Day 171
Day remaining 62

I'm ALIVE!!!!!

(Tail fin envy? Just you wait!!!)

Well the new job is just great - Everything I do all day is focussed on making the Youth and Junior programmes of the British Sailing Team work better and maximise the training we can give the youngsters coming up through those programmes - but man is it a busy job!!!!? and well, the transition and move back to Hamble has meant not only finding somewhere to live, but finding somewhere to finish the boat and then moving it and all of my tools and kit to that spot, so it's only really in the last 2 weeks I've got my act back together. It's 50 days since my last entry on here, and those 50 days have all been about work and not about building a new bus. Dust has settled, it's time to crack on.

My first sailing club as a kid had nothing to do with the RYA and I feel like I missed out on some opportunities as a result, so to be given the chance to be in it up to my eyeballs and ultimately deliver better prepared athletes for the road to Olympic glory is a real honour for me. Ultimately of course, I got to march in the opening ceremony (Sydney) and be a part of Team GB in my own way, but I will always wonder 'what if' I had been coached from 12 to 20 (by which time I was about 9 and a half stone and perfect 470 helm size by the way!) instead of having to learn quite literally my own way for everything... But hey, I'm really not even slightly bitter and I have a huge number of racing miles under me to help me understand the process of developing good young sailors into truly great sailors of the future....

OK, the boat... I'm getting towards the last few jobs - I have everything built or a long way into build apart from the spreader unit and the gantry while the fittings, wand/flap linkage, rudder screw etc and suchlike are all in boxes and ready for assembly. The trampolines are made and will be with me next week - They look fabulous and hopefully will fit just as well - Thanks to Tom at Sail Medic.  Thanks also to Luke for bringing the boom to work so I could just put it in the car and get on with my day. Cheers mate.

Sure, I am disappointed that the boat will now be a bit late from even my revised plans - but I will have a solid 6 weeks or so sailing in it before I arrive in HISC on the 12th for a week of venue sailing before Race 1... and if in January, you had offered me:
 "A brilliant job with the RYA + a new moth a month before the Worlds + 2 weeks leave to sail at the venue and enjoy the event"
verses
"A new moth in March, but you have to stay in Suffolk and carry on doing the same job indefinitely and you might only just have the week at the event in the end because of work"
I'd have taken the former to the bank in a blink of an eye. Have in fact.

I have realistic goals for my training and my racing (more on that next time - but I reckon I'll have my gybe back after a few days and then a month to work on tacking!) and there are some outstanding features on the new boat which I are sure will make a difference but I might need a month to get some numbers for comparing them, but generally I am happy.  Plus as any home builder will tell you, it's actually a fun thing to do, and rushing it isn't as much fun.

Finally in this catch up, a couple of weeks back,  Mr May came over for a visit from SF so I got a chance to 'show the workings' of my maths and ideas and go over some V1.2 ideas and just feel really comfortable about how I've got to where I am with the Blackbird, particularly on controls, aero and foil shapes (not a lot else to it really!).  So many brilliant ideas came out of the few hours we poured over the boat... But then he's a walking sketchbook of brilliant ideas and we talk the same language  - Thanks mate :-)
Adam sometimes sends me some cool stuff that he finds on the 'net and here's my favourite... It's a bit like when you're in the sailing club and you overhear someone saying that they got double figures out of their cruiser, then someone kind of bragging with 'is that all!? I got 15knots this afternoon in my ..............." (fill in dinghy class you don't like that much) ......and then you casually drop your max speed of the day into the conversation.

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/favorite-sr-71-story-1079127041/+TylerRogoway

Blackbirds and Moths are very similar you see ;-)

Won't be long now.

D