Issue date
The 2013 Delta Lloyd Regatta (EUROSAF Event 2) has just finished here in Medemblik, Holland. We had very cold, wet, and predominantly windy conditions over the five days of racing. Most days were somewhere between 6-10 degrees, with rain on and off. It was hard to keep the feeling in your fingers!
Once again the EUROSAF series used the experimental format that we had a few weeks ago in Lake Garda, which I remember saying I would be surprised if Lake Garda wasn’t the “first and last time” that the format is used. I was so wrong though!
The first two days of qualifying went smoothly, and I was consistently in the front group of the fleet, qualifying third into the top 25 boat gold fleet. The first day of gold fleet racing was very tough, with some tight racing in shifty conditions. I started the day off really well with a 2nd followed up with a 1st. The final race of the day I got stuck on the wrong side of a persistent shift with a bunch of guys and battled back to finish the day with a 17th. Everyone had a very mixed day of results though, and it turned out I had a good day to move up into second overall. The final day of gold fleet we had a different wind direction from the previous three days of racing. It was a nice change but still very tricky sailing, as the wind trended 70 degrees left over the course of the day. The second race of the day was pretty exciting with a 20-30 knot squall coming through to make for a very physical race upwind, and some sketchy downwinds with a fairly big steep chop building fast. I won that race which was a good feeling, and at the end of the day I qualified second for the top 6 boat ‘final race’ on the last day.
The ‘final race’ day with this experimental format is always going to keep everyone watching their backs, as no one has secured a medal with the points separation between all the top 6 boats back to pretty much square one. We raced really close to shore, and before the start when I was studying the course it was obvious that it was going to be a very shifty, hard to predict race. It turned out to be just that, and up the first upwind, myself and Tom Burton (the current leader) chose the wrong side of the course and suffered, rounding the first top mark towards the back of the fleet. The second upwind once again I liked the right hand side, and this time it paid off as I rounded the final top mark in a tight group amongst the top four. Down the last downwind leg, it was all about getting into the pressure, which seemed to be hard for me to find and I fell back to 4th by the finish line. Still enough to secure a bronze medal, but the opportunity was there for much more down that last downwind.
This event was another great example on how the experimental format is far from ideal. Tom Burton and I went into the ‘final race’ roughly 20 points in front of 3rd overall, after sailing a really consistent previous four days. But coming into this ‘final race’ those previous eleven races we sailed all counted for one result, and this single 20 minute race counted for just as much as all those before. Tom finished 5th in the ‘final race’ and so missed out on a medal all together, after being really consistent throughout the whole event. It doesn’t seem quite right at all.
Nonetheless, it was a great week of sailing and I enjoyed having a good range of wind conditions including some big breeze racing which we haven’t had for a little while. It was also great to have our coach Mark back with us after being ‘coach-less’ in Lake Garda. We are staying in Medemblik for another week to train and compete in a small local regatta, before driving down to England for another EUROSAF regatta, Sail for Gold.
Thanks for all of the continued support!
Cheers,
Andy
Images by Sander van der Borch/Delta Lloyd Regatta
