The wolf has tasted blood!
Written by Luke Patience | 18 February 2015
Miami was an important milestone for myself and Elliot. It was our first World Cup medal together – a gold one – and it was the first time we had broken the Australian dominance of the 470 men’s fleet.
It’s been less than a year since Elliot and I got into the boat together for the first time. A year ago I was still sailing with Joe Glanfield. A lot can happen in a short space of time!
Elliot and I felt in such a good place at the Miami regatta, and I think that really stemmed from the days building up to the start. It was nothing drastic really – the times that we sailed, where we placed our rest days, and what type of training day we did on each day, whether it was a race-based day or a very focussed day on something else such as a routine in the boat.
I think all of that careful build up resulted in arriving at race one maybe slightly more practiced, slightly hungrier, and certain about how well we were going. Those three things just set the tone for the week. Inevitably anything in the world is habitual, so if you start off on a good note, it becomes a habit day after day and before you know it, although the regatta is six days long, we’d been in a pretty good routine for almost a week before that as well, and carried that through to an ultimately successful outcome by winning the event.
It’s been many years that I’ve been doing this sport and although you know it’s the small things at this level that make the difference, I never get used to how big a difference that can make mentally and how important it is to get the small things right.
That’s never a simple thing to achieve in sailing because every venue is different, the challenge is different, the type of racing is always different, so you need to adopt different mentalities. If it was as simple as just replicating what we did in Miami from now on, that would be just great!
But it doesn’t work like that, and that’s why it’s such a challenging sport. Sometimes you get it right and sometimes you don’t. We got it right in Athens for the Europeans last year, and we didn’t get it so right for the Worlds and the results speak for themselves a little bit there. We were fourth in Santander and in Athens and Miami we were standing on the podium, on the top step.
Without doubt, beating the Australian World Champions Mat Belcher and Will Ryan was an important marker for us. No-one wants to sit there and say they keep getting beaten by the same things, and the same people, but it’s been the reality in our fleet. I really enjoy racing them – the challenge is amazing and we have a great respect for each other.
We didn’t catch them on a bad day – they were still their usual massive jump ahead of the fleet. This time we just surpassed that and jumped 15 points ahead of them going into the medal race. We weren’t waiting there in the bushes waiting for them to stumble, we absolutely raced to their level and passed it.
That’s a good thought. But what’s really good is laying in bed at night and knowing that the work Elliot and myself and our coach Steve have been doing is right, our process is right. We’re making the right choices, good choices, and Miami showed it’s working. That is so much more valuable than anything else. The cherry on top is winning.
And now after that little taste of success, it’s back to work. I’m never more inspired to go back to work and back to the drawing board than when I’m doing well. That’s the time I’m really mad for it!
We’re UK-based this February, which is unusual compared to the rest of the team. It’s cold here obviously, but there’s much refining that we are doing to equipment and things. We’re then out to start the European season in March to get some more hours in the boat again and start to build it up and ready for the next regattas. I hope that we’re another half a percent better by April than we are today!
It’s always going to be a tough battle at the front of the 470 class. Although there’s been that Aussie dominance, the Greek boys, Croatian boys, ourselves – we spend our regattas fighting it out. We’re like a terrible foursome at the front of the fleet. It’s so hard to find those gains in our fleet, but it should be. I love it and that’s why I do it.
I’ve probably won more silver medals that anyone else as much as I hate to say that – but now having that gold from Miami has given us great confidence for the road ahead.
The wolf has tasted blood and it wants more!