2022 LATE SUMMER TRAINING BLOCK

I have just completed the first of two blocks of training with the entire Canadian ILCA 7 Team and new coach in Halifax. This was a great opportunity to fold back in with the rest of my Canadian teammates. I am excited to be working with Andrew and appreciate what he brings to this group, including his growth mindset, technical knowledge, and recent racing experience. The relationship between athlete and coach is an important one, and I'm pleased to be working with someone who brings so much and has such a strong commitment to the group's success.

If you'd like to get to know Andrew you can read the interview he did with Sail Canada here.

2021 VILAMOURA COACH'S REGATTAS - ROUNDS 1 & 2

After the European Continental Qualifier, I stayed in Vilamoura to train and compete in 2 more coach's regattas at the same venue. The first regatta ran for four days, the second week of May. We managed eight races in moderate wind, but I didn't have my best showing, finishing 30/33 boats. The second regatta came two weeks later after a week of hard training. By the time the second coach's regatta began, the area had begun to heat up, bringing light winds. I definitely started to get a feel for the wind pattern when it got lighter. I sailed my best regatta yet against most of the top guys going to the Olympics, placing 14/50 and beating a few pretty good sailors.

RESULTS

RESULTS

Unfortunately, because of the light and shifty winds, we only got four races off. Still, I was pleased with my performance, especially on the first beats - rounding the windward consistently around 10th except for my drop. While I certainly have a long way to go to reach my goals, this might be the first flicker of light at the end of the tunnel for performing at this level.

PHOTO: Joao Costa Ferreira - Osga.photo

2021 TRAINING BLOCK AND U.S. OPEN SAILING SERIES

Following a short break over the holidays, two of my Canadian Sailing Development Squad teammates and I safely arranged a productive training block in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, with an international training group. Training needed to continue for us to be ready if the full competition calendar in Europe proceeded this spring, beginning with Palma in March. A reasonable hope given this is the lead-up to the summer Olympics. We spent five weeks strictly maintaining our bubble, wearing masks, social distancing and refraining from entering any public buildings (grocery delivery has been a lifesaver) and getting valuable boat time. 

We had some great training conditions. I’m on the right side of the screen in this video - sail number 215019.

We got the opportunity to compete at the US Open Sailing Series Ft. Lauderdale during our training. Noting the organizer's commitment to safety protocols, I registered for my first taste of semi-international competition in nearly a year. A combination of shifty conditions plus rusty large fleet tactics and strategy skills resulted in a disappointing finish 17th of 42. My thanks to all who worked so hard to organize a safe regatta. 

Throughout this training block, I got the opportunity to experience some new things. Without support for coaching from Sail Canada right now, along with my fellow Canadian Teammates Luke and Fillah, I joined forces with the Argentine Olympic selection Francisco Guaragna and his coach Nico for the duration of the block. It was a great experience to get exposed to some new ideas and ways to approach the sport. Along with this, we got to train every day with three other Olympic selections from the US, Guatemala, and Chile. It was fantastic to show up to sailing each day and line up with guys who sail at the front of the fleet. It certainly gave me a new appreciation for the years of practice for technique accuracy and balance that these guys possess. Still have my work cut out for me, but every little step I feel is moving me towards my goal.

2020 SAIL CANADA FALL TRAINING CAMPS - COMOX, BC

Mild(er) weather and strong winds - ideal late fall training here in Comox, BC Canada!
PHOTO CREDIT: Coach Ken Dool

I'm writing to you all from Comox, British Columbia, where I'm currently training with Canadian Sailing Development Squad. With mild(er) weather and strong winds out on the Strait of Georgia, training here has been a blast. We've received excellent training so far with Sail Canada National Performance Coach Ken Dool. It's a long distance out to the Strait from our base at 19 Wing Comox’s HMCS Quadra and staying warm while sitting on the towline out has been crucial. Once out there, though, the huge waves (affectionately named “big greenies” by our coach) and good breeze have made it worth our while. These conditions are a rarity in Canada, and it's exciting to have found them in a place where we can comfortably sail into the late fall. I heard back home, there has already been a dusting of snow.

