goodbye 2006

The year started off with stine and i quitting opti
and we got on to the 420 double handed boat
with me crewing and him helming. I have to thank
chun,dawn and liu jiao lian especially for their help
and tips on how to sail the boat right and fast.

Our first competition was the safyc changi regetta
where we finished 4th out of six boats. A pretty
average result if you ask me. Then it was selections
for asc- asian sailing championships, initially we thought
we could make it because they were suppose to
send two of the three male pairs but they were only
sending a pair. Without knowing much abt the boat
we sailed and i can say we pushed chun to the max
beating him a few races. And chun won asc

The period where everyone went asc was really tough
we did alot of self-trng and stine was always in his
normal working rate,enough to kill me anyway.
Then we heard about youth worlds selection and
more trng got underway especially both of
us in the gym trying to hit the 110kg mark.

We sailed youth worlds trials fully prepared
and confident not even losing to any guy pair
once in any race. We won but youth worlds
standards was really high, we trained under craig
in melbourne where he taught us how to
finish the race no matter what happens and
crew dynamics which i love.

We sailed our first 420 nationals and finished
2nd a result which i was happy with. Then in
one week's time we were at kiel week in germany
competiting against 153 other 420 boats, btw 420
nationals were also selections for asian games
with kiel week, and we had a 10 point lead against
chun. Kiel week was really fun and we chalked up
in 5 races, 14,10,1,4,13 with a overall standing
of 18th and won the selections for asian games.
The race that we got first in kiel, stine scared
the shit out of me during that black flag start
by starting in the middle on port tack
way above anyone else. We didnt get ocs anyway.


Next was youth worlds in weymouth. I think
youth worlds is like a mini olympics b'cos
every country was only allowed to send one
boat. We finished 18/33. I didnt expect
so much competition from the rest actually.
But we learnt much during the competition
and wee chin said we'll always improve with
age and time. And he was right.

Asian games- The biggest thing that ever
happened to the 22 of us in the sailing team.
Never have i seen so much team-work and
closeness between sailors. Supporting each
other and with maximum preparation
installed, we knew we could win this and
we sure did with two races to spare , needing
to only finish in the second last race.
Our races was 4,1,2,4,2,1,1,1,1,1,5,4,
the string of first was mostly bad starts.


420 Worlds 2007- my first worlds
at the worlds we make a point for everyone else
to remember that small boys like us can sail
in strong winds and its not all abt surviving.
even though we were 10-15 kg lighter we were
fighting with the big boys and the first three races
in worlds , we beat arg all three, aus two and brazil one.
Those that went to youth worlds last year they feared
us, knowing that the singaporean boys were ass
kicking in light airs. If the breeze stayed below
12 i'm pretty sure a top 5 was possible. we were
lying in 4th coming into the third day. No luck
in the last two days as the wind picked up
to 2o's range and swells. We didnt give up
and finished 15th overall and got a prize for
the youngest pair sailors.

thats all i think , will blog about my expectations
on sailing and studies soon. Spend like an hour
just typing all this down. I really should hit the
gym shouldnt i?.. Gotta get physio-ed first.

cheers 2006, you put a smile on my face.

2007 give me all you've got, come on!





normal tempo