Hyeres Olympic Sailing Week Opens With A Bang!

Hyeres, France is playing host to the Semaine Olympique de Voiles, a major Grade 1 ISAF Event with all the Olympic classes in attendance. There are about 1000 sailors here for 6 days of racing on a large bay just off the Med. 28 boats are competing in the Yngling class, with Team Challenge US being the only US competitor at this time. Two other US boats were delayed in shipping and will not be available to the crews until later this week. The event kicked off on Sunday with very strong SW winds – in the afternoon topping out in the mid-30 knot range. The Ynglings are sailing on the same course as the Tornado class, making for some very interesting crossing situations to say the least.

Sunday’s racing was physically demanding of the teams out on the water. The first race was started in about 20 knots building steadily throughout the race. Team Challenge US had a decent first race finishing a close seventh on the course. Alison, Icyda and Leech are working with a new coach and have been making some adjustments to their sailing style and trim adjustments. As with any transitional phase in sports training, there will always be some hills and valleys in the process. The Team is very excited about the progress they are making, and though they have had some glitches in gear shifting with their new trim style, they are confident that the changes will translate into positive gains as they become more comfortable with them.

Race two saw the breeze build into the mid-30 knot range. Sailing on the downwind legs quickly became survival mode. Team Challenge rounded the top mark sixth, but clipped the top mark on the turn, and had to execute a 360 just below the wall of rounding boats. They quickly hoisted the kite, kicked into high gear and sailed an awesome tight reach – passing boats both high and low. The run proved to be their downfall, as some water in the boat from the reach shifted in an untimely way on a downwind jibe, and the boat went into a full broach wipeout. The Team was unable to recover from the fallout of the broach and retired from the race. The top teams after the first day of racing were: Shirley Robertson of Great Britain who took two bullets, Melanie Dennison of Australia, and Ulrike Schuemann of Gremany.

The racing on Monday was placid by comparison – winds staying in the 7-12 knot range. The forecast was for the breeze to progressively shift to the right and ease off in strength. Interestingly enough, though the breeze made a slight right hand turn, it was up and down in velocity strength, and the biggest factor became the skewed course. The RC, for some reason, off set the course to the left making for long starboard tacks and port tack favored runs. Unfortunately, this meant that there are fewer opportunities to come back if behind.

In race #3, Team Challenge had a very nice start just to leeward of the big pack at the boat. They sailed a decent first beat, though they could have held slightly longer towards the left. The Team believed that the right would come in bigger and they rounded in 5th behind the few teams that had worked farther left on the course. Positions did not change greatly around the track for the first race.

In the second race of the day, the breeze fell out a bit at the start making it difficult to punch out in the waves. Though their position off the line was good, Alison and company did not have power enough to make enough forward gain and struggled to find clear lanes up the first leg. Again the skewed course proved to be unhelpful in their progress during the race and they posted a poor finish at the end.

Tomorrow is another day of racing with the forecast predicting 15-20 knots of breeze with an approaching cold front. Time will tell who and what will pay off here in the south of France, but stay tuned – we’ll keep you posted!

05/03/2003