Sydney Sail GP
When you get the call up for SailGP, no matter how last minute - you say yes and deal with the rest afterwards!!…
It was all a bit of a mad rush to get everything ready including the requirement for an expedited visa approval with no guarantee it would be granted and a PCR test result in enough time to jump on the plane and head out to Sydney for the penultimate event of Season 2.
In some ways it was fortunate that we had to spend 3 days in quarantine on arrival because that was enough time to deal with the jet lag and sort out all of the admin associated with a very last minute trip to the other side of the world. I had to get my brain back in gear for sailing the F50 because this would be the first time that I would be on board for racing and the role of Strategist had evolved a lot from when I was last with the team in Aarhus, Denmark. As always, there is precious little training time before Race Day anyway so I tried to watch the replays of the racing from St Tropez and Cadiz again with different meaning, now knowing that I would be on board and in the comms loop this time.
It felt pretty good to feel the warm Australian sunshine after a long autumn at home where sailing has involved all the neoprene you can find and you are limited in time by how much feeling you have in your fingers!
It’s hard to describe the feeling of being towed under Sydney Harbour Bridge at 20 knots and then passing the Opera House - I’ve been to Sydney a few times before but never raced there and what a venue it is! Our first training day was the last Wednesday afternoon race on the Harbour prior to Christmas and so there were hundreds of boats out on a glorious day, the amazing thing was that none of them flinched with 8 F50s buzzing around them with no set course to go round - I hope they enjoyed the show!
I had my first go on the wing sheet on a long upwind from the City all the way up towards the Heads and it felt so good to actually experience how the boat sails and be involved in a hands on way, in those few minutes that we sailed upwind my understanding of how the boat sails increased so much - I definitely learn by doing rather than by talking about so that was awesome.
On the way back down, I was handed the helm - I had a pretty good coach sat right behind me(!) but what an epic feeling to be driving at 80km/h (over 40 knots). The following day I pulled off some manoeuvres and realised that not many people in the world have had the chance to take an F50 through a bear away or a round up! It had a bit of a different feeling to learning on other boats - I’ve been through the boat handling learning curve more times than I can remember but the stakes are definitely higher with this one!!
Back to race mode and we headed out on Friday afternoon to a packed Sydney Harbour. The intensity definitely steps up a notch when the racing is for points and the pre-start jostles with the added complication of Shark Island being above the layline for the pin made sure that it was exciting from the start - we came through the first race in 2nd after racing the Spanish hard to the Shortened course finish line, the second race felt a bit more like a battle after finding ourselves in the pack out of the first leeward gate - 3 lap Nacra races always felt like chaos with boats everywhere and while there are fewer F50s, the closing speeds mean that boats can get from one side of the course to the other in just a few seconds so the fleet picture changes really fast. We came through with a 4th and felt like we were racing well.
In the pre-start for the 3rd race, we were involved in a collision with the Japanese boat which led to serious damage to their boat. It was the sum of a number of factors which meant that we were unable to see them. Fortunately nobody on either boat was injured. Both boats headed back to shore to further assess the situation, where the amazing Shore Team and Tech Teams set to work and it was decided that because the rules wouldn’t allow us to sail until the Japanese boat was fixed, they would be offered our platform so that they could continue racing on the final day, they smashed it by winning both races but just missed out on making the Final.
There were mixed feelings watching the final few races from the team base, gutted that we weren’t out there but pleased that the Japanese were able to get back racing. With the calibre and strength of character of sailors on the team, I know they will come back fighting in San Francisco for the final in March.
For now, its time to spend Christmas with family and see what 2022 brings! Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas break : ).
Photo Credits: Javier Salinas, Sail GP GBR / Sail GP
