Bronze Medal Finish in the first regatta of the year

Miami Olympic Classes is the first major regatta in 2007, and provides a useful test of progress made over the winter. It is also a great winter training base, allowing us to escape the Northern Hemisphere winter. A fact proven by entries of over 800 sailors from 49 different countries this year, the biggest turnout on record for Miami OCR which hosts all the Olympic and Paralympic classes.

We left the U.K on the 4th of January, with the intention of getting some quality training in before the regatta. My primary aim was to test the new sails we had been developing and also work on my starting. Although my coach Adam and I were ill for a portion of this, we managed a lot of time on the water learning much about the sails, and rig set-up in the light and choppy conditions experienced.

There was a good turn out for the 2.4 class with 25 entries and a fifty fifty split of disabled and able bodied sailors. We had a good variety of conditions, from the classic 6 knot Miami sea breeze, to a 20 knot north easterly gradient off the land that brought with it torrential rain and limited visibility.

It was a tough regatta for me. With 13 races and only one discard it was important to be consistently near the front, and not have any shockers. I had a rather average first day and struggled to fully get in tune with the shifty conditions experienced. I never quite settled into the regatta and find the form I know I am capable of. I did have my moments though, with a couple of seconds and a race win, which gave my results a boost and placed me in Bronze medal position overall. Stellan Berlin an able bodied sailor from Sweden won Gold and my fellow Skandia Team GBR team mate Megan Pascoe sailed an excellent regatta to finish in Silver.

Although I was disappointed in my sailing it is always great to make the podium, and it has been a useful regatta to highlight the areas I need to work on over the next few months before the sailing season really starts in the spring.

I’ve come away fired up for the season ahead, with a lot of very valuable lessons learnt, and another medal!