Two key afterguard sailors from the 52 SUPER SERIES have active Olympic campaigns aiming towards Rio 2016 and both are full engaged in key stages of their programes just now, having just completed their respective European Championships and also preparing for the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, Spain in September.
We are looking forwards to Copa del Rey and will have to work very hard to keep up the good level that we were at in Sardinia. We are really looking forwards to it. It is a longer regatta and if it is a typical Copa del Rey then it is many times a left corner course so we will need to be able to risk it more on our starts. Probably that is not our strongest point and so we will need to be good at managing that, the risk to reward and how we can push harder at the starts.
The Nacra 17 is really, really nice. I started this project really because my sons are going for the Olympics in the 49er and they want me to coach them but then in this summer break I thought it was not ideal and so this is a good intermediate thing, to be traveling with them and helping each other but not to be their full time coach. It is working really well. I am very happy with the way it is going. I am enjoying the sailing a lot. We had only had 25 or 30 days of sailing and so we suffered a lot downwind and in the maneuvers but upwind we have been very good to the first mark and that is promising. I am upset we have been dropping but that will come, we are enjoying it a lot.
In my mind I never thought I could come back to the Olympic thing but it came back to me with this class, my sons are giving me a lot of energy. My coach is a friend of my sons and Cecile – my crew – is 26 and I am enjoying getting so much energy from all these young people and I don´t want to go back to work any more, this is a hobby and I enjoy it.
Age has nothing to do with it. I never feel tired and have never felt incompetitiive. If we are slow it is because of a lack of training. I always keep myself fit, I do a lot of cycling and go to the gym and sail.
Santi Lange, the double Olympic medal winning tactician on Phoenix
Rán Racing’s British strategist Nic Asher is double 470 world champion and has been Olympic classes sailing for ten years, but it is the 49er which engages him at the moment. Just last week, whilst Lange was racing in La Grande Motte, France, at the Nacra 17 Europeans so Asher was sailing at the 49er European Championships in Helsinki where he and crew Fynn Sterrit finished in 16th place.
We didn’t sail that well but there is more to come and we were fast. The standard is very high and we proved we can mix it now. We have really put in a lot in the last couple of months. We have been working on our roles and routines really and trying to allow me to get my head out of the boat more and to see up the course to make better decisions.
We work with all the GBR squad and made some gains in the early season after we did a lot of work with our rig. But it is quite intense. I think I have had only a couple of days off in the last couple of months.
I’m really looking forwards to Palma and the Copa del Rey. We really had stepped up a level in Sardinia and just need to keep that up. We did a lot of work after Miami and Capri and I think if we can maintain that momentum we can do well in Palma.
Rán Racing’s British strategist Nic Asher
