Last weekend I was in Canada racing at the Cork Olympic Classes Regatta. We had very light wind the first two days and had a wide spectrum of conditions on the final day. On the first day I had great starts. There was a lot of pumping to be done, so my hands were very raw by the end of the last day. The racing was very close and I learned that in windsurfing is is especially important to be positioned correctly in the fleet for a shift. For example, it is best to be on the left side of the pack approaching a lefty, because windsurfers have to dig into shifts longer.
The second day was another pumping day, with lots of popped blisters. I sailing much smarter, but my starts were suffering a little. The men (who have more powerful equipment) were on the same starting line and found a new strategy of putting one of us (on the smaller equipment) in between them, to easily squeeze us out as a place holder and create a bigger lane. The starting line was pin favored and because we were sharing the line with the men it was harder to fight for the pin, since it would mean the men would sail over you and take your wind easily.
The final day we had another four races, all with distinctly different wind conditions. We were all exhausted at this point since we were not given the rights that our class rules require. The 6 knot wind minimum and race limit of two races in pumping conditions was not observed. This made for an exhausting event, but gave lots of opportunities for improvement. I learned that I need to practice my pin favored starts in planning conditions, this situation is hard because you have to quickly change your angle to a tight reach while maintaining speed.
SOLVIG SAYRE 2016 Olympic Windsurfing Campaign
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