49er prospects - Chris Draper & Pete Greenhalgh update
by Louay Habib 15 Apr 2010 09:28 BST
Chris Draper and Pete Greenhalgh during the Princess Sofia Trophy © Richard Langdon / Skandia Team GBR
At the end of March, the Princess Sofia Regatta kicked off in Palma de Majorca. It was the opening event of the 2010 Olympic class European circuit. In the 49er, Chris Draper & Pete Greenhalgh picked up silver and Steve Morrison and Ben Rhodes bronze. Last weekend the squad where back in action at the UK based National Ranker sailing on the Olympic waters off Weymouth.
“All of the UK 49er teams were present and we had a great weekend of tough racing.” commented Chris Draper. “Stevie and Ben we pretty unlucky to get caught by a shift in the last race and they lost a place on the finish line which meant we won. We learnt some good stuff from the racing over the weekend and once again the National ranking series racing proved to be very useful training. We are very lucky to have such a strong UK fleet. We literally spent the weekend racing against 10 of the top 20 in the world on the Olympic waters!”
Louay Habib took a trip to the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy to watch them going through their paces during training.
Perched in the back of Harvey Hillary’s coaching RIB gives you a ringside seat for some high-octane 49er action. It was blowing 20 knots as we head out and six 49er teams were out for a blast.
“Having so many top class 49er teams is a real advantage.” explains Harvey Hillary. ‘A minor injury has kept one team off the water. However, we still have six world class teams out, this sort of practice creates an exceptional environment.”
Amongst the 49ers training are development squad sailors. Dylan Fletcher & Alain Sign, as well as Richard Mason & Tom Peel. Both of these teams are hot prospects and get and a huge reward from training with the performance squad but the top 49er sailors get a huge benefit from it as well. As Harvey Hillary explains;
“We can create real racing scenarios just for ourselves, something that very few countries can do. Skandia Team GBR work together, you may think that is not possible, after all they are all in fierce competition for the ultimate prize . But what they give away in confidence is more than made up by the increase in personal performance.”
Watching the 49ers out training is a fantastic experience and afterwards the mood dockside is very friendly. If you want to experience it for yourself, Chris Draper and Pete Greenhalgh are offering a day out with the team including the ride of your life on board. However, you better be quick; the competition closes on May 1st.