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Published: August 16th 2006
We arrived back in St Malo in France at 9pm and headed straight for the car park where Betsy was waiting for us still all in tact on the outside after spending one week in the car park. During the ferry trip back to St Malo Cara was slightly nervous that we would not be able to start Betsy as she has had issues with the battery running flat if it is not used for a bit. We were very relieved when Betsy started the first time so we high-footed it out of the car park and were on our way to Quiberon for the Hobie Cat European Championships
Our aim was to make it to Quiberon that evening so with some determination, loud music to keep us awake and clear directions from Timmy (downloaded from one of the navigation websites) we were on our way to Quiberon without needing to read the map we had relied upon so heavily in our first week in France (bless!).
Three hours or so later (and approaching midnight) we arrived into Quiberon. We had a few technical problems including both mine and Cara’s phone batteries being dead so we had no communication
with Andy who had said that we could sleep in the back of John’s van for the night as our efforts at sourcing accommodation in Quiberon in August were shot.
We had some luck on our side as we were driving into town we saw Andy and John walking the streets, a couple of beers later and at 1.30am it was lights out in John’s van for Cara and I.
The Hobie Europeans were hosted by the ENV (Ecole Nationale Voile a big French training facility) in Quiberon, which is just thirty minutes down the road from Carnac on the Atlantic Coast of France. Quiberon is on a peninsula and faces a big bay, which is ideal for sailing although some days the temperature was quite mild(well in the early 20’s anyway). 180 teams were entered for the open event and the fleet was truly at worlds standard.
The day before the regatta began we picked up our charter boat from Hobie Cat. Our aim for the afternoon was to do a quick dash to registration and then head out for an afternoon training session with Marie and Pauline one of our two main rivals from France.
The quick trip to registration turned into a very long trip (three hours the French are sometimes so disorganised) and needless to say we were well and truly over it and itching to get out on the water for our only opportunity to train before the event began. That being said it was better late than ever and we got in a good couple of hours two boating with Marie and Pauline. The boat felt good and Cara and I felt good as a team after that day and also our three days of training in Jersey before hand (thanks to Derwood).
The next day our regatta, the youths (of which there were 80 boats with spinnakers) and masters kicked off and was to last for two days. I have to say that those two days brought some of the hardest and most rewarding sailing experiences I have ever had.
Both of the two top French teams that I had competed against many times before were in top form and we ended up having a three-way (very brain draining) match race for the two days.
The last two races of the first day the conditions were
ideal, 15 knots constant breeze and flat water (like Port Stephens in a beautiful summer North Easter!). We were really pleased with our results of 5,1,1 for day one which put us on top of the leader board two or three points clear of Marie and then Morgaine (the current world champ from PE) was a couple of points back.
That night we went to the bar on the regatta site and had a few relaxing wines whilst we watched the sun set over the peninsula and of course catching up with all of our Hobie friends we had not seen for a while.
Day two was huge. We were really confident that we could take this regatta out but we knew that it would be a huge challenge to keep Marie and Morgaine at bay. The first two races there was only about three boat lengths between us at all times and it was a fabulous site for all of the photographers and coaches between the top and the offset mark getting photos of the three of us fighting it out.
So the last race came (Race 6) and we were two points behind Marie in second (after two thirds in the first two races of the day) and Morgaine a further two points behind us in third. So we knew to win we had to finish first and Marie no better than third and someone between us. It was looking great and we were in the lead and Marie was third until about the last 50 metres to the last downwind mark (just a short downwind sail to the finish was left) when Morgaine overtook both Marie and I and then Marie overtook us and beat us by 1cm on the finish line. This was a bit tough for us as it was so close to going our way and we knew if Morgaine got two points back on us she would get second on a count back as she had the same amount of firsts as us but one second and we only had 3rds. So overall we ended up third but really pleased with the result knowing it came right down to the wire!
We received some great prizes particularly a framed picture (which you can see in the pictures here) from Hobie Cat Europe, which was taken by our good friend Pierrick the official Hobie photographer of us screaming down from the top to the perfectly layed offset mark (for a smoking reach). I will treasure that picture forever and it will be a great memory of our regatta.
