Sailing against the wind
Despite a worldwide lock-down with an uncertain outcome, one thing is certain: The Black Star Sailing Team will continue!
The Corona crisis has the world firmly in its grip. Many companies from the economy, gastronomy, tourism and sports have hard times ahead of them or are even on the point of going out of business. For the Black Star Sailing Team and the GC32 Racing Tour, the COVID19 pandemic and its consequences also mean a severe setback.
But as it should be for sailors, difficult conditions are fuelling the fighting spirit even more. So we are used to sailing “against the wind”. So as soon as the storm is over, we all cast off again and continue as best we can.
At this point we would like to thank our sponsors and partners for their support. Thanks to them, we are able to get through this difficult situation.
We are healthy!
Certainly the most important thing and probably not self-evident: The whole Black Star Sailing Team is healthy and lively. We are very happy about that. Scattered all over the world – New Zealand, Spain, England and Switzerland – all team members try to make the best of their respective situations. This is not equally easy for all of them, in the different countries and continents sometimes harder restrictions apply than in Switzerland.
If you rest, you rust
Apart from staying healthy, staying fit is currently the greatest challenge for athletes. How to complete their daily fitness workload? All fitness centres and sports fields are closed. Even outdoor sports are prohibited in many places. That is why improvisation is the order of the day. If you don’t have your own sports equipment, you have to use your own body weight and try to maintain or even increase your muscle build-up with targeted exercises. This is cumbersome and time-consuming. Fortunately, there is support from various sports associations and numerous tips in social networks.
Of course, our goal is to get back on the water as soon as possible in order to further refine our manoeuvres. Until then, we are watching videos of the training days in Oman in February and the event reports of the past season.
Black Star locked-in
Our next training session still seems to be a long way off. Because not only the team members are currently not allowed to travel. Also our boat is still locked down. Since Oman also caused a lockdown, the container with the Black Star was not sent out as planned at the beginning of April. We hope, that our boat will arrive in Switzerland by the end of May.
In the meantime, the construction of our new transport container is progressing according to plan.
For various reasons, we decided last year to switch to a new, sea freight container. On the one hand, the transport of the boat in our custom made trailer across Europe was not only time-consuming but often risky, on the other hand the trailer did not allow the carrying of additional material due to weight reasons, so we often lacked spare parts and tools for the boat builder. In addition, a large container offers the team on land a better basis for work and enables them to appear even more professional.
So we can look forward to the arrival of the boat and the new container being ready, so that we can move our new “home” with full speed and finish it.