Wave practice!
PHOTO CREDIT: Coach Ken Dool

Training has been going very well, with some significant improvements coming in the waves with consistent practice. While the certainty of international racing taking place anywhere in the near future is slowly getting murkier, I look forward to testing the progress I’ve made towards my goals whenever we get to race again. My fitness is still improving nicely both on and off the water. The focus has been on sailing this past 3 weeks - with 5 days out of 7 on the water. Additionally I have been in the community centre gym here 2 days a week plus out for a bike ride another 2 days. Next week is a planned 'down' or easier week.

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The local scenery around Comox & Courtenay is pretty stunning.
PHOTO CREDITS: photo on R taken from water - Ken Dool, otherwise my photos.

On our two days off per week, I've taken the opportunity to explore the surrounding area both by bike and on foot. I have to admit that I haven't previously spent any time on our west coast, but my first experience has been a stunning one. Not only is this a beautiful part of our country, but the community has welcomed our sailing group with open arms and has been exceedingly kind. I can't say enough how grateful I am to everyone who has helped make this possible.

Heading upwind with fellow team mate and B.C. local Fillah Karim. Wind and waves have been great - and the mountain backdrop is nothing to complain about!
PHOTO CREDIT: Coach Ken Dool

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2020 SUMMER TRAINING WITH CANADIAN SAILING TEAM

I suspect some of you may be wondering where I have been and what I've been up to over this last little bit. Rest assured, my focus on the goal has not wavered. As for many others, the pandemic has introduced much uncertainty into my plans for the immediate future, including when it will be safe to compete overseas again and where I will train when the weather gets cold. Nevertheless, I remain certain about my longterm goal to ensure a Canadian Laser qualifies for the next Olympics (at the Worlds in 2022.)

As many of you know from my last update, I shifted focus to dryland training and fitness at home this spring when competitions and travel to Europe were cancelled. Missed my update?
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At the end of June, when our team received clearance to train together, I travelled to Kingston for the first Canadian Sailing Team camp after a long period of everyone training apart. We spent a week of long sessions on the water honing our skills and practicing racing again with coach Larry Lemieux.

Sail Canada Coach Larry Lemieux.
PHOTO CREDIT: ©Sailing Energy / World Sailing - 2020 Hempel World Cup Series Miami

Sail Canada Coach Lisa Ross.

After that, we loaded up the cars and trailers and travelled out to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to train for an extended period with the new CSDS Laser coach Lisa Ross. In alignment with safety protocols, our team completed a 14-day quarantine prior to fitness testing at the Canadian Sports Centre Atlantic and starting daily on-water training on St. Margarets Bay.

Quality coaching is an essential component for continued growth and improvement in this sport and will be critical to get me to the podium. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with Sail Canada Team coaches Larry and Lisa. Their depth of knowledge and experience is helping me continue to advance my skills.

Sail Canada continues to expand its role in getting our athletes back to the podium, with initiatives that include providing coaching to developing athletes with Olympic potential. With that in mind, I'd like to share an easy way for you to show your continued support for Canadian High-Performance sailing! In partnership with Helly Hansen, Sail Canada has released this great limited edition supporter's shirt. Lightweight and sweat-wicking, it's perfect for wearing while out on the water or working out. It would also make a great gift!

Click the button below to snag one (plus a tax receipt for your donation) before they are gone.

THE ROLE CYCLING PLAYS IN MY SAILING

“Aerobic fitness is the physical foundation to all sailing; the better your aerobic fitness the greater your ability is to sail at your best. As soon as you become tired, and your body can’t keep up with the physical demands being placed on it, your performance level inevitably drops and mental function takes a big hit as fatigue takes its toll.
”

— Staying in Sailing Shape by RYA

Cardiovascular proficiency is a very underrated part of sailing. Last summer I bought my first road bike and was hooked instantly on the opportunity to change up how I train my cardio. Instead of long dreary hours on the spin bike or the erg I now am out on the open road. Cycling has long been touted as a very strong training mechanism for sailing especially laser sailing. It is great training for leg strength and hiking.

