An update from Nik Girke and Luke Ramsay

by Nik Girke and Luke Ramsay on 3 Oct 2013 It has been a busy month for me since we finished up our regatta in Oakcliff, from New York. I flew straight to Dublin, Ireland to compete in the Laser Radial World Championships. It was a long week of good breeze and I was a little rusty but I managed to shake off the cobwebs and put together some good races pulling off some race wins.

After six days I finished in seventh, just one point out of fifth, a frustrating spot to be as I was penalized two points for failing to properly check in on the second last day. I will never forget what it feels like to work so hard all week and have a simple mistake drop me two full spots in the overall event. Lesson learned.

After Ireland I made my way back to Canada to get some time at home, it allowed me time to get back in my gym routines, meet with our new Canadian Sports Center strength and conditioning coach Cody Low. Also it was a great time to plan our season and get ideas about how best to move forward as a team by meeting with and getting advice from some of Vancouver’s best sailors and coaches, Ross MacDonald, Hunter Lowden and National Team coach Erik Stibbe, overall a very productive week. While we weren’t training on the water I still was able to get some sailing in with my Dad on his J36 for Wednesday evening racing, it has become a fun tradition with a great group of people, even my new brother in law Dillon is getting into it (and he is from one of those middle provinces).

After being home for a bit I traveled out to Newport, RI for the J24 North Americans, I was doing tactics for Rossi Miliev on ‘Clear Air’, we were a bit of a mix match team as the first day of the event was the first time we had sailed together, but we managed to put together some good races and eventually finished up 14th overall in the 60 boat fleet.

From there I flew straight to Panama City, Florida to set up the Nacra 17, I had two days of boat work and got in a day of training before Nikola showed up and we got into the serious pre-regatta routine, unfortunately she was sick but is so awesome and pushed through it all to sail a four and a five race day in challenging conditions on back to back days, a very impressive feat! I am so unbelievably pumped for the next month of sailing. After this next event in Pensacola John Casey (the crew of our US training Partners) and I are racing the F18 Americas Championships in Sarasota, Fl a five day continental championship with over 60 boats registered, should be a blast and a great opportunity to learn as much as I can from a great cat sailor.

Crew's Corner

Never a dull moment - I've kept myself quite busy this past month too. Needless to say, it's probably why my body screamed at me this past week to STOP! So I had to.

Highlights of my time at home include participating in the GranFondo Whistler - a 122km bike ride from downtown Vancouver to Whistler with over 2500m of vertical - and this was a lead up to last weekend's experience in the inaugural 'Intrepid' Stage Ride, an incredible ride through the Okanagan over three days. Day one had us bike 128km from Kelowna to Big White (that was a hefty climb!!!) Day two - 175km down from Big White to Osoyoos and Day three - 145km of beautiful up and down from Osoyoos to Penticton. All of us 32 riders were given the golden treatment by an amazing 14 person support team. Thank you Intrepid - for the atmosphere was incredible, the feat of this adventure together unforgettable.

Lucky my legs still worked as just a day after I got home, I was strutting down the runway, wearing Malene Grotrian Design's latest collection at Full Circle Fashion Event - a fundraising event for OVCARE (BC's Ovarian Cancer Research Team)

And... very shortly thereafter I met up with Luke in Panama City for the Caterwaul regatta. I'm still recovering and am hoping to be back on the water in the coming days.

Already a long time supporter, Helly Hansen has really stepped up to provide Luke and me with both the sailing and onshore apparel and accessories needed for our Olympic campaign. Not only will we be wearing the most functional gear for all our training, but we'll be looking damn stylish too. Thank you HH!

http://www.nikandluke.com/