Lisa's Blog: Race Win at the European Championships

Last night I finished my epic travel, 2 days and 5 connections later arriving home from Estonia and was very happy to see my roommates and my own bed!  My trip to Europe was a success and I am very excited to put in the two weeks of preparation in Nova Scotia before heading off to the World Championships that start in early July.

The European championships proved to be every much as tough and tricky of a regatta as I anticipated.  The fleet was extremely tight all week and the conditions did not relent from being challenging and shifty all week, no matter what the breeze strength.

With a fleet of 88 boats, the radials were split into 2 fleets for 4 days of qualifying races after which, we were sorted into the top half, gold fleet, and bottom half, silver fleet, for the remaining 2 days of racing with our scores from the qualifying series carrying forward. I sailed well, and fairly consistent during the qualifying series to qualify in 18th place for gold fleet.  The conditions were different each day of qualifiers, but equally challenging.  It was tricky to manage fleet positioning and playing the huge differences in shifts and breeze strengths across the course.  

While launching on day 4 of the qualifiers I stepped on a rusty spike while moving my boat towards the launching ramp and got a deep puncture wound in the bottom of my foot though my boot.  I sailed that day, and even though it got quickly cleaned out by the first aid before I launched, I had developed an infection by the time I got in.  I headed to the emergency at the hospital to get it looked at and get a tetanus shot.  The doctor surprisingly told me that he thought I might develop a fever (obviously knowing that there was already an infection in my foot) but would not prescribe antibiotics being satisfied that it was a local infection... even though I asked for them!  There was a first aid clinic at the sailing centre so I was able to have my foot cleaned and bandaged each day before and after sailing.  It was painful to walk for days, but fortunately felt better on the water as I wasn't putting pressure on it.  

The first day of finals was the lightest day we had seen, with a seabreeze fighing the weak gradient breeze from the shore.  We waited on land for a few hours and were sent out to the racecourse at 1 pm. The breeze finally settled and at about 3:30 the race committee started a race.  Unfortunately the wind strength did not hold and halfway through the race, it died to almost nothing and the race was abandoned... unfortunate as I was in a top 5 position!

The final day of racing was a long one as we were sent out an hour earlier to make up for one of the races we had missed the day before.  I was feeling a bit foggy from the pain medication and my decisions on the racecouse were a bit slow for the first two races.  I had great starts and the possibility to be in the top group, but made a couple of errors in the first beats moving me into the pack where it was a struggle to find wind and lanes.  By the last race of the day, I was a feeling little more alert and was able to catch a change in the wind conditions that happened within the starting sequence.  Quickly shifting my plan of starting at the pin, to starting at the boat in this new right pressure, I was in the top group at the windward mark in 6th place.  The breeze had picked up a bit and with some downwind speed I moved into 3rd by the leeward mark and held that position to the 2nd windward mark.  Again, with good speed and position on the downwind leg, I moved into a 10 boatlength lead ahead of Gintare Scheidt, which was a comfortable margin to hold for the remainder of the race.  It was a great feeling to come away with a race win at the end of this tough regatta and things are definitely on track for meeting my goals at the World Championships next month!

The infection in my foot is almost healed up so I will be able to stick with my original plans for training this week in preparation for the Worlds.  A few of the CST radial sailors and Tania Calles from Mexico will be here in Halifax at the end of the week for a short but intense training camp.  It will be great to have a few days to really focus on a few things in the comfort of training at home.

I have attached a few pictures from the race win in Tallin. There are more pictures, videos and results on the event website atwww.laser2010tallinn.eu/web . Thanks to Al Clark from Royal Vancouver Yacht Club who was really helpful all week as support on the water.  Thanks also to High Liner for their support of this competition which made it possible for me to compete in these two critical events.  Thank you!!!

Best Winds,

Lisa