| 02/05/2008 - Hyeres round up | |
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We went to Hyeres off the back of a successful training camp in Valencia, looking forward to testing out our new equipment in racing. Hyeres is renowned as a strong wind venue, so although all our focus has been on the light wind and the gains we can make in those conditions, it is still important to know that it will survive and go fast in some breeze in case we catch the edge of a typhoon in China.Day 1 The breeze was in and we got off to a good start, port tacking the fleet, and leading most of the way round. Finished 3rd. Our main goal for Hyeres was consistency from the start and half way through the 1st race it looked like we were going to put a solid first day when our mast broke a few hundred meters from the finish- so a disappointing end to what could have been a good day. It was a long evening in the pouring rain rigging up our spare mast. Day 2 We got faster as the day went on but basically didn’t know the numbers for this new mainsail on our spare mast, so on a day when we felt the conditions were good for us to get some decent top 5 results we were distinctly average. Day 3 The famous mistral reached its peak at 35 knots - racing cancelled for the day Day 4 The mistral blew itself out and we were left with a weak gradient and building sea breeze. After a long wait and some abandoned races we got 3 races in. One good and 2 bad. Day 5. After a 720 off the start line we battled back to a top 10 counter only to be totally taken out at the gybe mark to the finish by a French girl which cost us 10 boats. The protest went on long into the night, which we won and got redress for the incident. Medal race. A really light and shifty medal race- finishing 2nd pulled us up a few places to 6th overall. |
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