Summer 2016: lightwind racing, European Championships, a few waves.
The racing season started well for me, it is always nice to get back into the swing of racing after chasing strong wind and waves all winter. I don’t get a chance to sail with other raceboarders much, so the UKWA competitions are really useful for training and tuning. In July, it was the 4th event of te UKWA cup series, at Weymouth. This was an especially important event, as it was the last one before the European Championships. After playing around with our light wind prototype sail, I came back to the amazing all-round production XR-Race, and had a new one to tune up. The wind was pretty light all weekend, but from a SW’ly direction, which meant that it was very stable, without many gusts or shifts, and so it really tested board-speed and starting. I got both of these right, and won every race of the weekend, seeing off tough competition from Lewis Barnes, Tom Naylor, Mark Kay, and Rob Kent. Knowing that my light-wind speed was good, I was pleased that August had some good medium-strong wind conditions, and I made an effort to get myself feeling fast and comfortable in these conditions so that I arrived in France prepared for anything.
I didn’t go wavesailing much in July and August, so when me and Laura arrived in Brittany, as well as exploring the beautiful coast by foot and bike, I was happy to get out in some really fun conditions at the spot of “les Amiets”. There are so many beaches and reefs in Brittany, I could spend years searching for good spots.
There were a few names missing from the entry list of the Euro’s, such as the Finns, Poles, Czechs etc., but they were replaced by a lot of really fast French and Spanish competitors. The forecast looked a little light, and on the first day, we had to wait for the sea-breeze to build, but we managed to get two races in about 8-12 knots. I’d not sailed internationally for over a year, and some of the competitors were new to me, so I really had no idea how I’d compare to the fleet. Happily, my level was good, in 12 knots I was competitive upwind, and strong downwind, I started with a solid 5th, then got 2nd in the next race as the wind became patchy. At the start of a long regatta like this, it is important to sail consistently and not take too many risks, but knowing the high level at the top, I felt under pressure already, and this resulted in me risking a port tack crossing, I was so focussed on not loosing places that I convinced myself that I was in the right, and as a result was disqualified from the race.
The next day, we had 8-10 knots from the NE, and a lot of tide. It was much more tactical. I was fast and was delighted to finish 2nd, but before the rest of the fleet could finish, the race was abandoned due to a thunderstorm, and so the waiting game started. After 1 and a half days of no wind, we finally had a full day of racing. 6-10 knots, marginal, tidal, gusty, and shifty. Really physically hard work and mentally testing. Speed wise I was fast, and keen to make up for my disappointing first 3 days. However, the tactical game was ever-changing, and I just didn’t get it right upwind enough of the time, and had to rely strongly on my good downwind speed to pick up a 3rd, 3rd, 8th, and 4th. I left myself with a lot of work to do on the last day to improve on my 6th place, but again some bad decisions (finding a hole in the wind, a bad start, letting the tide take me past the layline) gave me 5th, 5th, 6th, and I finished the regatta in 5th. However, the last day was a lot of fun, with the last two races in really pretty strong wind, and I was really happy to find that despite my light weight, I was just as fast in these conditions as I was in the light wind conditions.
Since then I’ve had a pretty relaxing September, without much work to do, and plenty of windsurfing. I won the RYA/UKWA National Windsurfing Championships (which is the UKWA Inland championships), in mostly light winds again. I had two really nice sessions at Gwithian – great to get some down-the-line conditions.
I’m really looking forward to my last racing event of the season, where I will try out the Severne Raceboard sail. It has a lot to live up to, the Tushingham XR-Race had really amazing performance from 6-20+ knots. First impressions at home on Siblyback: good. Lets see how it fairs on the race course!
After that, it’s off to Tiree, then Gwithian, and later Avon Beach, to follow the BWA (British Wavesailing Association) tour and compete in the Amateur fleet. Can't wait to hit some more waves, and get back into some jumping.
