The land of the long white cloud has given us another week of adversity. Warm days, cold days, one day of 35-knot winds, another day of calm, all in a week of training in New Zealand!
This was our week to turn up the preparation a notch. We started the week by reminding the team that we start racing in less than three weeks. We cranked up the intensity of the practice sessions on the water. The work crew put in some long hours into the night trying to complete the list of modifications, improvements, and repairs we require to the evolving boat. And the physical conditioning shifted into the higher intensity muscle building, which we will shift out of once the racing starts. Everything went reasonably well and we are now just two weeks from our first race.
The other teams are also getting geared up. The Japanese were out training several days with their two boats, looking very efficient. The French and Spanish were each out almost every day. AmericaOne from San Francisco made their first appearance, as did the Italians and Young Australia. New York tested their second boat and Team New Zealand took delivery of their second boat, although it will not be ready to sail for another two weeks. The Hawaiian and Swiss teams are the final two challengers and they look about a day away from starting to practice. All Challengers should be out sailing this week making final preparations for the first of three Round-Robins which begin on October 18. Although this may seem late to some, the first Round Robin is only worth one point per race (as opposed to nine points in Round Robin three) so many teams are planning to use this first Round as a bit of a tune up.
