COVID the night before departure, lost equipment before racing, a few capsizes, wind, waves…. The first destination on our Olympic Sailing Campaign was certainly one to remember!
The Princess Trofeo Sofia sailing regatta on the Hempel World Cup Event series marked the start of Price Haseldine Sailing international competition. We’d been training in Sydney enduring several offshore sessions preparing for the conditions expected in the bay of Palma. The unusual Australian summer La Niña weather proved a benefit for us, chasing either the southerly winds and larger than usual swell, or lighter winds but again, lots of swell.
However, a few obstacles presented before we hit the racecourse. Let’s go back to the 24 hours before our flight…
Photo credit Salty Dingo
We leave tomorrow morning, March 22, to fly from Sydney to Barcelona, where we’ll stay a night in Barcelona before catching the 6am flight to Palma de Mallorca, an island near Ibiza. Evie about to drive coach, Victor Paya, to the airport when he beeps the horn and says, ‘Olivia has COVID’.
A Facetime call with some tears and several wrong turns to the airport later, Victor’s on his flight. The next 24 hours was a scramble as Evie took the reins and arranged for our 15kg of extra luggage to fly with her, solo.
Evie arrived in so-called ‘sunny Palma’, where it was 12 degrees and pouring rain. As we’d bought our new boat site unseen from the Americans, she then had to search for among the 90 other 49ers in the boat park. In a turn of events, the Australian 49er boys had serious delays with their container and didn’t have a hull to sail on. So, we struck a deal – in exchange for using the boat for three days before Olivia arrived, they showed Evie the ropes of setting up a new boat.
Evie spent her time on the coach boat until the team reunited, and Price Haseldine hit the ground running, squeezing in three days of training before the regatta began. Unfortunately, our Australian training partners, Harding Wilmot Sailing, didn’t compete in Palma, but we were lucky to have the opportunity to work one-on-one with Victor at our first international regatta.
The first day of the regatta was a hard day on the water, even hard for the returning Olympians. After a 40-minute sail to the racecourse, we were met with 3-4m swell and up to 28 knots of wind. A rollercoaster is the best way to describe our first day, with highs racing at the front of the fleet, but a few capsizes, and mishaps dropped us down a few positions.
We hadn’t raced in those conditions before and came away with a new set of racing experiences to add to our playbook and apply to the next day. Lucky, because we had the same conditions!
After two days of qualifying races, we were then setup for two days of Silver Fleet racing, where our goal shifted to reducing mistakes and start building a winning strategy. And we did just that, taking our first race win in a regatta - certainly a highlight of the week.
Palma was Olivia’s first international competition in over six years, and Evie’s first international Olympic competition, so we were pleased to come away with several mistakes and opportunities for growth.
Key takeaways from the regatta:
A lot of firsts for Evie, including recognising emotions that show up during high pressure racing, and the importance to identify these with the team.
The significance of the vang and its different purposes for mode changing with the environment.
Olivia remembered the importance of having a strong starting strategy – you can’t win races at the start, but you can certainly lose them!
Adding scenarios to the playbook for future reference and re-learning some general racing rules in 25 boat fleets, so when we start finding consistency in our racing and starting, we’ll be able to build on our experience.
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