New Jersey LISOT Clinic: April 9-12

Hi again. A couple weeks ago I was at a training clinic at the Mantoloking Yacht Club in New Jersey. The clinic was hosted by the LISOT team who are probably the top American 420 team (along with other classes of boats) at the moment. There were around 15 of the top American boats all sailing International 420's. The competition, and coaching were amazing at the clinic. In all I think that the experience I gained at this clinic will be the most useful for me when I go to Worlds this summer as it is the only experience I'm likely to have in an I-420 before the event.
Unfortunately my crew Joss was not able to miss school or his school sailing team practice on that weekend, but Alex Scales crewed for me. The partnership worked really well and I'm sure he learned as much as I did.
Just for a bit of background on the coaches, Simon Cooke is a New Zealander who builds International 420's and designed most of the boats being sailed at the clinic. He has competed at at least one Youth Worlds in I420s as well as Worlds in the 470, with some work for the Kiwi America's cup boats. The guy was a genious and he knew everything there was to know about an International 420. Steve Keen, another Kiwi, is the regular coach for the LISOT team. There were two other coaches who deserve just as much recognition but I don't have the time right now... We had "chalk talks" from Dave Perry and Dave Dellenbaugh about rules, strategy, tactics and sail trim.
The clinic was well worth the price and I'm thankful for the support I've recieved so far. I am currently working on a fundraising project that I hope to get underway soon. I'll keep this updated as best I can, I've just been a little swamped with Track and Field, Schoolwork, fitness training and Spring Sailing has started up. I will also try to post some photo's from the Spring Sailing series that Craig Guthrie (Along with several other coaches) has organized on weekends in Halifax (RNSYS)

New Jersey LISOT Training Clinic

Tomorrow (Wednesday, April 8) I will be leaving for New Jersey for the long weekend. The purpose of this trip is for a training clinic put on by a really good sailing team from New York called LISOT. The clinic will offer international 420's, the boats I will need to race at the worlds in Brazil. The experience I will get in these boats will be very valuable when I compete against sailors from across the world who already sail these boats. In North America, we sail Club 420's which are basically a dumbed down version of an International 420.
I'll make sure to recap on the clinic when I get back next week.