The season has started!
Written by Dylan Fletcher | 16 June 2013
Well updates have been a little bit light on this website for a while now… No excuse but we have been updating our Racing Silverline page nicely on Facebook, so if you have not already liked it please do!
Since our last update a lot has been going on, we have completed 4 regattas in Europe; Palma, Hyeres, Holland and finally the Sail for Gold back in Weymouth. It has been up and down for us with a bad start in Palma with breakages, but mainly just struggling to get back into the routine of racing, coaching and keeping the thing upright!
We then moved onto Hyeres World Cup which started off really well with squad camp the week before. This set us up nicely going into the event and although we made mistakes we sailed well all week with good pace. Then to top it off with a cracking last day in the high pressure ‘theatre style racing’ to come away with our first Gold medal at a World Cup. We were stoked! Although we were European Champions in 2011, the Aussies did beat us overall so this was our first major win at a regatta. Exactly what we were looking to get done this year, hopefully something that will be happening a lot more often too.
Next up was Holland regatta, which was not a happy time. It was cold and I mean freezing cold similar to sailing in the depths of a British winter, wet and we had more breakages. This time round we broke the top set of spreaders after breaking the bottom set in Palma, that cost us 2 races on the first day. Then on the penultimate day we snapped our favourite mast! We were in a dark place that evening but got our act together to the win the final race of the series (albeit without the top 8 overall).
Next up was the Sail for Gold where last year we picked up a Bronze medal. At the time we were chuffed to come back after the disappointment of selection, it was a big result for us especially with it being the regatta before the games with everyone there. Proving that we did have what it takes just maybe a little bit too late! This year we had an alright regatta, struggling for some pace at times but we had another strong last day which put us into the chocolates with a Silver medal.
So 4 regattas done so far, 2 medals, 2 broken spreaders, 1 snapped mast but most importantly 1 shiny Gold medal!
Now we have just a week to get ready in preparation for the 49er European Championships in Aarhus, including sorting our mast out and trying to get that tuned up.
We promise the next update will not be so delayed!
Cheers for now
Dylan