Round Up of the Europeans in Helsinki, Finland

Well…. that was quite an eventful trip to Helsinki, Finland. We arrived for our Europeans where we were greeted to wind and probably the coldest conditions we have sailed in this year (yes, we are very spoilt!) The sun eventually came out and decided to stay for most of the week. In fact we were almost wearing our sunglasses from Sail Spy for nearly 24hours of the day as it never got dark.

We started the week off with an awesome set of results, much to our surprise we were leading after day 1, this was an achievement in itself. Day 2, was a day of waiting for wind, in the end it was cancelled. Day 3 was a bit of a contrast with 18-25knots, which in these boats is hectic, especially with 3 lap races, much to Katrina’s disgust! We had good speed, well, when we had the sails not in that is. All in all apart from our swims we were pleased with our performance in the wind. We even had a pit stop moment in race 3, where we had to throw the broken part away, but we found it again after the race, winner!

We had a few days of not being quite on form, our speed wasn’t as good which impacted on everything else, which then turned to bad decision making and getting in awkward situations, including being disqualified in a race. After debriefing these 2 days we went into the final day feeling good. So far all of the medal racing we have done have been successful. The last day started with 2 repecharge races to secure our 10th place to get into the medal race. We scored a 2,1 which meant we had another 3 medal races to complete. The good thing about being in 10th place is you don’t have anything to loose and lots to gain. We arrived at the race course all prepped and ready for action until, Katrina squashed her leg between the 49er and the rib. Being the super crew that she is, we completed the first race and scored a 4, which we were pleased with. Unfortunately, the pain was too much and we had to retire from the last 2 medal races. It was a shame that we were not able to move up the results but we were pleased with our day until that point. The priority now is getting fit and healthy in preparation for the World Championships in September.

Next Stop Santander!

Kate x