420 Lupo Cup and 420 World Championships

WORDS: DUNCAN GREGOR | IMAGES: MARCIN JOZEFOWSKI AND METTE JACOBSEN

After nearly 18 months of no overseas regattas, Julia Jacobsen and I arrived in Italy ready to blow away the cobwebs. Beginning in Lake Garda we were preparing for our preworlds regatta, the Lupo Cup. The training before the event gave us a few days to get used to the general conditions and make improvements to the boat we would be using whilst in Italy. We came into the regatta wanting to learn what we needed to improve on coming into the World Championships whilst implementing what we learnt into each day of the regatta. We believed that due to the lack of racing experience, compared to European countries, we would struggle on starts, strategy and tactics. This meant these were our main goals going into the event. We knew that strategy and tactics would improve through more racing hours and that the strategy would be made easier to follow if we got a good start. and with a clear lane going where we desired. Throughout the regatta we would analyse the strategy and tactics after each race and then again at the end of each day. In the last two days we got the pre-race strategy wrong in some races insofar as what we expected to happen, did not. However, it gave us the opportunity to improve our tactics to climb positions within the race and find out more areas for improvement.

At the end of the regatta, we had some clear areas to work on and to continue focusing on. This regatta gave us the confidence that we had the speed to achieve our goals coming into the 420 World Champs but knew that we would have to get lanes off the line; have clear and improved communication about the breeze, course and boats, whilst ensuring the boat is going fast. This enables us to make better decisions on the racecourse and follow the plan. Sorcha Whyte and Oriane Voets, and our coach for the World and European Championships, Marcin Jozefowski.

With two weeks before the start of the regatta we had time to work on smaller details before the majority of the countries arrived. When they did, we focused on racing practice races. We worked very hard on these two weeks to put us in the best position possible before the championship. We experienced a wide range of conditions in the two weeks allowing us to understand what it would be like for the Championship itself however the 2nd week was lighter meaning we only raced against others in the light breeze.

Sorcha and Oriane were entered into the Women’s fleet and Julia and I into the Open fleet. On Day 1 of the Worlds Team J&D were able to get off the line very well in all 3 starts and get round the top mark in the top three in two races. With the breeze being around 14kts it built the sea state exposing a

weakness which we found out that day being downwind speed and tactics and using each wave to its maximum potential to gain speed and depth. We lost out on this throughout the regatta, however progressively got better as we improved boat positioning and using waves, although we were still a little bit off the pace. On Day 2 the Open Fleet only managed one race due to light winds on their course. With a good lane off the line Team J&D decided to leave the fleet and take a large risk believing the breeze would change. This risk didn’t pay off meaning we had to work as far up the fleet as possible. However, it was a tactical decision that was not needed, and we ensured not to take so much risk in the future.

Unfortunately, Sorcha and Oriane were unable to take part in the Lupo Cup due to school commitments and with limited pre-regatta training they struggled with getting off the line at the beginning of the event. The knockon effect of this was that they had limited decision-making opportunities further around the course.

The rest of the regatta had a mix of conditions with Day 3 not having any races for Team J&D, and Team S&O having a DNF on the first race followed by a very light wind race with only 12 of the boats finishing within the time limit. Day 4 bought 3 races for the Open fleet. Team J&D led the fleet to the top mark, losing a little bit on the downwind however not as much and finishing at the top of the fleet. The next race, sadly they had to retire from the first race due to a port and starboard incident. The final race of the day we rounded the top mark well and managed to finish in 2nd, being the best position of our regatta.

With the last day of scheduled racing being called off due to no breeze, Day 5 ended up being the last day of racing and the only day of finals racing. For Julia and myself, we did not sail at our best and struggled with speed all day not giving us much chance to compete with the front boats. We ended up with three average results which we were disappointed about. Sorcha and Oriane had begun to find ways to get off the line even in the stronger breeze and being one of the lighter teams they managed to find good lanes of the start line. This led to them getting their best result in the last race.

Although only four out of the six scheduled days were race days we got a wide range of conditions. Both teams learnt a lot from the event taking valuable lessons which could be brought to the Europeans Championships to be held in Formia, Italy in July. As a team we would like to thank the RHKYC for their support as the trip could not be possible without it.