It was a wild and windy day one here in Hyeres, France at the French Olympic Sailing Week. We went to the water on time for our 11 AM start in a quickly building Mistral breeze, which is the local windy offshore breeze here in the French Mediterranean. It was up to 17 to 24 knots by the time we were halfway up the first beat, and the chop was steep!
Racing in those conditions in a 49er is on the edge, especially when the chop is as short and steep as it was. Upwind is fine, as long as the boat is set up for it, but downwind is akin to riding a bucking bronco. We were thrown off a few times. While we know we can do better with our boat handling than we did today, we are not reading into today’s difficulties too much. Exactly 11 of 28 boats finished the race within the time limit. Almost every boat capsized at least once. These are not excuses, merely putting things into perspective. We are carrying a DNF now, and we will look to do better tomorrow.
The Mistral is forecast to remain for another day or two, so we may have a chance to redeem ourselves in these challenging conditions. Our speed was good, so that is a start.
Stay tuned for lots more from Hyeres!
Thanks to all of our supporters and sponsors. Thanks to the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics especially our title sponsor AlphaGraphics and Gold Partners Atlantis and Rolex. Thanks also to Sperry Top-Sider for their sponsorship and support.
Erik
Storck Moore Sailing