Hugh Styles diary

Hyeres proved to be an awkward regatta for Team GBR Tornado aces Hugh Styles and Adam May

Just returned from Hyeres regatta on the coast near to Nice in the south of France. An Olympic classes regatta and a preparation for us for our European championships which begin this coming week in Vilamoura, Portugal.

We arrived for a week's training before the event to get familiar with the sailing conditions and to train against the foreign competition. This event is one of the major regattas of the year and one which all crews which are campaigning for the Olympics try to perform at.

Our week of training went well, we were able to test all the equipment we wanted to. This has enabled us to clarify most of our kit selection for our Europeans. We were particularly happy with our upwind boat speed in the light winds, an area which we have been working on for a while.

Following the preparation we went into the regatta with a good feeling of confidence in our sailing equipment. We were using this regatta to fine tune all our racing skills and we began well, but for an error by the race officer in race 1 when only 3 boats out of the 50 finished the course due to a calm at one mark during the first race.We didn't let this phase us and posted a fourth in the second race, a good positive start to the regatta we were buzzing.

This led us into the second day of racing and two races planned. The wind conditions started to be as fickle as the previous day with light SW winds starting off, this didn't establish for a while and we were kept onshore until more consistent conditions appeared.

The first race of the day was strange for us getting a good start and a reasonable rounding position at the first mark we were in touch with the top boats in about 10 ish. Unfortunately we found it difficult to break free of all the traffic and could never sail our own race from there and ended that one 16th.

We made up for that in the next race with a solid sixth place after an excellent start we rounded the first mark well and pulled through to sixth. It was good to be making gains all through the race and we felt comfortable with our speed and racing.

Day three dawned with no wind again and then a wait for the breeze to form from the NE, this it did eventually not until late in the day. This meant that we only got one race in an eighth for us a good solid race and another great start. Unfortunately the wind dissapeared just after the finish of this race, this spelt the end of the wind and racing was abandoned for the rest of the day.

Wednesday, day 4, and three races were held, starting with a 17th which was a little disappointing, we were stuck in traffic all the way round the race and could
not get free to show our pace to pull up the ladder. We sailed well in the race however as on the second beat the wind died on the right side of the course and there was still plenty of wind on the left. This didn't phase us and we cut our losses and fought through the fleet after starting to go right early up that leg. Race 2 was solid finishing with a 7 showing good downwind speed which was encouraging. We ended the day with a 6th and this put us in fifth overall with two days to go and all to play for.

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