Look me up on Strava if you want to keep up with my training or check out some of these articles on cycling below:

Cycling for Hiking Cross Training
Justin Norton for ISA

Staying in Sailing Shape

Cycling and the British Sailing Team - with Olympic Medallist Bryony Shaw - Winter training

Fortunately many of my fellow Canadian Laser sailors share my interest in making cycling a key component the training program so I rarely have trouble finding others to ride with.
L to R: Liam, Luke Ruitenberg and James Juhasz

WRAP UP 2018 - WELCOME 2019

WRAPPED 2018 UP WITH ONE LAST REGATTA AND KEY LEARNING

At the beginning of December, I trained and raced leading up to the District-13 championships. Unfortunately, I got sick on the second day and was hampered by a bad cold for the entire camp. This limited the amount of time I was able to function at a high capacity on the water but I made the most of it and had a really productive camp working on starting and boat-on-boat battles. For next time I know I need to be more diligent about protecting my health. Doing a 24-hour straight through drive (with someone still on antibiotics for pneumonia) followed by a hard double session in the gym and then on the bike on the first day took its toll. The racing was held out of St. Petersburg Yacht Club and we had a great steady breeze each day in the 10-14 knot range with no shifts. Strong downwind speed carried me to 3rd place however I definitely feel that I could have been more competitive had I been at full strength.

2018 D13 RESULTS

DISTRICT 13 - On the start line and taking advantage of a mid-line sag. (Sail Number - CAN 206038)

TWO BIG REGATTAS TO KICK OFF 2019
I would like to wish everyone a happy new year and thank everyone for their continued support of me pursuing my dream. 2019 marks a year of opportunity for me and it is beginning this January with the biggest regattas of my sailing career with Lauderdale OCR which serves as the 2019 Pan-Am Games country trial and Sailing World Cup Miami. Later in the year, I will be working towards the U-21 World Championships as this is my last year of eligibility and I hope to make my mark.

If you don’t already subscribe to my quarterly updates hit the button below to get all the news.

SAIL CANADA TRAINING CAMP - OAKCLIFF SAILING CENTER

Earlier this month I was fortunate to have the opportunity to join the Sail Canada Team camp at the Oakcliff Sailing Center in Oyster Bay, New York. We spent 4 days in close quarters with dorm style living for 40 people. This was an awesome opportunity to be around more senior athletes who are years ahead of me in terms of experience. Getting an up close look at what they are doing day in, day out and their advice was invaluable. One piece that really stuck with me is that you need to put in work at the next level above where you currently are, not where you are now. At this camp we spent 3 days sailing and had a fitness test. I was disappointed with my scores in comparison to my previous tests but did finally break the 7 min mark on the 2k row test. I set a personal best of 6:59 but I know there is still significant room for improvement.

Lots of support from the team!
Photo credit: Ken Dool

I will be continuing to increase my training load and focusing on my fitness in the lead up to my important winter events in Florida this January. In the meantime I am currently in Clearwater, Florida for a short training camp and then on to St. Petersburg, Florida to compete in the District 13 Laser Championships December 1-2.  

Results for D13’s should be available here once racing starts.

2018 LASER MIDWINTERS EAST REGATTA

I am recently back from a great training session and the Midwinters East Regatta in Florida. While on my reading week I went to work in preparing myself for u21 worlds in Gdynia, Poland this summer. Four days of solid training with a great group of sailors including a couple of Olympians gave me a clear insight into what it takes to be at the top of this fleet. The four days of racing were filled with difficult and puffy conditions that tested even the best sailors.  That combined with a very deep and competitive fleet resulted in more tough racing. I stumbled out of the blocks on the first day posting poor scores of 35 and 34 in the first two races. I followed that up with better and consistent finishes in the 20s and teens. I finished a disappointing 24th out of 42, but it is important to for me to remember that my focus for this regatta was on process goals and not placement goals. I found I struggled with my starts, so I will continue to focus on this more in the coming months. For now, I am back at school finishing up my semester and will be working in the gym continuing to improve my fitness until I can get back on the water again to train.

