Cold And SNOWING!!!!! yeah!!

    I would love to be writing this and to say that its a sunny day with clear blue skies and 20 degrees, well clear blue skies I have! Anyway this is a short up date to say that I have been having some car trouble, Damp seams to be the issue…. So sailing has been a little bit hard to do, tho I am now a club race coach ( or racing coach level 2, if you wanna be arsey).

     Now with the level 2 I can coach and get paid for it, wooohooo! I am thinking of doing some of this till my website freelancing picks up, by the way currently writing the local pubs website of which an update will be coming soon and the all new www.jimmywhitehead.co.uk!! So I am website writing like mad! but hey tis fun and we shall see if my work is up too standards!

 

Jimmy

SB3 Worlds

    What a brilliant time!!! 23rd overall but could of been higher. I learned so much from sailing with Richard, although it was mostly preparation stuff the sailing side I found that I already knew most of it. The weather was fantastic all week, Sunny cloudless skies and wind! BRILLIANT!! So what now?? I am currently trying to drop from the 75kgs i weighed in at the worlds to 65kgs, i am currently 73kgs which i feel isn't too bad.

     Sponsored by Helly Hanson UK which is cool, free/cheap sailing gear is always good. And now i am looking forward to Portugal  next year. The plan is to do a winter series in the SB3, which may mean i wont be able to compete up at Leigh and Lowton which i was looking forward too, maybe with stenners but we shall see.

    At this moment in time i am sailing on average 3 times a week and a full day on a Sunday, so may sailing should take a leap forward this winter, but time will tell.......

take it easy

Jimmy

Keel boat week

Well now what can I say..... It never happened for the SB3 we set off to race from the beech in a force 4 and by the time we had cleared the sand barrier we had some nice holes in the keel, great! The wind was now up at 30 knots so we went for a mooring, didn't know where ours was so grasped one and asked for help only to get a lecture about how we couldn't stay there but not told were we could go from the assistant bosen, thanks!

   We finally got towed to the right mooring after an hour wait! And headed home for a nice hot shower!! The wind increased to 35 knots over night and the boats on the beech didn't last! so we took the SB3 off the water and headed home, after a rather nice meal at Dave Bradley's which was awesome!!

So not such a good event roll on the worlds!!

jimmy

A little up date.........

   Things have been a little slow for me, but I am now safely into a healthier life style. I now do 20 min's on the stepper followed by some sit ups, stomach crunches, and press ups. That all takes place in the morning. I have now reduced my drinking down aswell, trying for no mid-week drinking and only on the weekends.

     On a side note I am sailing a lot more now, which is good and I think dad is trying to improve his fitness aswell. I am however spending a lot more of my time web site designing which is good but it takes some of my concentration away from sailing, but I am enjoying my life at this junction. I have moved back to Cheshire now and I am looking at a career as a web site designer/developer, maybe freelance,  but with a large amount of sailing thrown in.

Anyway play safe

J

Sunderland GP

   Well now, the first part was easy dad drives up the A1 to Sunderland and we then put the past up. Simple! Well then the boat gets weighed.....hmmmmm not going to say much here but we are so far over weight its untrue.

      Then we were lifted into the water, if you ever get chance to watch this do it, dodgy as hell if I say so myself! Then off to the Marriott hotel, not bad price here twin room with breakfast for £90! So too the sailing!!!!! With no other than local legend Howard Stevenson on the helm, we weighed in 25kgs light(even after a dock off fry up!). So first race, ever in an SB3, and we rounded the windward mark 6th easy as pie! good hoist and rolled Jono Shelly on the first reach......seaming too easy here next reach we dropped 10 places!! couldn't get on a wave!! doh! Then to make matters worse i lost the kite in the water on a hoist..... tho looking back it seams like we were pulling the kite down in the wrong way, found out that it needs to come in from below the lowers. So on to the next race, Wind was up now too around 18 knots, again rounded the first mark fairly high up and did a good set hoists no errors but dodgy spinney work and main work didn't help here so again lost places off wind. Race 3 followed the same format second at mark one 11th at the finish.

      The sea state got worse over night and racing was abandoned for the day, just in time to watch the Monaco gp(we had sunshine and they had rain!!). Same story on the Mondays too, so we packed up and headed home. All in all a good event and I have learnt that my father spends a good hour looking at something and then saying its broken...... very frustrating!!!!

 

   Well a week off and then up to largs, oh and Sam Sutton is coming over this weekend (nice sober affair I feel!) My weight loss has been halted but should be back on track and I have an exercise ball now so you guessed it a new morning routine of an hour and a half is starting when I go back down to Plymouth.......

 

laterz

 

Jimmy

Sorry for the long time no post.....

But i have been mega busy!!! And not all of it is awesome stuff. But i wont bring anyone down by talking about the bad things going on, not letting it get me down!!

