Semana Olímpica Andaluza 2011
Written by Dylan Fletcher | 01 March 2011
Last night we got home from Cadiz, where we just finished our first regatta of the 2011 season. The regatta looked to be good with a very strong fleet of 25 boats with 5 from the top 10 at the worlds, Beijing Gold Medalist and most of the normal gold fleet.
This time I arrived in Cadiz a couple of days before we started training to get some kitesurfing in. The last time I was on the water was back in November so it was awesome to get back kiting again. I had taken a few steps back but had an awesome couple of days.
Then disaster, I got food poisoning again. This time it was from some dodgy airport food when I was waiting at the airport to pick up the rest of the guys. So then had to miss the next days sailing recovering, but I was back on the water the day after. Although I was a bit sketchy on the boat, Alain did a great job of keeping me in the boat in 15 knots and 2/3m swell!
We had 4 days on the water before the regatta started, which we spent running through our normal pre-regatta prep. Plus we had a day off to make sure we were well rested. Compared to the previous camps when we were spending 5 hours on the water a day, this training period was a bit different. Trying to make sure that we did not snap mid event.
The first day of the regatta was looking like it could be a no sailing day with a rubbish forecast, but the wind gods played ball and 12-15 knots filled in. We had an average day posting a 6,10,10,1 including an unfortunate bit of gear failure when our tiller fell off in race 3 and we went from 3rd to 10th.
Day 2 was 5-8 knots onshore sea breeze with some reasonable swell to make it interesting. We had 2 bad races and 2 good races posting a 13,5,13,1, it could have been a lot worse but we were in 3rd 18 points behind Chris and Peter in 1st.
The forecast for day 3 looked good but we ended up holding onshore for a couple of hours before the wind filled in. The first race was in 6-9 knots sea breeze, which we won, then the breeze shut down and 15-20 knots offshore came in. There were 2 more races, with a lot of snakes and ladders around but we had good boatspeed and came away with a 4,2. This moved us up into 2nd overall and now only 8 points of 1st.
So the last day of the regatta and another 4 races scheduled. It was all to play for; we just needed to stay a couple of boats ahead of Chris and Peter in every race, but since when is it ever that easy? We certainly made it hard in the first race finishing in 13th that now meant we were now 13 points behind. The wind started to really kick in and we put the hammer down posting a 4,5,2 but it was not enough, finishing 4 points behind Chris and Peter.
Still what a great way to start the year, our second ever podium and a 1-2 for the training group. We now need to keep this momentum going and not get complement. Right now we have 4 days off, then head back out to Cadiz for the final camp on Saturday.
Finally big thanks to coach Harvey Hillary and well done to Chris/Peter for a great regatta.
Dylan