Hyeres Regatta and the Italian 49er Nationals
An interesting email update from Peter on Dave and Iain’s European 49er campaign…
Dear All,
A quick update on the adventures of Dave and Goobie (D & G)
Hyeres finished pretty badly as all the days,bar the last , were light and the best they could do was a 12th. They finished in silver fleet but that was “deep” too. At least they know the problem….getting a fantastic start everytime. Miss that and it’s all over.
The last day ended up a nightmare. Gold Fleet did well with breezes 10 to 15 kts but Silver went out to a rapidly freshing situation with 25KTS+ and a huge chop. D & G did well off the start and were in the top 3 but then disaster struck. Climbinfg a steep chop bigger than the ones at Treasure Island San Franisco, they became airbourne then landed sideways. Goobie slammed into the mast and wedged himself between it and the lower stays. Operating like a robot he managed to get sailing but by then the official boat came past calling abandonment. Dave had to drop the main from in the water and they sailed back under jib. Goobie was away with the pixies as his head was badly concussed. Questions like “are we in front ?” kept coming so he was really badly affected.
On shore after examination he was admitted to hospital by ambulance and kept in overnight. His short term memory loss started at about 5 days but improved rapidly the next day. His brain scan was clear and he was not feeling sick so he was discharged. The French Fire Brigade made no charge for the ambulance which was great and the hospital was very professional and reasonable too.
To date Goobie has no recollection of the start of that race up until he woke up in hospital saying ” What happened ? Is Dave OK? ”
We fast tracked to Riva and were sailing the next day in waters David knows very well. Training has continued all week and this weekend they have just finished Day One of the Italian 49er Nationals. There are three good boats here from gold and silver fleets at Palma and Hyeres and the racing has been in 6-10 kts. Getting 4 great starts, D & G have scored 1, 2, 2, 4 and are in second place to ITA 75 by one point. The smiles on their faces are about 1 metre wide !
Italy and of course Riva are fantastic so the next 2 weeks are shaping up to be a great time.Cheers to all.
Peter
