Ready for action

The North American Speed Sailing Project sponsored by The Black Dog, Lynch Associates, Cabrinha kites, NPX wetsuits and Dakine accessories and coached by Olympian Mike Gebhardt (Gebhardt Performance Riding Inc.) saw its first race action of the year off the coast of France on the Mediterranean yesterday.  Conditions were light with diminishing 20 kt Mistral winds. 

The race course is situated at Plage de Napolean, south of the coastal town of Port St.Louis…a large, mostly hard packed sandy, east - west running beach.  Team NASSP arrived at the beach on day one of racing prior to sun up.  After kites were pumped up, the course was walked and final preparations made.  Small breakers, landing on the shore from right to left, faced the sailors head on and made a close to shore run difficult and one of the most important aspects of the course.  Starboard tack runs down the 500m course also had to deal with edging hard, as the course angle was nearly a 90degree, beam reach as the day started. 

During race #2 the wind continued to lighten up and shift to the left so that competitors were sailing slightly upwind, or 80degrees off the wind.  Rob and Jamie took 16m kites, Damo and Melissa were on 12s.  Edging, effeciency, and good starts played a big part.  Legs took a beating, and Coach “Gebi’s” nourishment and coaching were vital.

New NASSP rider Melissa Gill sits in first place for the women.  Riding Cabrinha Switchblades and a custom NASSP prototype board, Melissa overpowered Sjoukie Brenenkamp, the fastest women sailor in history and Charlotte Consorti, the current world champion.  This is truely an awesome performance by Melissa.  Wearing her wetsuit hood and snowboarding goggles, Melissa smoked the course and is everybody is stoked with her impressive early results.

Damien Leroy, the current US national course racing champion and NASSP photog, is in fouth place.  Riding his Cabrina Crossbows and a custom prototype board built by Cabrinha and NASSP designer Mr. Ian Ponding.  “Damo” made the best of the lighter conditions, using his effeciency in the conditions,  he milked every gust.  “I am really happy to be here.  Many thanks to my sponsors and teamates…I feel blessed to be here at this event.”

Rob Douglas, America’s fastest sailor and Capt. of the Nassp Team tooka bullet in the first heat of round 1but made some costly mistakes in the second heat.  Rob, and his modified Cabinha Crossbows, from Cabrinha’s Pat Goodman currently sits in 3rd place.  “I made a few tactical errors in the 2nd race…but I always knew it was going to be a street fight for the overall here in France.”

Jamie Douglas, the team’s bag piper and breakfast cook, is in 12th- about middle of the pack.  Look for Jamie to battle back during the rest of the event as he searches for the podium.  “I definitely have a lot of room to improve…a totally different feeling than windsurfing.  I need to make some stance adjustments…to say the least.”

Hey coach, "How much wind do we have?"

The weather forecast for the rest of the event looks questionable as an unusual low pressure system down south stays in control.

Current conditions are light northerly, overcast.  Team NASSP is on standby.

Blast shield down

The NASSP Team is ready.  We sailed today………..cold and rainy 11, 13 and 16 meters and recorded some goods speeds.  The Cabrinha Crossbows continue to be my go to kite…………Coach “Jester” and Damo “Iceman” are not yet convinced…………on a square course, will the effeciency of the Switchblade be able to hang with the power and grunt of the Crossbow????  My Neil Pryde Elite 5m suit is plenty warm for the French conditions………nothing beats 100% smooth skin warmth!  Melissa “Charlie” wore her NPX 5m Sinner suit, gloves and hood.  Many thanks to Bill Lynch for the continued support of the team.

The latest wind forecast for race day is 36km (approx 19kts) from the NNW…………we have the boards and kites to run in all conditions.  Tomorrow is registration and the wind conditions will be good for some final preparations.  Lots of work on the Dakine foot pads and straps today…………they need to be just right.  The Cabrinha Sync bindings are mounted on the smaller boards…………needed when the needle on the speed guage passes 45kts!

We are off to the boulangerie now for a late night snack…………..good stuff but NOT as good as the pasteries from the world famous Black Dog Bakery back home.

The Nassp team is in country. The team members are Melissa Gil, Damien Leroy, Jamie Douglas, coach Mike Gebhardt and me.  We arrived in Marseille on Tuesday morning at 0700 local.  We arrived at the event site later that afternoon and the wind was NNW at 40 kts………very windy and very cold.  Bumped into Caizergues at the event site…………all I could think about was how big a difference .03 of a knot is!

HQ for the Team NASSP during the event is a large room on the third floor with no furniture at Port Napoleon, a big boat yard (over 250 boats in the parking lot around our HQ) just south of PSL and about 2 miles from the event site on the Med. 

We sailed on Wednesday with NE winds around 20 with higher gusts…….I shook out the Cabrinhas….12 Swithblade and the 11Crossbow.  Pat at Cabrinha added a few improved modifications.  What will work better on the square course of PSL……the Switchblades or Crossbows????  The new boards from the new shaper went very well for the first day………..sailed 3 out of 4 new boards.  Good to get back on the boards after a 2 month break………way too long!

The Team

NASSP HQ

Today was a light 15kts and we sailed our biggest kites.  Tonight is another night of tuning……….much to do as we get ready for Monday, day 1 of the world kite speed championships.

Much more to come…….stay tuned for pictures.