470 Team USA Update — 9th Overall after First Day at Hyeres
April 23rd, 2007 by Isabelle
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Dear Friends,
Since you last heard from us on April 7th after finishing 3rd at the Princess Sofia Regatta, we have done a lot of training and also sailed a practice regatta, the French Spring Cup.
Yesterday, Sunday, April 22nd, was the first day of the Semaine Olympique Francaise, French Olympic Week, commonly referred to as Hyeres, for the name of the town where the regatta is – Hyeres, France. All of the women are sailing in a large fleet of 59 boats. In light, fickle, challenging conditions, we finished 13th and 15th, and are in 9th place overall and the top American team. There is a lot of racing left, but we were pleased with two decent finishes. In such difficult conditions, many teams had shocker races on the first day of the regatta – the current world champions rolled a 50th and 4th, so we feel lucky!
For complete scores, please visit the regatta website — http:// hyeres.ffvoile.net/results/470w.htm
Many thanks to our sponsors — RBS Greenwich Capital, Stonington Harbor Yacht Club, Harken, Kaenon, Fishers Island Yacht Club, the US Sailing Team. Also, many thanks to the individual donors who keep our campaign on the water.
For the details of what we’ve been doing, please read on!
After the racing in Palma de Majorca, we stayed in Palma for three more days of training. We bend-tested several new masts in an effort to find some masts that will take us through a win at the Trials! We left Palma on Tuesday, April 10th and started a long journey up the coast to Hyeres, France. We were traveling with US Sailing Coach, Skip Whyte. We made it to Hyeres, France, 2.5 days later, after a ferry ride, a day of tourism in Barcelona (the highlight!!!), swapping rental cars, breaking down on the road at 2:30 a.m., etc. Those details need to be told in person!
We sailed the French Spring Cup, from April 14-18, as a training regatta. That regatta is especially fun because men and women sail in a mixed fleet, a nice change of scenery! It was a welcome break to sail a regatta that didn’t matter, and be able to experiment on the starting line and on the racecourse. We finished 34th out of 53 teams, but were not worrying about the scoreboard. We had mostly light conditions, but one day of breeze that brought the highlight of the regatta – on a tight reach in over 18 knots of wind, we were the ONLY boat to hold our spinnaker! We rounded the windward mark in 20th, and blasted past ten boats, to round the reach mark in 10th – sweet!
Yesterday was the first day of racing at Hyeres, the peak regatta of first regatta trip to Europe. We are lucky to be working with coach Peter Alarie, an extremely talented and experienced sailors in a wide range of boats (and a fellow YCYCer!). The wind was light all day, with the maximum wind at 8 knots – briefly. That brought a welcome moment for Isabelle to stretch her legs! In the first race we started at the pin, left, end of the line with the intention of going right immediately. That didn’t work, but we were able to catch the major shifts up the first upwind and rounded the first mark in the top fifteen. We caught a lot of distance on the boats in front of us, passing some as well, and moved into the top ten. We missed a major shift on the second upwind, got tangled up in a slow men’s boat, and dropped to 13th.
In the second race we again started at the pin, left, end of the line (can you see a pattern developing here?!?). We didn’t have as good a start as we would’ve liked, and tacked many times in the first two minutes. We finally found a lane going left, and tapped into a very nice left shift with more pressure. We rounded the windward mark in about 18th, remarkable for our less-than-desirable start. We had a phenomenal first downwind leg, and passed 10 boats. We lost ground at the end of the second downwind when we didn’t realize the race committee had shortened the course, an unusual move when you are only one short reach from the finish. We crossed the new line in 15th.
The forecast looks light through Wednesday, but Thursday and Friday should bring more typical Hyeres conditions – 20-25 knots!
Best,
Erin and Isabelle