In a little seaside town in the south of France, Hyeres Olympic Sailing Week threw a variety of conditions and tough competition at us, as we began to execute more racing goals and delve into more racing strategies.
After the Princess Sofia Regatta, we decided to swap our time off for an extra five days of training in Palma to work on where we lost obvious points in racing - our boat handling with a main focus on tacking the boat in all conditions.
Tacking is simple to get right during training, but it can be a different story when you’re under pressure in a race and need to execute in a do or die situation to hold a new lane upwind.
So, after plenty of tacking drills, motivation from the coach and video analysis, our tacking technique was on the up, and it was certainly noticed in Hyeres!
We made our way to Hyeres with a 24 hour stopover in Nice, which was nice! It was the first time we'd really been able to take off our jumpers and enjoy the sunshine.
This Olympic cycle, the 49erFX has a new equipment package with new mast sections built by CST and a sail redesign by North Sails with 3Di technology. For Hyeres, we chose to sail with new setup to begin understanding how the mast reacts in a range of conditions. We'd sailed with this setup only a handful of times, so we were ready to learn more.
Day one of racing we were treated with the famous mistral breeze, 20 plus knots and flat water. After a long postponement onshore (though we weren’t fully confident in the setup being a bit overpowered!) we were able to round the first top mark in fourth. A straight set was followed by an aborted gybe (if we ease the spinnaker sheet too much on the entry to the gybe, it makes it tricky to stabilise the boat in big breeze) and then a successful re-attempt.
However, a man overboard on the exit meant we capsized. The following race we persisted to come away with a second in a fleet against the Norwegians, French and Americans.
Day two was a tough one for us, with a lighter breeze and shorter start line making starting execution the top priority. Inability to execute our starts, a lack of speed skills in 4-8 knots and a very skilled fleet proved difficult racing and a day to certainly learn from. It was a rollercoaster day on the scorecard, ending with a Did Not Finish (DNF) thanks to a broken port side trapeze and tiller extension.
Starting execution continued to be at the front of our minds for the rest of the regatta. Being able to risk calculate and prioritise positioning based on shift and pressure is key to getting a clear lane. Day three of qualifiers certainly saw us attempt this goal hitting the mark slightly early but well worth the UFD to experience fighting at the front of the fleet, to come in handy when we so start behind the line!
Equipment failures, some poor starting execution, while some other were a little too ambitious, and an overall lack of time in the boat meant Hyeres was a regatta of many silly mistakes. Although without these mistakes we would not have learnt the lessons we did!
Key takeaways for the regatta:
Evie’s understanding, knowledge and ability to identify and regulate emotions.
Putting theory into practice in understanding boat setup including use of controls to manipulate mode and consistency in team communication.
Olivia observing and understanding the line to build in the priorities for a good starting strategy.
Moding tactics and technique to manipulate the lane according to desired strategic outcome.
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