I spent the last few weeks coaching the Israeli ILCA 7 team in preparation for their European championship.

After a couple of weeks training in Israel we went for a 10 days training block in Varna.

We had some very good training sessions in light to medium sea breeze which quickly changed to a cold front that lasted pretty much through to the end of the event with winds ranging from 12 knots in the first day of racing to gusting 30 in the last couple of days.

I really enjoyed coaching Omer and Maor, they are real pro’s. they are both very quick around the course and we were able to concentrate on the big fleet tactics and approach to racing, during training we had both small groups and big groups racing at the venue and managed to improve quite a bit before racing began.

The overall result was an all time best for Omer finishing 30th and one of Israels best ever achievements in this class, with some fewer mistakes he could easily make the top 20.

Maor had a slight speed problem in strong winds which can be solved with an improved fitness program. He just missed out on the gold fleet losing some boats on the last beat to the finish on the last race of qualifying (that was really dissapointing for all of us)

The mutual support between the two ensured we keep pushing hard to improve and were able to concentrate on racing well

Wishing them all the best at the coming world championship in Barcelona and certain they can improve their performance from the Europeans.

Off to my next challenge

Eshed