The thing with progress is that you like to imagine it as a straight line heading up, but in reality, it’s more of a rollercoaster!
After a successful week in Almere with our first World Cup Sailing podium, we were excited to get back on the water to train with our Australian 49erFX Squad in next years’ World Championship venue, The Hague in Holland. Our plan was to capitalise on what we saw as our weaknesses in Almere - so we got to work on our straight line sailing technique, along with some more starting execution.
Unfortunately we hit a bump in the road (not literally), as Olivia hit her head on the boom on day two of training during a double tack, while practicing our starts. Though feeling okay, she consulted with the team physio and doctors, and we had to make the decision to put on-water sailing on pause to have her go through the Australian Sailing concussion protocols. While there was a bit of frustration that we couldn’t be out on the water, Evie made the most of the time and Olivia spent the next few days resting and recovering to ensure all was well for us to perform in our next regatta.
But, every cloud has a silver lining, and this gave Evie the opportunity to spend some time on the coach boat with Victor where she could watch the squad out training. Next year, this venue will be the first opportunity for Australia to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, so it was great for Evie to be on the water so we have some useful data about the race course.
There was a scheduled break after the week in The Hague, spending a few days in Amsterdam taking in the sights, and recuperating before hitting the water at our next venue, Kiel in Germany.
We took the necessary steps getting Olivia back in the boat, but she ticked all the right boxes and is now cleared to race at Kieler Woche, starting today 22 June! We’ll be posting our updates on our Instagram page, but you can also watch us live as racing will be streamed Friday on Kiel Week TV, plus live SAP tracking each day, plus follow the results here.
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