l'll be honest, it wasn't the easiest regatta I’ve competed in. The hardest aspect to deal with was by far the strategical challenges and in particular the mental toll that these took. You start to question yourself a lot more when you make numerous wrong decisions, and it was really hard to keep the confidence up during the event and bounce back. I've had some time at home to reflect back on the event, and this is what I thought...
It was a tough regatta, with the majority of competitors scoring highly throughout the week. Unfortunately, through my own errors I picked up a black flag disqualification on day 2 which put me into silver fleet for the second half of the week. I then picked up my second yellow flag of the regatta on a recalled start, the penalty of which is to retire from the race. With the regatta only allowing 1 race to be discarded, I was forced to count my retirel (a wholesome 70 points!).
Despite all those bad points, there were some good points too. I had one day during the regatta where I smashed my strategy. I felt fast and my race plans were piecing together. However, despite my best efforts, one of those races was unfortunately the black flag disqualification that I picked up. But black flags aside, there are big positives to take from that day alone. It was a day where no plan was a good plan, in the pre-start of both races there was no obvious gain features. Go with what you know, not what you think was the best plan of action. I decided to start in the middle of the line to keep my options open and kept my eyes out of the boat to lock onto the first gain. And lo and behold, in both races, the wind filled in towards the top right of the beat and I was able to use it to my advantage. It was one of the more unpredictable days, so I was happy to be able to show some form, despite the letters on my score card…
With all that being said I have learned a great deal from the event, particularly how to effectively carry out weather analysis by taking it one step further and linking it to my race plan. Onwards and upwards!
Thanks for reading,
Lewis
Under 21 Gold Results:
https://gdyniasailingdays.org/en/results/laseru21/men
Under 21 Silver Results:
https://gdyniasailingdays.org/en/results/laseru21/men-silver