Solo Matrie COQ 2018

First race of the season is done, the best way to describe this race at the end is a bit of a lottery. it felt like playing a game of Mario carts, where boats shot off ahead and some got left behind, with others picking up magic speed boosts and overtaking every one before slipping up on a banana skin and ending up last!

With the remanence of the waves left over from the recently past storm (the one we had a delayed start for) It made it really hard to keep the boat moving at a constant speed and heel, especially in the light patches in-between the 25 knt gusts!

With all this randomness I did how ever feel like I was going well and I do feel the final result of 13th does not reflect how I was sailing.

Having spent the whole race, till the last few miles in the top ten and even for the final 100 miles in the top 6/5 The boat felt great, I found it easy to find speed and felt i had the energy and power to stay awake and pushing harder for longer, as well as anticipating scenarios and weather better than I have done in previous years.

I would say the trickiest area and still the area to work on is the crossover of the Genoa to the spinnaker, do you go small spinnaker, big spinnaker, ballast, no ballast? I really find this hard at times to decide even having spent a decent chunk of the winter playing around with different combinations.

Again, as per before I felt strong in the tricky conditions close in to the land, looking for the new wind and tacking up on the shifts and in the pressure as it appeared in small lines and patches.

There is not much time off now before the next race, time for a couple of training sessions, and more importantly to sleep and rest, get my body and mind back to 100% ready to go again.

Here is a video summery of the race, enjoy and make sure you track the next race in April!