It was one of the best attended Hyeres, I have seen with 18 boats on the start line and a few new faces among the usual regulars. All the top sailors were present, as expected being Paralympic year and with few regattas left now until the Games in September everyone is keen to get as much racing practice as possible.

It was the first regatta for my new boat “The Charles Russell” kindly bought by Charles Russell legal advisers. I was keen to test her against my major rivals after a good spell of tuning against my trials boat in the U.K

The start of the regatta was windy and wet with 18-22knots of breeze and some big waves. The boat showed great pace in theses conditions and after the first two days I was lying 3rd, even though I was a little rusty on my tactics having not raced since the trials in Miami in January. Damien Seguin (France) was leading with Thierry Schmitter (Holland) in second.

Tuesday was called off with an average wind speed of 35 knots, so we decided to have a bit of fun and went Go Karting with the Dutch team.

By Wednesday things had calmed down and we have two races in a nice 10-15knot breeze. Again I showed great pace and was leading the first race, but slipped up on the 2nd beat to let Damien and Heiko through. The second race was really close and I ended up 4th. Unfortunately the 1st Discard kicked in and Heiko jumped ahead of me in to third knocking me into fourth place with Damien still leading but equal on points with Thierry.

I needed to put in a good performance the next day to get back in the medals. It was light sea breeze conditions and I won the first race and finished 3rd in the second, having the best scoring day on the water in the light fluky condition, (similar to what we expect in China). I was now equal 3rd with Heilko and only one point off second going into the last day.

There was only one race schedule for the last day, and it was down to who beat who to decide the medals. Damien had won with a race to spare, so it was a battle for silver and bronze between me Heiko and Thierry.
I had a good start and rounded the top mark 3rd just behind Thierry and ahead of Heiko. The places stayed the same until the last run. Heiko gybed off at the top and I shortly went to cover him along with Thierry who was trying to cover us both. We came together in the middle of the run and I gybed again to stay with him, but he immediately gybed off. I hooked in to a bit of pressure and decided to let him go. Unfortunately a big mistake he picked up a nice patch of pressure on the right and the three of us crossed the finish line together, but Heiko had gained the edge and beat us both across the line pushing Thierry into third place overall and me into 4th.

I was furious with myself at the time, I should have stuck to him like glue and not let him escape, also I probably would have beaten Thierry and clinched the silver. However with reflection it’s a good lesson to learn now and not in September, and even though my racing had got a bit rusty after the last few months I was still battling it out with them for the medals.

I only have four days now at home before we are off to China for the test regatta, which I am really looking forward to.