2023 ILCA 4 Worlds in Volos, Greece Part 2

I have qualified for Silver fleet. This means I am in the top 50% (Gold fleet is the top 25%).

It’s not quite where I wanted to be but I still have room to improve in Silver fleet.

Mum thinks it’s an outstanding result given I was recovering from a cold days before the event and had an asthma style attack that resulted in a hospital visit on Wednesday (Day 2 of the event).

The conditions on Wednesday were so extreme that there was no sailing. This was fortunate for me because it meant I didn’t miss any racing when I had to go to hospital.

This visit ended up being a precaution, the regatta doctor wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything more serious given I had just had a cold. I was given the all clear. Not to mention I also feel much better!

Sailing with over 400 boats at a regatta is pretty hectic. Launching and coming back in is pretty full-on as you can see from these photos from this morning. But there are a tribe of rowers from the club volunteering who are fantastic because they understand the local conditions and are strong enough to just pick up the trailers to move them.

They are waiting in the water to assist us to hold our boats so they don’t break on the waves in the choppy conditions due to an onshore breeze. Adding to this, the beach is rocky in the shallow water – treacherous for ILCA hulls and volunteers’ feet trying to help us to pull boats up the beach. Without a rower it is taking 2 or 3 people to pull up the boats because they end up full of water from the breaking waves. With a rower just the sailor. Thank you to all the volunteers!

There was a bit more breeze today so closer to the conditions I’m used to and that I enjoy the most.

I am happy that I am improving each day and it was nice to be up the front of the fleet for a couple of races too. Results are still being published. But the link is here scroll down to Silver group to see my results but look for AUS for all the 13 sailors competing.

Thanks for your interest and support!