A storm’s a-brewin’ for Team Patience Willis
Written by Luke Patience | 17 June 2014
I’m writing this on a ferry across the Bay of Biscay with 24 hours’ travelling to look forward to, after an awesome practice regatta in Santander, the venue for September’s ISAF World Championships. That means one thing - sleep!
Because the 470 has been around so long, the class is a bit like a family, and the coaches all get together and run proper practice racing events, with entry fees, prize money, the lot. This one was four days, three races a day and 12 races in total - a full series of great racing. Everyone respects how seriously training races are taken and competition is fierce; all the top guys who will be at the Olympics were there.
Elliot and I missed the first day because logistically we couldn’t get over there in time after Sail for Gold, where we won gold. We knew that was always going to be the way, but in every race that followed we finished in the top three and won two races.
We feel so good about what we did in those three days - we were flying, like we had jets on the boat and the boat was in sixth gear, it was great.
As a training regatta it allowed us to gather information about the racecourse ahead of the Worlds. It is a very tidal venue, with a lot of high ground around. Around 8-12 knots would be considered ‘normal’ breeze but, because of where Santander is on the Bay of Biscay, it is big seas, big swell, and then a lot of chop on top of that swell.
It is dead challenging but Elliot is just exceptional at crewing a 470 in these conditions, it is like dark magic what he does in the boat, an unspoken ability that only he understands in his head!
Elliot, of course, is a two-time 470 World Champion, and I’ve said before it has always felt like we hit the ground running because we have been good friends for a long time too. But there are times when we get a reminder that we are still a new partnership, and things happen on the racecourse we could have done better.
The more time Elliot and I can spend racing together seriously, the more situations on the racecourse we will experience together and we will be better equipped to deal with all eventualities, which will serve us well going into the Olympic Games.
Read the full blog from Luke here