NAcra 17 Europeans

Chloe and I starting racing on day 3 (GBR 355)

We arrived to Thessaloniki two weeks before the event to train and race in the pre regatta. Our main focus was improving on our upwind foiling. Chloe’s experience in the Nacra had prepared us well for downwinds, however, since she was last in the boat (before we partnered up) Nacra changed their rudder design. This change drastically altered the upwind technique so now we consistently foil in over 10 knots of wind. This makes the Nacra 17 the only fully foiling Olympic class boat. This was our biggest hurdle to overcome at this starting stage of our campaign! Thankfully though we learnt a lot and fast in the training days before the event. We felt that we really made a step forwards in understanding this new technique and setup. Although this was useful, sadly the event was very light winds leading to only one race including consistent upwind foiling, but we are now much better prepared for future events!

The hard work paid off

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing the progress made in training take effect on the race course. We used the first two days to really help us hone in on the right rig setup. We saw we had the speed to race against the strong boats in the fleet, so decided our main aim was to just ‘keep it simple stupid’. Just get a good start in clear air and don’t over complicate the tactics. This paid off as the event was a definite improvement on our last with us managing to achieve a 16th and 18th in two races and a few low 20s. Although this may not sound impressive, it has to be remembered that this is an Olympic fleet of full time athletes with some sailors having sailed the boat well over 10 years and half the fleet having competed in at least one Olympic games. So finishing races with some Olympians behind us has definitely given us a boost in confidence and shown that we are heading in the right direction!

What’s next?

There is a gap now in the calendar for Nacra events, which is perfect for us to take all the information we’ve gathered through our first few competitions to the UK to train. We will next race in the Nacra in October at the World Championships in Cagliari, Sardinia. In the mean time to keep us race ready we will be competing in the Waszp fleet as well. Look out for our posts about how that goes!