Second Year on Team Canada and Boat Naming Competition!
I am happy to announce that as of May I have officially been named to the Canadian Sailing Squad for my second year with the team! Our team this year will be made up of 4 Canadian athletes who have Qualified to represent Canada at the World Sailing Championships in The Hague this summer. Im very happy to continue the work that I have been doing with my coach Andrew Lewis over the past year as we work towards the 2024 Olympic trials which are only 7 months away now. In our new 4 athlete format we have the opportunity to create a very focused training environment that is tailored specifically to the needs of the athletes. This is a big step in the right direction for our program and puts us in a position to make some serious gains with the little time we have left.
Our first training camp with the new group just finished up here in Long Beach California. Long Beach will be the host of the sailing at the 2028 Olympics so it is a venue that we will be spending more and more time at in the upcoming quad after Paris. It is also the host of the North American Championships in July so it is nice to get to know the location. But more importantly for now it is a world class training venue. I had never been to California before but Andrew was insistent that it would be the perfect place for consistent breeze and great downwind sailing. He was absolutely right.
Boats on route to LA
The wind in Long Beach is one of the most consistent sea breezes I have ever witnessed, rivalled maybe only by Lake Garda the wind comes like clockwork every day. On a sunny day at around 11 am as the California desert starts to heat up a gentle sea breeze builds, by 1 it is 12-15 knots from the North West and continues to build all the way till 3PM when you have a full on 18 knots that lasts right into the evening. During our 2 weeks there we saw this every day save for one. Even on days that were hazy or cloudy the sky would eventually clear and the resilient sea breeze would fill.
As well as the amazing sea breeze Long Beach has a very unique characteristic which makes it a world class sailing venue. There is a 10km long break wall that is a few hundred meters from shore and extends all the way along the beach. This creates a sort of intracoastal which is protected from the elements and is the perfect place for towing upwind. This makes Long Beach the perfect venue for focusing on downwind sailing, something that has been a priority of mine for a while. Over the two weeks we managed to get in 6 days of just downwind sailing. We would launch around 12:30 and hook up to the coach boat for what was a reasonably comfortable hour of towing upwind. This would get us to the top of the beach by 1:30 just as the Sea breeze was coming into its own. We would then spend the next 2 hours cruising all the way downwind to our starting point. In a regular training session we would spend about 3/4 of our time sailing upwind so sessions like this allow us to focus on a part of racing that can easily not get as much attention as it needs. In addition since we usually sail upwind before we go downwind the quality of the downwind training can sometimes be lacking as it is when you are tired at the end of the session. Downwind days shift the priority and are a very important part of a high performance training program.
With our first Camp of the 2023-2024 Team year in the books we are all now headed home for a little rest and some fitness work before we are back on the water in LA in June. I am headed into a high intensity fitness block so I will be enjoying my time at home with plenty of interval sessions on the bike. But I am also looking forward to doing some racing down at the Oakville Yacht Squadron and hopefully getting out on the Golf Course with some friends!
I have recently updated my website to accept monthly contributions, If you are following along and are interested in helping me get to the Olympics I would appreciate it if you would consider giving a few dollars a month to help fund my campaign. Though I receive support from Sport Canada and Sail Canada in addition to this I need to raise $30,000 this year to travel to Olympic qualification events and attend training camps. Everyone who becomes a monthly supporter will have the option to have their name written on my boat! From today onwards I will carry a sticker with the names of my monthly supporters as a way of saying thank you for your help on my journey. Every dollar helps and I am eternally grateful to everyone who joins me on this journey!
As a fundraiser all monthly contributors will also be entered into a draw for a chance to name my boat for the 2023 World Championships! All details on this can be found at jamesjuhasz.com/name-my-boat this is something I will be doing with all new boats I sail in the future so if you have a good name in mind you can enter for your chance to win!
Thank you as always and until next time,
James