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Following the Palma World Cup event concluding, we stayed on in Palma and did a few days of cycling and general fitness work. We joined up with some other Laser sailors and did three days of riding, on all different sides of the island. The roads were awesome to ride on, racing up some big mountains, cruising through cool small European towns built on the waters edge and the daily lunch stop were all highlights of our ‘Palma cycle tour’.
We then made the two-day ferry/driving trip, to the next stop for the ISAF Sailing World Cup. We spent the past two weeks in the town of Hyeres on the South coast of France, preparing and then competing in the Semaine Olympique Francaise (Hyeres) ISAF World Cup event.
ISAF slightly altered the racing format for this event, from what was used in Palma. The first two days would include five qualifying racing, which then seeds you into either ‘Gold’ or ‘Silver’ fleet for the ‘Final Series’. You take a ‘Carry Forward’ score through to the final series, which is the place that you qualify into the ‘Final Series’. Then three days of ‘Final Series’, consisting of six races. Followed by the final ‘Medal Race’ day for the top ten boats, where two double point races are sailed. The main upgrade of this format from what had been used in Palma, was that we could not discard our ‘Carry Forward’ score and it gave us less days spent qualifying, and more races in the ‘Final Series’ where the real racing begins!
The first two days of qualifying were held in light winds, making for some tricky racing. I had a shocking start to the event, getting a yellow flag on the start gun in the first race for a ‘double-flatten’ in my acceleration off the line. Not ideal in 4-6 knots of wind, being ten boat lengths behind the fleet up the first beat straight away! It’s fair to say from then on I struggled all race, and ended up discarding that result. The rest of the qualifying series I sailed OK but nothing amazing. The highlight was winning the 4th race, and I ended up qualifying for ‘Gold’ fleet in 13th position. Not great but respectable after two days of very light and difficult conditions.
The following three days of ‘Final Series’ racing, we had some nice onshore breezes ranging from 8-17 knots. It was definitely not the typical plain sailing onshore racing that we would expect in those conditions, as there were still some big wind shifts on every leg of the races. My starts were far from ideal most races, and I often ended up being dictated by other boats on the first beats and then playing catch up all race, battling to finish just outside of the top ten in the majority of the races. Although I wasn’t sailing great, my consistency of battling back to finish places between 10th and 15th, had me placed 7th going into the final day. It is amazing how much consistency counts for in the Laser fleet at a major event, as the fleet is so deep that everyone has bad races so by scoring results just outside the top ten in most of the ‘Final Series’ races, I still qualified 7th for the top ten boat ‘Medal Races’ on the final day.
Having had a tough week I was excited to be in the ‘Medal Races’ and just get a chance to get some more of these shorter, small fleet style races under my belt. The conditions for the final day were very light offshore winds, and it was a case of keeping your head out of the boat and doing your best to predict what was coming off the land not very far upwind of where we were racing. I managed to sail two decent races and scored a 2nd and a 5th, which is a pretty good day for the ‘Medal Race’ stage! I was happy with that, but unfortunately the points from other competitors around me didn’t stack up quite right and I remained 7th overall.
After a week of everything not quite gelling perfectly I am satisfied to still come away with a respectable result in what was a very tough fleet. I’m looking forward to debriefing from this event with my coach and learning as much as possible from my mistakes!
I am now in Riva del Garda! The last time I was here was back in 2006 when I was still sailing a ‘Splash’ and only 16 years old. Pretty awesome to be back, this place is so cool! I will be doing a week of fitness and having some fun, then back on the water for the Garda Olympic Week of racing, where we will again have over 100 Lasers on the start line for what will be another competitive week of racing!
Thanks for the continued support!
Cheers,
Andy
Photo by SailCoach
