A good end to a tough year and looking forward to 2016

Finishing the year racing two events in Rio, the Olympic venue for next year was truly fantastic and as if we needed any more, great motivation for the next few months.

All in all it has been one of the more challenging years for me since I have been Olympic sailing for reasons both sailing and non sailing related.  The racing in the Nacra however has also been some of the best I have ever competed in so I can’t help but still absolutely love what I do!  Walshy becoming injured and deciding to take a step away from Olympic sailing threw a spanner in the works just as the season was heating up this year but I was lucky to have Dave Evans ready and keen to step in and make his mark crewing the Nacra. Since teaming up in June it has felt like a mad scrabble most of the time to set up our team, learn to race together and put ourselves in the best position possible ready for the Olympic trials. Dave has been great to work with this year, we are very lucky to both have a very similar attitude to working towards a united goal and this has allowed us to develop quickly.  In this game you could always do with more time but in Rio just before Christmas it was really pleasing to see our hard work finally pay off and things start coming together more.  For the first time since sailing together it felt that our days sailing in Rio weren’t a mad rush to learn new skills but instead we were polishing up skills already learnt, a big relief!

The sailing in Rio is so much fun, every race course and every day is different, it is challenging from both a speed and tactical point of view and with the high quality of our fleet I could happily race there day in day out – though I can imagine my head would hurt quite a lot from having to think too hard!  Dave and I competed in two events while we were there this month, the first was the South American Championships where we finished up 4th and we were 10th at the second event the Copa Brasil Regatta.  With a high quality fleet of 25 the points were close and we did a good job of making places up as races and the regatta went on.  Our biggest regret would probably be the first two days of the second event where despite starting well we were not good enough at getting the first gain in the races and so we gave ourselves a but too much catching up to do.  A great couple of weeks however and the best we have sailed together with more still to come so exciting times in the camp!

Christmas for me was spent home sweet home in Poole this year with my family.  A very chilled out and lovely few days and I could very happily do it all again straight away. The Boxing day race was called off with too much wind this year but our annual match race where ten under 18s from Poole and Parkstone Yacht Club race against each other was a fantastic day again.  In it’s 21st year the racing was a close as ever and Kate and I who were umpiring were really impressed with the high level of racing.  Well done to Poole YC for coming back to win 3-2.

Soon after seeing the New Year in Dave and I will be off to Clearwater, Florida to get back training. We have two big events coming up so after our training session and a quick trip back home we will be back in Florida to race Miami Word Cup regatta then straight to Clearwater for our World Championships.  With nations and teams still trying to qualify themselves for the Olympics everyone is going to be on top of their game for these two events so racing will be tough but the way it has been going recently Dave and I are really confident and excited about getting out on the race course again.

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank Volvo and Rockley for their support towards our campaign this year and huge thanks to Maurice our coach who puts endless hours in helping us towards our dream of medalling in Rio in August.  Everyone’s support really does mean a huge amount to us so thank you to everyone else for their good luck wishes throughout the year, and a very happy and successful 2016 to all!

Lucy Mac.