ICSA - SOF Hyeres: Day Four 470 Report

It’s late again. This will be brief.

Today was perhaps one of the most beautiful sailing days that we have seen on the European spring circuit in years. 12-18 knots, sunny skies, steady breeze, warm, perfect! Unfortunately our performance wasn’t up to the conditions. The ladies decided not to play due to Katie’s bad back. It’s not the time to aggravate a delicate situation, so rest was the right call.

Paul and Kevin were ready to go for it, but the rivets holding their gooseneck to the mast were not. They let go moments before the first start and sent us into breakdown recovery mode. We were ready for that challenge and had Humpty Dumpty back together again in plenty of time for race two. The #1 French team, Philippe/LeBerre, lead around track with the Swedes finally coming to life in second. The Aussies were third.

Paul and Kevin were timid in the final seconds before the second start and were pushed to the generally unfavored right. They found a nice shift a few minutes into the race and came back in decent shape, but didn’t have great legs on a day when speed was king. They were in the 20s at the top and weren’t able to move up from there.

The committee had posted their intention to sail three races today, but somehow the vast majority of the Gold Fleet missed the message and sailed in after the second race. We hung around, assured that a third race would be sailed. Meanwhile the women and Silver Fleet men finished their second race and started their third race while the race committee waited for the Gold Fleet to return for the third race. We were starting to get cold! Finally they started a sequence with three boats in attendance: Paul and Kevin, one of the Kiwis, and the Spanish. The 3 boat British contingent had finally gotten the word and were frantically racing the starting line when the gun went off. It was a great battle with the first three, with Paul and Kevin a close third at the top, moving to first on the run and extending from there for the win. The Brits closed a bit, but remained in 4-6.

The win was nice, but the opportunity to race in a tiny fleet in optimum boatspeed conditions was better still. Paul and Kevin felt that their rhythm was returning upwind, and they were awesome on the run. It was a nice way to finish a day.

The Brits are leading at the end of the day with the Bonnauds slipping to second and the Portuguese moving into third. Paul and Kevin slipped to14th, but will move up again if we get more races and a second discard. With tomorrows forecast of up to 50 knots, additional races are not a guarantee.

Stay tuned!

Rollin "Skip" Whyte

US Sailing Team