TRAINING IN SCANDINAVIA

It’s been a really successful couple of weeks with lots of sailing and racing and a chance to get the new boat in commission.

It began in Helsinki at Brando Seglare, a small club just outside the city, built on a rock! (I thought I had arrived at the wrong place at first). The boats just about made it over the little wooden bridge, but there was no way the car would! I was hoping to get sailing the first couple of days, but instead spent some long cold hours working on the boat, whilst back home there was a heat wave! I eventually launched the boat on Friday and after pouring a bottle of beer over her (no champagne or wine in the supermarket) I went sailing. I had a few tweaks to make when I got in, but felt confident she was in good shape for racing the next day.
It was a good turn out with 30 boats entered and the top Finnish sailors racing. The Canadian Paralympic team had also come over as well as a couple of the American’s. After 4 hours freezing our toes off on the water, (I had every item of clothing I could find on), we had not managed to race. The wind was so light and fickle it was impossible to set a course. It was decided to abandon for the day and have an earlier start on Sunday to try and get 5 races in.
We did get 5 races, but in some crazy conditions. The last race was especially so, with 40 degree shifts every 30 seconds, I went from 4th to 20th to 4th again in one run.
It was all looking good with 2 bullets in the first two races and a 2nd and a couple of 6th. Unfortunately I was OCS in the first race which prevented me from winning the regatta and put me in 3rd. The boat seemed to be going well and I was often first to the windward mark so I was pleased with how things had gone for her first regatta.

I then jumped on the ferry to Stockholm, where I met up with Bjornar Erikstad (from Norway) and his coach Frank for some training. We really logged up the hours doing 5 hours on the water each day. A couple of Swedes had taken the week off work to join us, and Bruce one of the Canadian sailors had also come over from Helsinki. In the evening more sailors would arrive after work, so often there would be 14 of us out training.



On Friday we moved to KSSS the club hosting the regatta. This time there was an ever bigger entry list of 45 boats. Many of the Fins came over with the rest of the Canadian and American team.
We had four races the first day, again in some really shifty and tricky conditions. It didn’t help that the race committee set a really short course, so it was chaos at the top mark all 45 boats arriving together.
I didn’t really get going, struggling a little in the conditions and not having great starts. I was a little too preoccupied with the boat and speed, and it was not a day for that, it was all about the shifts and not speed!
The next day I was determined to get a handle on the conditions and to give myself half a chance by getting off the start line. I had a much better day and pulled myself up to 11th overall.
It was great practice for me as those conditions are not my strong point and it was good to have the chance to get a handle on the shifts in a really competitive.

I then drove down to Kiel, where I have left the boat for a week before flying back out in a weeks time for Kiel Regatta.