I spent the whole of August in Athens, Greece the venue for the 2004 Olympic Games. It was sunny and hot with warm water, though pretty fickle winds. Three out of four isn’t bad though. My first event was the Saronikos Gulf Regatta, a smallish event with approximately 50 sailors but with quality at the front. My training partners and myself managed to get the date wrong so we cruised into the yacht club to register only to find the fleet already on the water preparing to race. After much panic, we were fortunate enough to make the start, as the wind had not yet filled in properly. Whew! A bit laid-back perhaps?

The regatta went well, and I posted good results in all conditions from five to fifteen knots of wind. The light airs which have been a problem in previous years didn’t bother me and my speed was good all round. I won the regatta beating the world number one ranked Brit into second, with my teammate from Slovenia third.

We had a couple of days to chill, and then went into the 2002 Olympic Test Event. Everything was pretty much set to go at the sailing venue, and it all looks quite good. Not too large distances to sail to the racecourses and spacious boat launching two big pluses. It was a closed entry regatta with between one and three competitors from each country only. A small (50) but extremely tough fleet.

The racing was predominately in light airs, the wind never going above twelve knots. Having a front row start and getting the shifts correct on the first beat were high on the priority list of anyone wanting to do well. Again I was confident in the light airs and this seemed to transfer to my starting, where I was getting away clean and quick from the line. Anyone who has seen my race will know that I used to struggle with this! I strung together a good series until the final day when I ‘choked’ and slipped back to fifth overall.

I decided it was time for a bit of R&R so I ducked off to London for ten days to hang out with my china’s (and a few other lurkers) It was really good fun, a bit too much cash dropped in the pubs, but we won’t get into that.

The final event was the World Champs in Hyannis, USA. It was a great spot, a little quiet as summer had officially ended just before we arrived, but really beautiful and good sailing conditions. The first race was medium breeze, quite shifty with some strongish current that would play it’s part throughout. I won the race, happy to start strong. The next four days the breeze was strong and steady with good waves rolling. We had one day with about 20 knots with the current running with the wind. Our beats turned into 25-minute slog fests with very short downwinds between (i.e. no recovery) so the most beastly sailors would prosper! My fitness was a bit poor due too a light wind season and I struggled to find my usual big airs dominance, usually just scraping inside the top five. Robert Scheidt was in his element and after sailing two good races in tricky winds in the finals, won his sixth WC with a race to spare. Pretty awesome.

My results over the season:

Consistent but I can be better, much better. My world ranking at present is 5th. A big shout out to Bruce Mac for fixing me up so well before I left, and to much sponsors, supporters and friends. It would all have come to naught without you all.

I am now back home in CT ready for another summer at home, back into the cycling/triathlon/paddling/running season, ready to do some long and tough events in order to get fitter and make my mind stronger so I can return to Europe ready to win. As my Optimist coach once said: “If you can dream it you can do it"

Gareth Blankenburg