Melbourne. Sydney. Sunshine Coast?

I kicked of December with the World Cup Final in St Kilda, Melbourne. This was my first time competing in the WCF because it is exclusively invite only to the top 20 sailors. The field held both the current gold and silver medallists from Rio plus former silver medallists and world number ones. It was going to be some great racing. 

I started out slowly in the regatta making some poor judgments that cost valuable points early. Moving through the fleet didn’t come easy with such a high standard and I was regulated to the middle of the fleet for the majority or the event. However on our last day of racing things finally started to click, or so I thought, when I won the second race of the day and was first around the top in the last race and went on the place fifth. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as I was later told my first place was a UFD and I dropped from 7th to 12th in the regatta, missing the medal race on a countback. 

L-R: Gold Medallist, Silver Medallist, Former World Number 1, Me

The next two days were spent packing and driving boats up to Sydney for Chris at PSA. We stayed overnight in a small town in the middle of nowhere before polishing of the drive the next day. I was staying in an Airbnb in Bronte, a beautiful seaside suburb just south of Bondi beach and a 15min drive from the club. The weather for Sail Sydney was like nothing I had ever seen before with two days of non-stop rain and light south west winds. The tides we had for racing were exceptional and made for some really interesting sailing. By this time though I was quite burnt out and for the first time ever I really didn’t feel like sailing or being out on the water. My limit had finally been reached. It was a strange and next experience for me and I’m glad for having it but it’s going to make me re-think the way I approach the next four years and how I train for events. 

After Sail Sydney finished up I packed up and got myself to the airport to fly to Mooloolaba on the Shineshine Coast to have Christmas with Mitch and his family. $570 dollars in excess baggage later (don’t ever fly with Jetstar) I made it to Queensland and have been hanging out in the warm weather and not thinking about sailing. It’s been refreshing to do something different for a little while. 

Next up is the Nationals in Adelaide where I’ll meet my dad and Spero on Boxing day.

/Swifto

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