Delft, 9 March, 2010
With the Spi Ouest closing in rapidly Team Mumma Duck is out on the water for most of the weekends. Last Saturday and Sunday the team went out to play on the Haringvliet; it was cold, it was sunny and we had fun! On Saturday we trained on boat handling with Rikst (helm), Ralph (main), Rob (tactics), Rodney (jib), Ties (spi), David (pitt) and Remko (bow). New to the boat was F18 sailer Johannes who tasted the jib trimming and some pitt moves. A northern 18 knot breeze kept us busy as the rounds where short and fast. Rob’s ultra-short lay lines and fast gybing where challenging but also kept the crew sharp and warm.
On Sunday the same crew left the harbor for a ‘Rondje Tiengemeten’ to train on offshore skills; jib and spinnaker reaching and some peeling. After an imaginary start at the harbor entrance we headed upwind in the stable 12 knot breeze. In the first upwind beat Delft Challenge showed up and gave us hard time, but after some changes we managed to get the boat into high gear. At the top mark Delft Challenge signed off for some boat handling sessions while we blasted away on a jib reach. Although the low temperatures where uncomfortable we kept up the pace while training various courses. The planned course proved to be too long so we returned to Stellendam on a high spinnaker reach before completing the whole round.
In the next weeks the team will prepare for the Spi Ouest races, hopefully in better temperatures!
Cheers,
Mumma Duck
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