Laser Radial Youth Worlds

WORDS: CHARLES ROBINSON | IMAGES: ELENA GIOLAI

Over the summer I went to Europe to compete in the Youth ILCA6 (Laser Radial) World Championship. In the run-up to that, I also competed in the Europa Cup in Warnemünde. These were brilliant events and I learned a lot from going to both of them.

I started off in Hamburg and then made my way up to Warnemünde for the Europa Cup. The first day of racing went really well but the learning curve was steep. Due to the fact that Covid had kept me in Hong Kong for the past two years, my experience with sailing with a big fleet was lacking to say the least. Starting on a line with a hundred boats is very different to starting with ten if I’m lucky. However, I had good boat speed and my tactical knowledge was enough to get me into the top half of the fleet.

Day two was light and choppy with a fairly persistent breeze. My position in the first race was mediocre as I was struggling with boat speed slightly and a bad tactical decision set me back. In the second race, I was over the line and had to restart. The persistent breeze meant that gaining positions back was tricky which resulted in a below-average score.

Day three of the Europa Cup was almost a blowout. The breeze was gusting 25+kts and a maximum wave height of three metres made it tough. We launched late after a long time onshore. Four black flags later

we started the first race. The wind was so powerful it physically hurt. By the time I got to the top mark my legs were dead and I was coming to terms with the fact I had three more to do. However, the downwinds were worth the pain of the upwind.

Day four was a medium breeze which was still tough with the sore legs from the day before. Two mediocre results were enough to get me a 48th out of 90 and a 7th U17 overall.

I then completed a week of training in Warnemünde before leaving for Italy to participate in Worlds.

It took a brutal 17 hours to drive from Hamburg to Arco, Lake Garda. The first thing we did? Go to the local pizza place to have some of the best pizza I have/ will ever have.

The next day was our first proper training day and the sailing was amazing. If anybody reading this ever has the chance to go to Lake Garda, I would highly recommend it. There was a consistent 20+kts Ora (the south wind) with perfectly sized waves. Luckily, we were able to train with some of the other teams and set up some practice races.

The process of fine-tuning our boats and some of the best racing I have experienced continued for the next few days until the event started. Just as a footnote, I alternated between pizza and pasta the entire time I was there although I still lost three kilos due to all the training.

The final night before the regatta, there was a big flag ceremony where I had my first ever experience walking with the Hong Kong flag above me. Whilst I came at the back of the procession it was a proud moment to be walking with the flag of my home Hong Kong.

Garda is famous for perfect sailing conditions and we experienced this throughout practice. However, on the first day of qualifying, the Ora failed to come and we were stuck with Vento (the north and quite cold wind). However, being one of the lighter people in the fleet I was able to thrive in these conditions and pulled off two good results. The next day was similar conditions which brought even better results. However, on the third and final day of qualifying, the breeze set in and an incident at the bottom mark on the first race whereby my boat was holed caused me to retire from the entire day of racing which left me slightly disappointed in bronze fleet. The next day I looked past the previous day’s atrocity and focused on the racing. Two breezy races later and a top 10 I left the boat park tired but happy. The next day was similar but the Ora came late so my coach made the decision to capsize the boats and take the team wakeboarding behind the rib. A spectacular way to end a long wait in the boat park.

The final day of racing consisted of a single race in some of the windiest conditions we had had all week. After a long first beat, I was doing well but on the downwind, I was given my first red flag for pumping in 25kts of breeze! This saw me drop down to almost dead last, but my previous results were still good enough to get me to the top of the bronze fleet. That night we had a big prize giving party before we left to go back to Germany.

For my first ever World Championship, I was happy with my results and left Garda extremely tired but very happy with myself. A big thank you to Alex Goltz who coached and looked after me while I was there, and to the Mühlenberger Segel-Club for chartering the boat for me and to the entire German team for being so much fun and so welcoming. And of course I’d like to thank RHKYC for all of their support!