Foto copyright Carlo Borlenghi/NESPRESSO
Fuente info AC45
A Day Off
Posted on 08 August 2011
Today’s a day off. But a day off means different things to different people. For Russell Coutts and ORACLE Racing 5 it was an opportunity to train up a new crew member to replace the injured Simon Daubney, whose hand injury puts him out of action for the rest of the regatta.
Green Comm Racing was also out there, enjoying beautiful sunny conditions and moderate breezes. The Spanish team has been bringing up the rear in the racing thus far, and Vasilij Zbogar’s team are grabbing every chance to learn as much as possible before the match racing starts on Wednesday.
Other teams craned their boats out of the water yesterday afternoon, and some are taking a day away from the marina. Even though Team Korea have only been sailing together for a matter of days, skipper Chris Draper has opted for a day off. “It’s a long haul, we’ve a lot to talk about, learned a lot over the last days, and we have a lot of races coming over the next few days. We’ll rest up. There’s only five of us, so we’re not in the privileged situation of rotating crew.”
Draper is always keeping a weather eye out for opportunities to go surfing, his favoured hobby for getting away from the pressures of competition. But the surfing forecast around Lisbon isn’t good at the moment, he’d already checked within minutes of finishing racing.
Terry Hutchinson was looking forward to a day away from sailing. “I’ll be going on a couple of hour bike ride, and then a good debrief about the last couple of days.” So why no sailing when there’s still so much to learn? “It’s a whip-in, a diminishing return. You can continue to practise, but if you show up ‘flat’ on wednesday, it’s all wasted effort. If you show up a day less practised, but more refreshed and switched on, that will be as much gain right there.”
Hutchinson is monitoring the balance of work, rest and play closely. “We’ve set out a pretty reliable plan. We have some good coaching staff helping us develop long-term strategies. And it’s good to use these events as little microcosms of what’s working. So that when we get to the end-game 24 months from now, we know how hard to train and push ourselves before the Louis Vuitton Finals and the America’s Cup.”
