Well I can’t say that we had the start to the regatta that we had planned. The first race was an offshore shifty and tricky wind race, then for the second race a sea breeze from virtually the opposite direction.
Our first race was tricky, fighting in the pack for clear air. However Josefin smashed out an awesome start in the second race that put her back on the right track. The other good thing we took positive energy from was that our German training partner had a fantastic day to lead in the regatta overall. We’ve been training with the German for the last nine months and we know that we’ve got the capacity to be just as fast so overnight we took great stock from that.
Day two dawned with the wind from the North East, blowing offshore, puffy and patchy, with strength 16- 6 knots. A hiking breeze initially, great to stretch the legs and it really paid dividends for those who could maintain a high work rate to make the boat go fast, whilst keeping your head out of the boat to look for the next patch of pressure.
A much better day for team Josefin Olsson 🇸🇪, smashing the two starts! This launched her into the front of the fleet, and started her momentum towards better results. Leading to an eighth in race 3 and she followed this with a fantastic performance on race 4 coming from 12th at the last leeward mark to finish forth. This projected Josefin in the overall standings up into ninth, having halved her points score in each race since the beginning of the regatta.
We now sit at the end of day 3, race five and a six done. Josefin had a stellar day, she won race five and was sixth in race six, strong off the line and then never headed in race 5 and similar in race 6. She sailed really cool and calm, just how we want to be operating going forward. This puts her up to 2nd overall🤩. It gives her a solid platform to build from, as Wednesday is a reserve day where we won’t be sailing because we’re up to date on our schedule.
Now it’s about being relaxed and calm, knowing and trusting that you can do a good job and keeping it simple and stick into the routines. We’ve got two more days of fleet racing on Thursday and Friday, followed by another reserve day Saturday and then the medal race on Sunday. The forecast is breeze for Thursday but then a dying breezed or the rest of the regatta.
Loading up the 10 bags of ice for the cool box - to keep the cooling vests and the neck towels cool in the cool box.
I will keep you updated with the action in the next days here. I look forward to sharing the story of the Olympic journey for Josefin Olsson team Sweden. Please follow me on Instagram @timeonthewater.co.uk and Facebook as @hughstyles
Happy sailing ⛵️
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