    Righty first things first, the exercise is going well (an hour everyday see's me burn around 600 calories) which is great news i think i have shifted a lot of fat and put on some muscle,which is always good to know. Weight loss at the moment is around 3kg since my last blog so yup i am still in the 70kg range but its coming down, now at 74.1 so hopefully i will be in the 60kg range by the worlds at the end of September.

    The sailing front has been slack since i last blogged, done only one days racing but led all the way only to realise i missed a mark out, doh!! But SB3ing this weekend so should be awesome! Sailing with a guy called Howard and then the nationals at largs, just entered so that's all done. For the worlds we,Dad and I, are sailing with Richard Stenhouse, ex Olympian!!! That should be a great experience and i cant wait to see how good(or bad) i am. 

      On the soggy Moggy project with all thats been going on I have done sweet FA!! But that doesnt mean to say she wont be on the water before the year is out.

Keep it safe peeps

Jimmy

tune up series

Well both myself and dad wanted to go sailing on Sunday, so a compromise was made. He sailed the morning race and I the afternoon, although I did do a 6 mile bike ride in the morning before going down to the club. So to the racing I got a shabby start in the first race and never really featured in the race and to top it off went in backwards aswell twice in two week!! The second race saw another exceptional start from me, a capsize on the start line while trying to do a slam dunk port flyer!!! oh yes right in front of the committee boat!! skills I tell you! Anyway i managed to move my way back up the fleet to fourth on the water and 3rd overall in the race. I have to mention rob wilberham who sailed very nicely to beat me for second, well done man. All in all it was a fun day and it was good for me to get back into the swing of things.

cheerio

jimmy

Easter Trophy

Well with not doing the laser SB3 this weekend I thought I would do the Easter event at redesmere in the laser. I had the standard rig up and the wind was a force 4 during the squalls. Anyway race number two, race one for me cos i was helping Nya with an Easter egg hunt, started with an average start for me. I sailed into fourth spot and stayed there really, I made loads of mistakes and was generally rusty all over the show. After an hour break for lunch we started the third race, I had a bad start but after which managed to pull through to have a tussle with Joe Hanson, who was sailing very nicely, but my hands were getting very cold and I was struggling to hold the main sheet..... this led to a capsize to windward and end of the race, I knew if I went in again I would be I liability, so I retired for the day. I was pleased that I could straight leg hike for the whole of a race and not feel too tired.. All told I am now buying some neoprene gloves and a shorty wetsuit to go under my hikers this should solve the issue of cold hands. On a side note I am now entered for the SB3 WORLDS!!! awesome stuff!

 

cheers

Jimmy

Good Start in the SB3

Well what can i say, not doing the first event!!! lol! but does mean i get to sail the laser at redesmere this weekend which should be fun. Legs have just recovered from skiing, which was awesome and so much happened so will have to post what went on at some point......

 

laterz

Jimmy

Skiing

Well not sailing related but still!!
It was my dads birthday, so we went skiing in the snow dome. It was soooooooo busy that in half an hour i got like 3 runs in but after that it was moving much quicker down at the lifts!! My skiing is ok, i can parell turn and go down red runs and thats about it. But i have been looking at going skiing more over the winter when the sailing cools off(literally). I am looking into buying my own gear as renting is becoming expensive when i go to a resort, I have also been looking into the minni ski's. So much easier to carry on a plane really and store.

Anyway the night was great and some more exercise has been done

Cheers

J

Long Time no talk!!

Hey, I know its been a while since i have been on here but things have been busy tho not in the world of sailing for me. Looks like i may not be doing burton week, national 12 nationals, BUT i will be doing the SB3 nationals and worlds!!! So the long process of getting myself into shape for the events has begun. I am now in the gym 3-5 times a week! oh and guess what my diet has changed too!! Sadly i still havent sailed for 4 months and with the wind on the sound i am too unfit to sail the laser safely, but on the bright side i am working more in website desgin and development( my NITLC course) and doing some freelance work on the side, along with working behind the bar at the theatre royal plymouth (wooo get me!!). So my cash flow has increased which is allways good, but my car, pingu, has started playing up so money i save gets spent just as fast. All that said i am happy in life now and should be back on the water in march, i am also looking at crewing in a merlin. This should hopefully make me a better sailor.
I have recently been looking at Ally martin's sailing and she is doing very well!! And i look at what she is doing and think i could be doing that, so this is my aim this year to get my self into the life style i want, which is to be able to sail like semi pro level and do website design. If i can achieve even half of what Ally has done i will be happy. I believe i have grown up a lot since my days crewing in the 12 with my dad, and its funny that people still live on those days and say that in certin winds we were the very best around! which is i think is a big compliment!!

Oh and there maybe a jimmy whitehead on tour section on utube!!

Some of my thoughts for now, stay tuned and keep sailing!!

Jimmy