Final preparations

Well we have had a really varied five days so far out here in Palma. we arrived on the 17th afternoon and went straight into a practice regatta that was kindly been run by the local Sailing club here in S'Arenal, Palma.

We were on the back foot a little and we felt fairly happy with our racing having done so much in Cadiz so we weren't hugely motivated for the event but we sailed the majority of the races and we were really happy with how it was going.

We spent some time outside of the racing working on a few boathandling maneuvers we had highlighted at the last training camp as well as trying to get on top of our event preparation.

Palma training has been a bit different to the rest of the winter. As well as the organised racing we have done some sailing with the rest of the STGBR 49er squad which has been very useful and good fun.

While it has been harder to get as much done in a day compared to when it's just been us and Dylan and Alain in charge of our daily routine we have however had lots of time to talk through the things we have learned each day which has been excellent.

The time on the water has been spent doing a varied bunch of exercises. We've been lucky to be joined by Chris Gowers over the last few days who has been helping us think more about the racing rules of Sailing and how they effect us as well as getting some medal racing practice in which has been great for us as we made a few key mistakes in those last year that cost us dearly.

The learning has been invaluable, while having such a strong squad makes qualifying for the games themselves all that bit harder, it also helps us to be a lot stronger and the last few days have really highlighted that.

We have two more days of training out here before we head back to the UK for a week at home. We have a few exercises that we will do to get us a bit more event sharp and we'll aim to leave here with the boats fully cocked for racing.

When we arrive back fully fresh it will hopefully just be a case of pulling up the sails and going racing.

Thanks to everyone for your on-going support, we look forward to keeping everyone up to speed with the build up to the first event of the 2011 Olympic sailing season. Race day 1 is on the 4th April.

All the best Chris and Peter

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