenders. This is the fight that gets us of bed and onto the water. It’s a tough challenge but not unrealistic. We have set ourselves the goal of turning up to Croatia as the best helm and the best crew out of all the contending teams. A goal we can achieve if we work hard.

So January is drawing to an end and we’ve already had two weeks training by ourselves, and one week with Max Groy; one of our coaches and former Olympian. It has been a slightly monotonous affair doing countless hoists, drops, mark rounding’s, tacks, starts: dissecting a race and perfecting each little bit.

February will bring a new chapter as we head off to Palma de Mallorca for a months training camp with some international teams such as the Germans, Pols and Swedes; a good opportunity to raise our game. The clock is ticking. It is time to give it all we’ve got.

Our press interview in the La Valette Lounge at MIA

After a long and intensive 10 days of training it was time to drop our coach, Kolja Volkers, off at the airport and take a little breather. The training was quite tough since for the better part of it a strong SouthEaster was blowing kicking up 2m high waves and gusts well above the 20kts. Moreover the breather isn’t for that long because this evening in comes our other coach, Max Groy, a former 49er sailor who we use as a technical expert.

As we had a little chat in the La Valette Lounge at the Malta International Airport, a few journalists came to ask us some questions and we were forced to reveal our programme running up to the Olympic Qualifiers. With counsel from Kolja, we have decided to give the 1st Qualifiers in Perth a miss. Due to Benji’s injured knee, we think it much more prudent to remain in Malta and use November and December for light sailing and a good sports physio recovery programme for Benji’s knee rather than going to Australia and face the risk of worsening his injury.

Thanks, to MIA’s support during September and October we managed to put in some good hard hours which have really raised our standard. The results from the Italian Nationals clearly show that. So we now plan to spend November and December building back Benji’s strength. If MIA were to continue to support us into the new year, which we are currently discussing, we plan 3 intensive training camps for the months of January, February and March. Each camp would be two weeks long and the first two will be in Malta, hopefully with some training partners coming over from Italy. The camp in March will take place in Palma de Majorca where we will have our first big international regatta of 2012 later on in April.

We also talked about trying to promote Malta as a training destination for Northern European Sailing teams. Most Nothern teams fly south for winter training, notably using Cadiz or the Canary Islands. However, as our coach Kolja noticed, “Maltese winter conditions are perfect for training. With a little investment into facilities this could be a big training venue for Northern European countries.” We must have something to offer if, even the Italians would consider leaving their country for it!

Team EC and the Italians at the start of our first day in Trapani

This weekend, we’ve been at The Extreme Sailing Series in Trapani, Sicily for our second leg of the series on the European Tour. On day 2, we took part in some stadium sailing right in front of the spectators and we were up against the Italian 49er team, Matteo Gritti and Ruggero Tita. Gritti is a seasoned sailor who has been competing in the 49er class since 2003 and has won the 49er National Regatta a staggering 12 times and is the current 29er champion! Ruggero graduated from the Optimist class where he claimed the Italian and Swiss Optimist Champion title in 2005, he then moved into the 49er class and won the national champion title in 2010.

Read more about us at The Extreme Sailing Series here.