RESULTS - 2018 LASER MIDWINTERS EAST
PHOTOS - 2018 LASER MIDWINTERS EAST

TRAINING AT INTERNATIONAL SAILING ACADEMY

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I spent the final week of my school holiday break at the International Sailing Academy in La Cruz, Mexico. I learned a lot from this opportunity to sail with a great group of international sailors while getting Olympic level coaching. We spent six days of intense sailing in pristine conditions. The day would typically start with warm-up rabbit-start races followed by long upwinds consisting of lineups. On the upwinds, we focused on setting up the boat to add weight. This helped me to improve my steering through waves and timing of hiking significantly.

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We would then sail downwind back to the marina. On the downwinds, we focused on separating our upturns and downturns with a setup turn. This was a repeat of what I worked on the last time I was there last April but I was happy to revisit this crucial skill. I would like to thank Vaughn Harrison for his excellent coaching and all those who joined me for a productive week.

TRAINING AT INTERNATIONAL SAILING ACADEMY IN MEXICO

I recently got the opportunity to spend a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at the International Sailing Academy. We spent the week working exclusively on downwinds. Each day would consist of a tow up the side of the bay for about 45 minutes followed by 4 hours of champagne sailing downwind as the wind built from 5 to 20 knots. I feel this time spent helped me exponentially in an area of my sailing that I haven’t always felt the most confident about. Attached is a video I made from footage taken during my training down there.

Many thanks to Vaughn and all the staff and coaches at ISA.  I know I'm not the first to say - you provide excellent training in a top notch location for sailing.  I hope to get the opportunity to come back again soon.

2016 CANADIAN YOUTH WORLDS TEAM TRAINING CAMP

Photo Credit: Unknown

In October I was invited to join the 2016 Canadian Youth Team for a training camp in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  As an alternate for the 2016 Youth Worlds Team this was a great opportunity to both train with and race against the team at the RNSYS Fall Youth Regatta. The camp took place across 5 days made up of 3 training days and 2 regatta days. During this time we received great coaching from the likes of Lisa Ross and Ken Dool.

Photo Credit: Unknown

This was my first time going to Nova Scotia and I was surprised by how cold it was. Luckily I brought all of my cold weather sailing gear (including Rooster's Pro AquaFleece Top and SuperTherm LongJohn) and thankfully it kept me nice and warm. During the course of the 5 days the conditions were mostly medium to high winds and shifty as the predominant wind direction is offshore. Having limited experience sailing in tidal locations, it was interesting to see how much the tide comes in and out each day as the launch ramp would become significantly longer. This was a great experience as I'm sure there will be more events in similar conditions on the east coast in the future like Sail Canada Youth Nationals in 2017.

Photo Credit: Unknown

A huge thanks to Agustin Ferrario for organizing the event, charters and billeting, to my host family and all at RNSYS who made us feel so welcome. I look forward to having the opportunity to sail there again soon.

2016 RNSYS FALL DINGHY REGATTA RESULTS

PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE...

VIDEO CREDIT:  Chris Hewson, Ontario Sailing Team Coach.

Boat time is key and I'm  happy to get as much practise time in the boat as possible.  

In the early Spring months while school was still in, our team trained out of Toronto Sailing and Canoe Club and we aimed to be on the water 4 times a week - usually two evenings after school and both days of the weekend.  Once summer hit we moved to a Monday-Friday full day training schedule.

For the next few weeks we will be based in Kingston to take advantage of more consistent and heavier thermal wind conditions.  

