It seems to be a theme of our Mediterranean racing circuit that day one of each event is cancelled due to high winds. Corsica, Cannes and now St Tropez have all suffered the same fate. We all want to be out on the race course, it’s what we love to do but despite the breeze not actually being too strong on day one of this regatta, we were all pretty pleased it got canned as it rained like crazy all day long.
Finally yesterday we got our first race of Les Voiles de St Tropez. In glorious sunshine and 5-8 knots of breeze we weaved our way around a 14 mile course. Our start was far from ideal. The race committee have grouped three classes together and put them on the same start line meaning there is quite a range of boats competing for the optimal position. We were pushed out of the line by a small boat who ended up closing himself out of the line too. Perhaps a case of too much excitement taking away from the bigger picture. After circling around which is not a quick procedure on Dorade in light breeze, we headed up the beat finding a great lane right up to about a mile from the mark. A patch of super light breeze and some bad air from other boats let our rivals aboard Skylark sneak past us. Annoying as this was, it spurred us on. If there is one thing we excel at, it is slick crew work. We had been flying our A1 but the penultimate leg of the race required us to reach a little tighter. Having sneaked past Skylark just before the second mark, we executed a perfectly timed peel from the A1 to the A3 and watched as our rivals realised they could not roll us and would need to change their sails. We surged ahead and won the race on corrected time.
Today is the infamous lay day here in St Tropez. We may not have had much action in this regatta yet but we have been working very hard for nearly two weeks now, racing, training and prepping the boat so a day off is long overdue.
Hannah