Dee Caffari and her Aviva Racing team are spending the Easter weekend out on the water off Portugal.
Her boat team have been busy in Portugal over the last week putting back together the boat that they took apart six weeks ago in New Zealand. Final deliveries have arrived so that the electronics and communications systems can be completed. The keel was prepared before being painted orange, along with the mandatory 2m square section on the hull.
The next stage was to have the mast stepped with assistance from Dave Barnaby of Southern Spars and Vincent Le Roux of Blew Stoub. The team then spent a couple of days checking the rig set up and correcting tensions, where required, using load pins.
They needed to get everything ready in advance of the 90 degree IMOCA test, which took place successfully on Tuesday.
Meanwhile Dee spent the first part of the week in France with Jean-Yves Bernot, focussing on weather studies, and is back in Portugal with plenty of homework to add to her ever increasing pile of 'things to practise'. In addition to
spending time out on her new Open 60, Dee is looking to improve her fitness, increase her strength, commit to regular mast climbing drills to improve technique and get to grips with the various technical components of Aviva such as the generator and engine.
As Dee's skill level improves, so too should her confidence - the only problem is finding enough hours in the day to fit it all in!
For the Easter weekend, she will have Laurent Mahy from North Sails onboard for sail testing and coaching on how to get the greatest performance out of Aviva's sails .
