We are pleased with a solid performance of a 4th and 3rd place finishes on the first day of the Semaine Olympique Française (SOF) regatta. We chalk it up to a combination of the past month and a half of training and racing in Europe, but more specifically to our previous week's training on the race venue outside the Mediterranean port town of Hyeres, France.

Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget / FFV © 2008

We arrived a week ago today and have had the luxury of a whole range of wind and wave conditions. We are the most pleased with being able to test both our wave and flat-water setups depending on the direction of the wind for the given training day. Today the wind was blowing from the East directly into the Bay producing large rolling waves.

Confident in our setup, we went for the max breeze setting on the rig tune just before the first start. With the huge waves and dark clouds rolling in it sometimes looks breezier than it really is but there was no doubt today we were in for a rough windy day.

The first race, the pin was favored by a large amount and an anxious fleet caused several general recalls. Great starting practice for Team 7! The first clean start we got off midline with solid speed and a fighting position for the race. We had decided the left side had stronger pressure so we used this to get to the top mark in 4th position behind the Germans, Finland, and Great Britain.

Around the windward mark we were close on the tail of the top three boats and the waves were rolling under us as we rounded. With the right angle of heel both side to side and fore and aft, and strong pumping on the sheets timed with the waves, the Yngling takes off like a freight train. We were able to surge through the British and rounded in third at the bottom mark. The race was close around the track but we ended up losing the British on the final run to finish 4th.

The second race, we executed a great pin end start to windward of one potentially dangerous boat, Russia 8. We had great speed and acceleration and were able to carve out a lane above her and extend forward on all the boats to windward of us. We were looking pretty with a close option to tack and cross the fleet. This can be a scary position because with any right shift we cannot cross and all the boats to the right have starboard advantage. We could go from "hero to zero". We decided to tack and duck the strongest positioned boat (Germans to windward) as there was not much race course available to the left. We were happy with our decision as the Germans tacked soon after and we rounded a close 1,2 at the top mark.

We lit up around the first windward mark and put quite some distance on the fleet on the downwind with great speed and teamwork. The second beat we lost some distance that made for a close run where we lost the Germans and the British. 3rd place is definitely a keeper on a day like today!

We look forward to a long week ahead of us, with a dynamic weather forecast. We will keep you posted!

The full results online. Semaine Olympique Française website - sof.ffvoile.net.

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Carrie Howe
for Team Seven Sailing -
Sally Barkow, Debbie Capozzi, Carrie Howe