Hyeres, France
April 21, 2008

We have just completed day two of the Semaine Olympique Francaise regatta here in Hyeres, France. We have completed four races total. Yesterday we sailed two races in an onshore breeze around 15 – 20 knots. Today the first race we sailed in shifty offshore breeze around 8-13 knots, and the second race in 9 – 15 knots. We have been sailing in split fleets of 39 boats per fleet. I finished with a 6th and 11th in yesterday’s races and a 2nd and 1st in today’s races.

We are sharing the racecourse with the men’s Laser class so yesterday we were scheduled for a late start at 2:30pm. This was fine because we got to sleep in a bit, but the forecast was for the weather to deteriorate and get windier throughout the day. And sure enough, the rain started at 2pm, just in time for our racing.

The first race, I had a conservative start, and paid the price by being rolled by a boat up on my hip. I tacked away and sailed towards one of the big rain clouds coming down the right side of the course. It worked out well and I rounded the weather mark in about 7th place. I passed a couple boats on the reach and the run to round the leeward mark in 4th. I struggled all day with my upwind speed and lost two boats on the next upwind leg, but held onto 6th for the finish. The second race, the rain was coming down harder and it was getting colder. I had a bad start and rounded the weather mark in around 20th place. I sailed a very good reach and downwind leg to round the leeward mark in about 10 place, but unfortunately, I hit the mark so had to do a 360 degree penalty turn. The worst part for me was that the pack of boats that I had just passed rounded the other leeward gate-mark and was now back ahead of me. Anyway, I kept at it and managed to fight back to finish in 11th place. We got back to shore around 5pm, very wet and very cold, so sorry for no report yesterday. I thought you wouldn’t mind if I didn’t venture outside into the rain to try and get online. “Outside” means literally being outside on the sidewalk across from an apartment building using some unknown open wireless connection. That is the only place we can get any Internet access in this town!

Today, we woke up to a clearing sunny sky. We were scheduled for the early start today at 11am. As we launched at 10am the sky got sunnier and the wind slowly started to build from the opposite direction of yesterday. The course was very flat and very shifty today, making it fun challenging races. The first race I had a good start and sailed my way to 1st place at the first mark. I held on to 1st all the way around the course until right of the end of the second beat. The conditions were very tricky, and the left hand side had worked very well up the first beat so I wanted to cover the fleet that had gone out there. However, there were a couple boats that had ventured out to the right hand side of the course and had made some big gains. By the time I got back to them, there was one girl from Poland who had caught up to me. We battled it out on the last downwind leg and reach to the finish, but she crossed the line just in front of me. The second race, I had another good start and again sailed a good beat in shifty conditions to round in about 7th at the first mark. I didn’t have a very good run and lost a couple of boats but I was determined to get them back on the second beat. I got into phase with the shifts early and stayed in phase the whole beat to round the weather mark in 1st place with a nice 5-6 boat length lead which I held onto until the finish. So overall today was a very good day.

Tomorrow is forecasted to bring the Mistral. The Mistral is a very very windy NW wind. This means its going to be a very cold, windy offshore breeze all day. It is also our last scheduled day for the qualifying series, and should give us the 5 races we need to have a drop race. I’m looking forward to these conditions because I know it’s going to be very challenging.

You can follow the regatta by checking the results online. I’m not sure yet what time I’m scheduled to start tomorrow, but if it’s a later day again, I may miss the report, but I will do my best to get one out.

You can, however, follow the results online. Semaine Olympique Française Website – sof.ffvoile.net

I would like to thank Carmeuse and K-Swiss for their continued support of my campaign.

Sail hard,

Anna