Issue date
The SOF Hyeres ISAF Sailing World Cup event wrapped up last Sunday after a fairly physical week of testing conditions on the Southern coast of France. It was a really positive week for myself with some solid improvements made, from a couple weeks ago in Spain.
The same format was used as in Palma; two days of qualifying, three days of finals and one medal race on the final day for the top ten. The only difference being that we had two 62 boat fleets in Hyeres, instead of the three 40-50 boat fleets that we had in Palma, which makes the racing really tight. Coming into the first top mark of any race in Hyeres was always going to be carnage if you hadn’t managed to get popped on the rest of the fleet. First beats were crucial as well as that decision making near the top of the upwind to have a clean approach to the top mark.
Training pre-regatta in the awesome onshore conditions we experienced a bunch during the event...
Our two days of qualifying were sailed in glamour 10-15 knot onshore winds coupled with some nice waves, making it hard work upwind but awesome for surfing downwind. I sailed consistent for both days, posting five top 10 results and qualifying for Gold fleet around 7th overall. It’s always solid to go into the final series without any massive scores, but with six Gold fleet races over the next three days, the regatta was still only just beginning.
Day one of racing in Hyeres...
The conditions changed for the first two days of Gold fleet and it switched to the offshore sea breeze direction. With a few more shifts around than the previous days, and the top 62 boats all in one fleet it was really intense racing. I had a really good start, scoring a 1stand 3rd on the first day of finals to move up the overall leaderboard. Another two consistent scores the next day moved me into 2ndoverall going into the last day of the final series. The winds changed back onshore for the final two Gold fleet races, and after a poor first race I bounced back to finish 2nd in the last race of the day, and earn the yellow jersey going into the medal race.
The final day was light to medium offshore winds. I went into the medal race with a three point lead on Tom Burton (AUS) in 2ndoverall, and 16 points on Rutger van Schaardenburg (NED) in 3rd. I went into the race with a similar game plan I always do in a medal race, trying to nail every aspect of the race and keep it simple. Unfortunately, after a decent first beat not much more could have happened in the race to make it more difficult than it turned out to be. Three quarters of the way down the first run I was happy with my position and felt good in the boat. I must’ve been pushing the pumping rules a little too much in the Jury’s view and I got yellow flagged coming into the bottom gate. A quick 360 and I was just behind the fleet around the gate. It’s amazing how close medal races are, and one small error results in a lot of places lost. Still I was determined to fight back and sailed another good upwind for where I was in the fleet. Rounding the final top mark it was tight and all the way down to the finish line it was neck and neck between a few of us mid fleet. Coming into the finish, I was on the tail of Burton and thought I was doing the right thing to stick with him across the line. The French sailor did a hard gybe behind me and coasted down a wave, to overtake me but not Burton and cross the line between us giving Burton the boat in-between us that he needed for the overall win. It was pretty hard to watch it happen so close to the finish, thinking I was doing the right thing at the time. The race didn’t go smoothly by any means though and I can definitely learn a lot from a few different mistakes made. You live and learn!
So I finished up with the Silver medal after a really solid week. As always I will learn a lot from the mistakes I did make throughout the week, and what some other guys were doing different than me.
Hyeres podium; (left to right) Maloney (NZL), Burton (AUS), Schaardenburg (NED)
The morning after racing we drove to Lake Garda along with a lot of other sailors with similar plans; to go enjoy an awesome venue for fitness and sailing. The weather is a bit on and off here this week though, and a mixture of sun and rain has kept us mixing up the activities so far. It is probably a good thing so that we don’t overdue the cycling! So far some good gym sessions, a cool walk up to the chapel, and a big road bike yesterday have kept us plenty active. After a week off the water, we will get back into the sailing a couple days before racing starts for the Eurosaf Garda Olympic Week event, beginning on the 7th of May. 
View from our lunch spot at the top of Mount Baldo on yesterday's cycle...
Thanks for all of the messages and continued support from back home!
Cheers,
Andy
