Bad luck and face-plants – but a fantastic experience!
Written by Fynn Sterritt | 09 April 2013
We have now come to the end of our first ISAF World Cup regatta together: fantastic experience!
Those who have been following on Facebook and Twitter will know that we haven’t been especially lucky with breakages. In fact �unlucky’ would be a wee bit of an understatement. Blowing up two rudder stocks in two days was quite a feat, particularly considering the majority of the seasoned campaigners had never seen such a breakage. Screaming downwind in 25 knots and massive waves is exhilarating on its own without the added anxiety of face-planting the water as the boat suddenly screws into the wind. You hit the water at some pace I can tell you!
We didn’t let our luck get us down however and still came back to shore with a smile, even after spending the majority of the first two days upside down trying to get the boat back to the beach. Big thanks to Paul and Sparky for their efforts.
Day 3 was the last day of qualifying before the 73-strong fleet was split into Gold and Silver. After our exploits on the first two days it was always going to be a difficult task to make the gold fleet. Unfortunately we didn’t quite make the cut with only 10 points between 37th place and ourselves in 40th.
The initial disappointment at missing out on the Gold fleet was soon replaced by the realization that the silver fleet would provide a comparable learning opportunity. This statement was true to form with the race committee sending the silver fleet out onto the Finn course, they must have felt we needed more practice in the big waves! They were right!
All in all a great experience and a good way to kick off the campaign. Next stop on the ISAF World Cup Series calendar is Hyeres in just under two weeks. Hopefully we won’t have to use our vast experience of boat recovery this time around. I have to say we are getting pretty slick!
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www.teamashersterritt.co.uk