The 49er European Championships and the 29er World Championships were held in Laredo, Northern Spain from 12-19 July. My team mate and I decided against the long drive and organised to have the boat and gear towed alongside 11 other British 49ers in a pantechnicon of two trailers. The advantage of flying in was that we arrived at the regatta venue with a few days for preparation, including some good sailing practice.

Laredo proved to be an excellent sailing venue. Launching took place from the lagoon from where we would sail out to sea via the river mouth to either Alpha or Bravo race area. The 29er fleet were sailed further offshore on a separate course. For the qualification series, the 49er fleet of 95 boats was initially divided into 4 fleets of approximately equal strength.

Day 1 of racing brought a moderate onshore sea breeze of about 10 knots. We were drawn in the red group sailing on Alpha course located near to the Yacht Club beach adjacent to the lagoon mouth. The tide played an important role in the racing, not only for laylines and starts, but also in shallow areas of the course where encountering a wave train could seriously ruin your day. The left hand side of the course was favoured on the beats with a wind bend and increased pressure under the cliffs of the river mouth. We had 3 steady races (positions of 16, 15, 14) with no major mistakes but felt that we had a tough draw and looked forward to the next series of racing after regrouping.

Day 2 of qualification saw strong, gusty offshore winds of 15-25 knots moderating later in the day. Having been regrouped into blue, we had excellent starts at the pin end and selected the correct side of the beats to get into some really good positions. Positions of 14, 11 and 9 proved good enough to get us into the Silver group after qualification (fleet divided into gold fleet of 25, silver fleet of 35 and bronze fleet of 35). Although we were pleased to have made the cut in such a competitive fleet, we had left plenty of points out on the race course with a capsize in the final race and some gear problems with our spinnaker cleat in the first couple of races.

Day 3 of racing proved expensive for us (positions of DNF, DNC and 28). On a day with onshore breeze of 15-20 knots and big waves offshore on Bravo course, we had a capsize during an over ambitious gybe hoist at the weather mark, resulting in broken battens and a torn mainsail. As a consequence, we collected maximum points for the first 2 races of the day. Having just made it back to the race area for the final race of the day, we sailed steadily until the final downwind, when we had a pitchpole and lost several positions. The standard of racing in the Silver fleet in these conditions was high. Unlike in the bronze fleet, it is clearly not good enough to simply stay upright and achieve good positions by overtaking those who capsize.

Day 4 of racing for the Silver Fleet was a light wind day. With 35 boats on a short start line there was no room for manoeuvre and advisable to reserve your place on the line at least 2 minutes before the gun. In the first couple of races the left hand side of the beat was clearly favoured so keeping clear air on starboard tack after the start was really important. After a couple of extremely sub-optimal starts, we found ourselves towards the back of the pack at the windward mark, but fought back in both races to get 24 and 26. In the final race we found good lanes of clear air on the first beat and a couple of good lifts to reach the weather mark in the top 15, and showed some good speed to overtake to finish 11. After 2 discards this left us in a final position of 56, leaving several professional teams behind us.

The European Championships proved to be a good test of boathandling, strategical and tactical ability and saw 12 good races sailed in a variety of wind, sea state and tidal conditions. I was pleased with our performance in the qualification series, as we had made a conscious effort to take a more aggressive approach to qualification. It was good to make the grade for the silver fleet. The DNC day once again proved the importance of flawless boathandling and gear reliability. Apart from that day we had a consistent series with some good starts (whilst avoiding the ever-present black flags) and no disaster races.

Most importantly, the last couple of years of 49er racing have been a major learning curve for the team. We have gone from being backmarkers in the UK fleet (consisting of about 40 active teams) to regularly finishing in the top 5 at UK circuit events. At an international level, our performance has improved as our experience of these events has grown. Having spent most of my dinghy sailing life as a singlehander, the team aspect of the campaign has been challenging but also rewarding. We have reached the stage where a further leap in performance will require us to sail professionally, as I believe that we are doing as much as possible on an amateur basis at the moment.

The campaign is now winding down and we will probably sell both boats in the near future. Below is a summary of our international results to date in 2003:

Hyeres Olympic Classes Regatta: 36 (of 53) Silver Fleet
Spa Olympic Classes Regatta: 39 (of 55) Silver Fleet
Kiel Week for Olympic Classes: 56 (of 78) Bronze Fleet
European 49er Championships: 56 (of 94) Silver Fleet

Our qualification for the World Championships is currently hanging in the balance. In the meantime, I will be competing in the 9er International Open in Plymouth with my Knysna Yacht Club teammate, Mark Gale, because my regular front man is starting a time-consuming new job in neurosurgery on Monday. I plan to return to Cape Town next year to study my MBA, but look forward to the possibility of more competitive sailing at an international level in the forthcoming years.