Ecstatic with Worlds silver!!
Written by Hannah Diamond | 30 July 2013
Wow, what a week!!
The build up to the first ever Nacra 17 Worlds was all geared towards making sure we were ready for any conditions that Scheveningen could throw at us, I was mentally preparing for a physically challenging week with 18 knots and big rolling waves.
The reality, however, was very different!
Holland was affected by the same high pressure system that was bringing the beautiful weather to the UK, but unfortunately this meant that the forecast for the whole week was for very light winds and spring tides.
The first two days of racing involved rigging at 9am then around a 4pm launch after waiting and crossing fingers for the wind to fill in, but unfortunately the evening wind coincided with a building tide which forced the race committee to send us back in with no racing two days running.
Day 3 saw a change of schedule and change in the weather, we were greeted with 8 knots which built to 15 knots and we headed onto the water for 5 big races!
Qualifying was about ensuring our place in gold fleet and we were happy to be 5th overall heading into the final series.
Day 4 saw the lighter winds return and after a lot more waiting on shore we headed out for our first final race.
We realised that it was unlikely that we would get a discard in the final series so it was important that we could make every race count.
We were really pleased with how we sailed in each race, taking opportunities when they were there and consolidating our position when necessary.
Guaranteeing a silver medal going into the medal race was an amazing position to be in and Ben and I were both really excited to have a go at getting a boat in between us and the leading French team, but it wasn’t to be as the wind failed to fill in after a number of thunderstorms and the medal race was abandoned.
Overall, we are ecstatic to have won a medal at our first World Championships but we also realise that the fleet is moving forwards at such a pace and that this is only the beginning and we have a lot of work ahead of us.
We head out to Lake Como, Italy, for the European Championships in two weeks’ time where we will try and do one better and get on the top of the podium this time!
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