On the Road with Jan Wroblewski(Canadian Men's Champ 2002) - John Darling reporting "Canadians" champions get that way the "hard" way: gobs of time on the water, sailing hard and fast whenever and however the wind blows -- always fully powered up in fair winds or foul. No exception with Jan, overall "Canadians" 2002 winner, at Hatteras this month: when a 4-day storm crashed in from the good old Nor'est bringing very chilly winds of the 30-40 knot variety along with squalls of hard rain, and thunder & lightning at times, complete with westerly flooding conditions and power outages, shaking our Avon cottage and making swamped roads unpassable by foot. Jan was out for a good session on those days (along with other foolish youth), on his sinker with a 4.1m 2 or more often his new Hypersonic slalom with a 34cm fin despite precious little waer as winds bared wide sandbars on the sound. Out in deeper water the Hyper with its deep double concaves gave a nice (very) fast ride on the sharp small chop (flattened by the wind). While we ordinary mortals wisely passed up braving the storm, Jan was out there in the maelstrom throwing duckgybes and generally cruising up and downwind with abandon, for hours on end, past sundown. The Hatteras sound being impossible for Formula gear, Jan concentrated on slalom gear, going up to 7.2m 2 for lighter winds, long sessions every day, overcoming muscle stiffness early in the week. As his "coach" I helped him move sails around and generally urged him on, and saved a dinner serving for him should he be late. Reason for this campaigning: the upcoming USW Formula event in Norfolk the following weekend. I travelled with Jan to Norfolk for another chilly encounter with northerly winds 12-18 knots on the harbour off Chesapeake Bay (Willoughby Spit) overlooking the Norfolk naval base, where I assisted Dave Kashy and his local race committee set marks for their Formula and Raceboard/Prodigy event in the choppy waters of this great wide bay. When I left, Jan was doing very well, in second place (and other Canadians such as Yu-Wei Yang, Hadrian Corning and Roman Halas and companion Frances Kilburn from Quebec were doing well also). During the week Jan broke a new carbon boom (no fault of his of course) and had a special new Debouichet fin and mast shipped in from Sailworks especially for the event. Not necessary to say the hospitality of the American fleet was appreciated by us Canucks, and a few American sailors are already planning to attend Canadian events this season (3 of which are USW NRT events). Defending Champion Jan Wroblewski doesn't know if he'll make it out to try to keep his trophy at Squamish this year, being a "pro" with a day job, but he will be sailing hard at Hamilton Bay and Cherry Beach in Toronto this chilly spring, and will be a very strong contender for eastern events -- with or without my "coaching."
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