The diversity of our sport….
I think it would be fair to say that June was a month of opposites, racing two classes from opposite ends of our sport and it was a fascinating contrast to be racing in Chicago in the F50 with 15 minute races and boatspeeds touching 40 knots on week, to the 5.5M Worlds in Hankø, Norway where each leg was 1.5 and were working hard for and extra 0.1knot of boat speed to get to 5.8kts upwind and squeeze off the boat in a tight lane which we had been holding for the past 10 minutes!
Chicago was an incredible event, the start line split by a wall which committed teams to starting either through the gap or remaining within the breakwater and approaching the reaching start from an upwind angle and trying to build speed as fast as possible to match the boats slingshotting from above. The confined race area made the reach to Mark 1 feel particularly intense with it being my first event of Season 3, that extra boat made the race course feel even more congested. We sailed smartly to stay out of trouble and took 2,3,2 from the first day of racing with the Canadians winning the day after executing their slingshot start to perfection. The finish line in front of Navy Pier was a spectacular setting with the City of Chicago right behind and we could really heard the support from the crowd as we crossed the line.
Sunday’s forecast was very light and fortunately we had done a few hours training during practise in the configuration with 4 sailors where I move forwards to grind the wing and the jib controls, it takes a bit of getting used to sailing backwards and even when it’s light there is a fair amount of load on the wing sheet to lift the boat up on to the foils, I loved being more hands on in the boat and learnt a huge amount which can help in my Strategy role from experiencing how the boat sails - coming from a dinghy background, I learn best from doing so it was great to be able to have that experience. SailGP have three wing sizes to choose from and due to the light forecast, the boats were rigged with the largest, 29M wing which gave the best chance of light wind foiling racing. With very little wind within the breakwater, the race course was moved just outside which allowed us to have enough breeze to sail with the full crew, it was still light and patchy and and boat handling errors were punished with long slow speed re-build. Making the Final has to the be the first goal and it would be my first Finals Race with SailGP so I was excited to be part of it. The Aussies had a strong comeback to scrape in to the Final which meant they had nothing to lose in this ‘Winner takes all’ race and you could see that in their strategy. We finished up 3rd to add to the teams 2nd place from Bermuda so a solid start to the Season and it’s not long until we race again at our home event in Plymouth on 30/31 July!
Next up was the 5.5M Worlds in Norway, I was fortunate enough to join this project when a lot of the hard work had already been done - a huge group of people were involved in designing, building and fitting out two new boats for Peter Morton throughout lockdown and to jump in and be able to race the product of so many hours of work was a real privilege. I was racing with Louise Morton, of Quarter Ton Cup Winning fame and Annie Lush who is about to embark on her third Ocean Race and raced Yngling’s for many years while they were an Olympic Class. We had some training time in Cowes which was really productive but our first racing would be at Hankø race week, prior to the World Championships. A smaller fleet but really valuable race experience.
Day 1 of the World Championships was a light sea breeze, conditions that we knew would suit us with our boat configuration and being a light crew. We raced well and were happy to come away with a 7,3 from the day and plenty of improvements still to come. The following day saw AP over A at 08.30 due to 30+knots on the race course and big waves which was hard to believe from the sheltered Yacht Club. The forecast for the remainder of the week was windy and a decent swell. Significantly more wind and sea state than we had experienced during our training so we knew it would be a bit of a battle but we would give it all we had. The goal was top 10 and we managed to keep ourselves just about there , finishing 10th overall with some glamour moments and some errors typical of having had little time in the boat. Our team mates in GBR 42 came back from a difficult first day to win the World Title Overall and it was a great week of Championship racing, huge amounts learnt and a great experience in a great class full of Olympians and World Champions from the small keelboat classes. I hope I get the chance to do some more.
The next few weeks are again packed with more racing, we are definitely in busy season and it’s great to be able to get so much time on the water after 2 years of disrupted schedules!
