It feels so good to be back in the boat. We have just wrapped up our first 7 days of training and it was fun to be back together again.
We have had amazing support from the US Sailing Team to get us going and are excited to be back training in the boat with the new rigs and sails.
Our decision to team up again happened just recently. We started to talk about it in August and on August 17th, committed to the goal of Gold in Paris 2024. Our first day on the water was September 20th.
We both had prior commitments we had to attend to, but met in Miami early on the 20th and started to put our boat together. We were able to hit the water for a 30-minute shake-down sail that afternoon before moving the boat over to the US Sailing Center in Miami. Each of the following mornings started with a couple of hours of boat work, tweaking the rigging to make sure it was exactly what we wanted, and then hit the water for some sailing.
The conditions overall were on the lighter side, although we did see a few puffs in the teens one day. The goal of the first week of sailing was to see the new rig and start to get a feel for it, work on some boat handling, and remember our coms in the boat. Working backwards on the list, the coms felt natural, like we hadn’t ever stopped. The same words were said, and the same plays were called. It was just like riding a bike. The boat handling, in our heads, was like riding a bike, but in practice, it was like riding a rusty bike. We remembered what to do, but just had to do some reps to shake the rust and become smoother again. After a couple days on the new rig, we have found that we actually really like it! It is slightly different, and staring at black sails vs the clear ones is different, but we are enjoying the process of learning about it and are looking forward to continuing this process.
Our next training starts on Tuesday (10/04), where we will continue to work on learning the rig and boat handling. We have one more session on our own with a coach before we start our squad training with 2020 Olympians Steph and Maggie. We are excited to train with them and help push each other to the top. We do believe that this is the way that Team USA will be the best we can be. It is a different approach for both teams, but we are extremely excited about this part of the campaign too.
Thank you to everyone who sent us messages after we announced we were back and we are excited to share this journey with you all again!!
Sail Hard,
Paris and Anna
Henken | Tobias Sailing 