No matter the location, one of the side benefits of being out on the water is being treated to fantastic views.  The trick is not to let them distract you :)

ICEBREAKER REGATTA 2016

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON TEAM ROOSTER SAILING GEAR BLOG

This past weekend I had the opportunity to sail at the TSCC Icebreaker Regatta in Toronto, Ontario. Perhaps the best description of this regatta is the one found on their website;

The Toronto Sailing and Canoe Club Icebreaker Regatta is a long standing tradition in the local sailing scene and a proving ground for many young sailors.  This is one of the first big regattas of the season and can be a test of skills as the weather can be a range of all types, but one thing is for sure, the water is cold!
TSCC ICEBREAKER WEBSITE

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My team, the Ontario Sailing Team, trains out of TSCC regularly and hosted a 2-day pre-regatta tune up camp with the development team to prep for the conditions. We put a lot of work into our down speed boat maneuvers to be used on a start line. This was very helpful especially when starting in close quarters with other sailors.

Racing ran Saturday and Sunday with a healthy turnout in 3 fleets - 29ers, laser standard and laser radial - despite it being a holiday weekend.  Most are local sailors, although we were fortunate to have some top notch competition make the trip from the province of Quebec to join us.  Twenty-one boats attended this year's event in the Laser Radial fleet.

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Toronto is notorious for it’s light wind and shifty conditions.  The best example of this being the 3rd race on day two, when after the laser radial’s first upwind the race committee wisely abandoned when wind readings at the top and bottom of the course were drastically conflicting. But the well experienced race committee did a great job of keeping things fair and managed to get off 5 races.

My results over both days were very consistent and I ended up with 15 points. After the drop I had 9 points which placed me in 2nd. Great starts and excellent boat speed along with staying in phase with the fleet kept me at the top of the fleet and resulted in consistently good placings including my first win of the season. I managed to exceed my goal of top 5 so I am very happy with my event.

This is a nice improvement on my showing last year of 9th place although due to light wind on two of three days of racing the race committee only managed to get 3 races off in total that year.

Next year my goal will be to take this a step further and hopefully win the regatta.

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Overall a great start to the local regatta season here in Ontario and big thanks to all who supported, volunteered, coached and competed!  

TSCC ICEBREAKER REGATTA 2016 RESULTS

SPRING TRAINING HAS BEGUN

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON TEAM ROOSTER SAILING GEAR BLOG

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The 2016 sailing season on Lake Ontario has finally kicked off for myself and the Ontario Sailing Team. Anticipation had been building as a mild winter teased us into expecting an early spring, only then to be followed by several weeks of unusually cold and stormy weather. On our first planned training date – Friday April 15th – the conditions on the water were excellent. It was a sunny day with air temperatures reaching 13°C, winds around 10 knots gusting 12 and water temperature near 1°C.
 

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Not only was I looking forward to getting back in the boat, but my new kit from Rooster had arrived a couple weeks ago and this was the first opportunity to try it out. I was particularly looking forward to putting it to the test in spring’s cooler conditions.

As many of you may know, sailing Lasers results in you getting soaked when sailing on a reach or upwind. Of course in cooler spring weather this becomes a problem as without the summer sun to warm you up when you get wet, you get cold and stay cold. I was happy to discover that the Pro Aquafleece top and Supertherm Longjohn were an excellent combination that kept me very warm. Later into the training session, my teammates were getting fatigued because of the cold. My new kit helped me stay warm for longer and allowed me to put my extra energy towards hiking. In fact, those two pieces on top of my usual summer kit kept me warm enough that I chose to wear a visor instead of a beanie which I have worn in past seasons on early spring days.

Sailing in the cold adds another layer to an already challenging sport. Proper preparation to stay warm is very important to maximizing performance. I’m thrilled to be adding Rooster’s comfortable and super warm pieces to my spring gear line up.
 

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ONTARIO SAILING MARCH BREAK TRAINING CAMP

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Just back from Clearwater Sailing Center again where I spent a week training with coaches Chris Hewson, Chris Cowan, the Ontario Sailing Teams (Elite and Development) as well as Aug and the RNSYS team. A great variety of conditions gave us a chance to work at our skills.  All in all a great week working hard and playing hard with this bunch! I may never get the Surf Style jingle out of my head...

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