SSL Team Bermuda Ready To Race In Rio
SSL Team Bermuda will begin their SSL Gold Cup Pan-American qualifying campaign in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, today [Nov 12], with Bermuda’s team among eight nations competing for three places in the finals.
The qualifiers run until November 15, with Bermuda drawn alongside Mexico, Cuba and El Salvador in Group I.
Team captain Rockal Evans said, “It feels really good to be out here in Rio. It’s the first time in Brazil for a bunch of our crew members. We’ve had four days of training here and we’ve been getting our three new crew members up to speed and we’re pretty happy now, with how we’ve progressed from day one to today. It’s been good.”
Vice captain Emily Taylor-Nagel said, “There’s a lot more pressure this time to be honest. As Rockal mentioned we’ve got a few new crewmembers, but we’ve also got people in different positions, so it’s been a pretty steep learning curve for some of our youngest sailors. We’ve got an 18 year old as part of the team so we’re trying to teach them all how to do the different jobs on board.
“None of us have sailed the boats since Gran Canaria, so it’s remembering how the systems work – all the funky little tricks – and we’re also in a brand new place that hasn’t exactly been simple the past few days with one day having anywhere between 5 and 25 knots and today where the wind would just disappear, and add the current as well and there’s plenty on the race course to deal with.”
Eighteen-year-old team member Trystan Hocking said, “It’s been really different sailing a boat this big, but it’s been good to learn everything about these very fast boats. I’ve been doing quite a bit of team racing in Fireflys at Southampton University, and also some J70 sailing. The amount of communication that needs to go through everybody, so that everyone’s on the same page, is critical on these boats. It’s also really cool to be out here in Rio – it’s a nice venue.”
