BRONZE IN HYERES

It was one of the best attended Hyeres, I have seen with 14 boats on the start line and a few new faces among the usual regulars. The Top 6 from the Worlds were all present including the Paralympic Gold medallist from Athens Damien Seguin, only Heiko Kroeger from Germany was missing.
I had gone out a couple of weeks early to try and rack up some hours on the water, after a busy winter fitting out my new boat. I saw a variety of conditions in training from the typical light sea breeze, to 25 knot easterly and huge waves. So I felt pretty certain some of those conditions would be present during the regatta.

Adam our long standing coach, could not be with us as he was heavily tied up with the action down in Valencia, working with the Swedish team, Victory Challenge, so Dave Cockerill (National youth coach for the toppers), stepped in to help out. I quickly realised after day one I had some serious pace and height on the rest of the fleet in the 6 knot sea breeze, which persisted for the next 4 days. Unfortunately, I was being a little conservative with my starting and not really capitalising on my speed edge and popping in the results to show it. However it did make some really close racing and after three days there were 4 of us in the running for medals with anyone of us capable of getting the Gold.

I was determined to address my starting issues and leave the rest of the fleet in my wake. Race 7 I nailed it and Thierry Schmitter and I had a great battle up the second beat, with the rest of the fleet a distance behind. He did not give me an inch though and no matter how I tried to get through and out tack him, he slammed a close cover on me, determined not give me a chance to escape and over take him. Thierry finished 1st and I was a close 2nd.

A 15-20 knot easterly had been forecast for the next 2 days, and I saw this as my opportunity to make my move up the results. I knew Thierry was strong in the breeze and Damien would probably find his pace, after having struggled in the light, but I fancied I could give Thierry a run for his money and thought I would have pace on Jens Andersen from Denmark currently lying in second.

The first race of the day was great, big seas and breeze, and the three of us, Damien, Thierry and me crossed the line with little than half a boat length between us. Damien won and Thierry just managed to hold me off to take 2nd. Jens finished 5th. Unfortunately in the second race I got a little over confident and decided to split from the fleet on the downwind leg and got caught out by a big left hand shift, which put me back in the pack. I couldn’t quite get passed them before the finish. Thierry sailed 2 great races and found some real pace to win the second. This sowed the regatta up for him, giving him the Gold, but I was now only a point off second and was pretty much guaranteed 3rd.
I needed to get one boat in between myself and Jens to take the silver. I sailed a great race, finished 3rd with Yens in 6th, had the Silver, to then discover I was OCS, putting me back in Bronze.

I must admit I was disappointed at the time, but I once again I had medalled and it’s always a great feeling to stand up on the podium!