Summer events...

We arrived home last week after the 29er European Championships in Medemblik, Holland. After the first two days of light to medium wind, we qualified into Gold fleet in 9th position. (Only the top 25 boats after the qualifying races get into gold fleet, the rest are evenly divided into silver, bronze and, at this event, emerald fleet). We were really pleased with our first two days as we were going well and had smart races. Also this was our "goal" achieved as before the event we aimed for gold fleet racing.

After 2 days of gold fleet racing we had dropped to 14th but were still pleased with our racing as the fleet standard was intense with at least 15 boats always on pace out of the 25 and at least 22 boats with a good start. The wind was still very light; although there was one (well half a) race were the wind came up to a medium strength. Off the start line were us, followed by another British boat, followed by another, followed by another, in fact 5 GBR boats were in another league off the line and were top 4 at the first mark. Although it was great to be right up there leading the race, there was always that feeling of "what if the whole event was like this? Or even a little windier?" One of the Dutch coaches shouted over to our coach..."I see your having a good day at the office!" as we all rounded as the top 4 boats.

Still, there was no wind on the last day so the results stood from the day before and we finished 14th, not bad and we had achieved the regatta aim. We also got a hell of a lot out of the event and have plenty to work on before the Nationals at the end of the month.

MW