24-7 Has New Meaning

I enjoy getting the notes from Nikola keeping us posted on her recent ventures and where she might end up.

This trip takes her to Miami where  her crew namely Luke and Ian worked endless hours getting the boat ready.

After not having windsurfed all but a few times since the London 2012 Olympics, Nikola was encouraged and inspired to jump back on the board and with a week of training, finished top Canadian at the Mid-Winter Championships in Miami this past weekend.

After 8 races of light wind conditions, a pump-a-thon, Nikola earned herself the sole spot to represent Canada on home turf at the Pan Am Games, which will be held in Toronto in July.

Having never raced at the Olympic level in Canada, Nikola will finally compete in “home” waters!

“The Lions” – our new boat (which was supposed to arrive in December, FINALLY showed up in Miami the morning before the Mid-Winter Championship) Luke & Ian literally worked around the clock to put her together.

The boat was picked up in boxes and loaded into and onto the van at 9:16am.

Then the work began… by 9:30pm she was still getting worked on, and still at 1:34am, by 6:59am a bit of naturally light helped to speed things up.

Finally at 9:20am, she was loaded on the trailer to be taken the club and by 12:29pm she was rigged, christened and launched.

Only able to get out to the start of the 3rd race, the day ended very quickly with a snapped dagger-board.

What a bummer after such an amazing effort and all of Luke and Ian’s hard work to get out for the racing that day. Luke and Ian raced together in the Nacra fleet – only able to sail 7 of the 11 races due to boat issues.

They had some great learning moments and posted a 4th in their first race in our new boat.

Boat work never ends – and it’s labeled active recovery now….!!!

After the regatta was over, the boys brought the boat back home to work on, once again putting in the hours and by tomorrow she’ll be good to go as we are just now putting on the final touches.

After few days of training we will be ready for Miami’s World Cup event which starts on Monday the 26th.

With 51 Nacra’s registered, this should be a great with the top teams from around the world.

We are excited for the week ahead – not only to sail our new boat but to put all the skills we’ve honed over the fall to the test.