Day 2 - Hyeres 2009

I woke up to the sound of rain this morning. Spring in France means a lot of crazy weather, and today was no exception. The morning was windless, chilly, and wet. We started on time however as lines of clouds were bringing breeze and more rain.

The men’s yellow fleet and women’s fleet were first up. Our first race took place in about 8 knots of breeze, which progressively shifted left during the race and became lighter and lighter. The second race started in about 5 knots of wind, which died to virtually nothing. By the second upwind everyone had resorted to row pumping. We weren’t quite spinning in circles, but were still barely making progress. Girls were catcalling the race committee, trying to get them to shorten the course or abandon the race. The course was eventually shortened, to our relief.

After just barely making two races, the men’s blue fleet was sent out. Luckily another line of clouds had come in, generating enough wind to get two starts off. We remained postponed on the beach, waiting for a third race, until the wind completely died and racing was abandoned for the day. Each fleet now has three races. Leading the women’s fleet is still Maayan Davidovich (ISR), now closely followed by Peina Chen (CHN). In third is young Italian Laura Linares. The men’s fleets are now led by Piotr Myszka (POL) who scored another first and a third, Julien Bontemps (FRA), and Andreas Cariolou (CYP).

I’ve been accomplishing my goals for this regatta: learning light wind pumping technique and staying positive. It is a great start for the season and I’m looking forward to the rest of the regatta.