So moving on to the qualification series that we decided to enter and sail also (with 8kgs of lead). Have to say this is one of my worst performances to date and Cara and I were lucky to scrape into silver fleet by a few boats. It was a bit brain frying actually as there was a three-committee boat start line and 115 Hobie 16’s on the same line something of which I have never experienced and I can tell you it is completely different sailing to what I am used to both back home and in the women’s fleet.
Luck was just not on our side (during the qualification round) and we had a number of bad results and then a good one (like 10th) which turned into a really bad one when our tiller cross bar fell apart half way through the race. We thought that things could not get much worse for us then poor Cara dislocated her shoulder on the second day of qualifications just five minutes before we had to leave the beach (when we were draining the boat). Luckily Alban, Alban, Cedric, & John D et al got Cara to the medic’s quickly found me a new crew so I could continue on to at least try and save some face and make it into the silver fleet. Luckily Anais and I made it to the start line with just minutes to spare. (Thanks Alban for loaning me Anais for the day).
Thanks to Anais we just scraped into the silver fleet so at least we could continue on with some good quality racing but I was crewless as Cara was still not able to sail which she was really disappointed about. Marcus (team ¼ Great Britain) recommended Alan Glover who was the father of the youth boys that were runners up in the youth competition to crew for me. As a result team “Great Australia” was formed and we sailed through the regatta proper. It was really fun to sail with Alan and to keep it light we had lots of bets between us about gold fleet recalls and shouted each other beers in the afternoon to settle our dues from the earlier bets!
The silver fleet was awesome, made up mostly of women, youth and masters that could not pre-qualify or just missed out on the gold fleet. Many of the races the silver fleet were catching and passing the gold fleet that had a six-minute jump on us. No girls qualified for the silver fleet except Marie and Morgaine who both got wild cards.
We had three days of big breezes and the 7-8 hours on the water each day (in a row ie no breaks, it is a French thing) ensured that we were fully knackered and had really earned our beers that we consumed each afternoon.
Alan and I’s results kept improving and by the end of the regatta we were 10th in the sliver fleet, and first girl, which was my goal, so I was really pleased considering how much crap we went through in the qualification rounds, and to show at least a 30 boat improvement on our results going into the silver fleet regatta was pleasing.
The final night of prize giving was pretty laid back (as in Europe for some reason they have the party the night before as people tend to leave straight after the regatta). We were on the road to Southern France in the Dinsdale’s wagon (13+ hr trip) with Natalie as our navigator (the GPS) at 9am the next morning.
I have made some great new friends particularly a bunch of Italians who will be fun to hang out with when I am in Italy. The next few weeks I plan to spend some time with friends in Southern France (Pauline, Marie, Cedric, and the Dinsdale’s) and then head into Italy via the F18 nationals in Punta Ala.
It is great timing for me to be arriving in Italy as there is two events (both the F18 nationals and the Hobie 16 nationals) within a couple of weeks of me arriving.
Life is truly fabulous and I am looking forward to learning Italian (I think it is going to come quick as had so many conversations with my new Italian friends after a few beers and am surprised at how much I remember).
Next report from Italy, La Dolce Vita!
Oh Yes the useless commentary here I go ~
Wildlife Count: Hmm None to report, except fish and some big seagulls etc
Music: A lot of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra & Eros Ramazotti (all Andy’s influence) & and Pump it ( Black Eyed Peas) for the downwinds when Cara would be pumping the boat and of course last but not least, Punk Rocker (we still love that song).
Bless Count: Man to many to remember, there were a lot of funny bless moments at the Europeans!
Beers Consumed: German ones I am not familiar with, Stella, Heineken quite a few actually
New Friends Count: Nina (bella bellisima!), Allesandro, Fransisco, Marco,(all new Italian friends!) Janine and David from Nigeria and the whole Nigeria gang. Marcus (team 1/4 Great Britain). Alan Richard and Andrew Glover.
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gaye layda
non-member comment
the life!
wow! what a blast you had at the regatta! it's so cool that you got your framed action shots! continue with your wonderful life and i hope you learn italian fast so you can start practicing your pick up lines on those handsome italian guys!