Not even December, Sinterklaas has not yet left the country, temperatures are below freezing and it is that part of the year where I realise I have not yet fully adapted to the British. Christmas adverts have been around for a number of weeks (admittedly, Coca Cola only has branded the packaging Christmassy but the trucks have not yet been shown on TV) and life is revolving around deadlines.
This final year is a bit odd, an extra week before Christmas for lectures and deadlines with a week less after the break before exams. 5 exams to work on, 6 modules with coursework requirements and of course the GDP taking up all spare time. At the same time life after university needs to be considered and visiting the METS and HISWA Symposium were part of that. Catching up with industry people and getting an update on the latest developments and state of the marine leisure industry was worth the trip.
The trip did results in checking up and making plans for the upcoming sailing season, an updated boat for the Med and looking at the state of the best monohull racing in the world is just brilliant. With real news lacking, the rumour mill is very active: 2 new B&C TP52 confirmed (Quantum, Synergy) as well as 2 new JV-TPs (Matador & Ran). Then there are some more mentions in various media: All4One supposedly has a new JV boat in build (raced the 2008 Mean Machine last season) and after mothballing the Juan K boat after the last MedCup event twitter now talks about Team Origin back with a different helm (Mr. Percy). Bribon has bought the very fast Matador and it is expected the Russian team on Valars returns after a sabbatical. Bigamist, Pace and us are expecting to make a number of appearances and Christabella should be even faster than last year with the experience of a year with Quantum sails. Very promising indeed and the schedule of racing seems to have been drawn around my workload at University.
Anyway, the snow is staying away and inside it is nice and comfortable. Time to get stuck in some more Matlab, MaxSurf and perhaps some HullScant.
Ciao,
