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Breizh Ocean Race 2017
waterbornewarrior
10/29/17 #22123
It was not flat! Rather big, in fact. Probably blowing 15-20, but on the sea that kicks up quite a swell. The course was along the western coast of Brittany, from north to south. It was a beach start, and then straight out to a nav marker about 2K out. Lots of weird reverby chop, and of course chop from the top boats. Just before the marker we started to get hit by the swell, from right to left. I was a bit pumped from the furious start, but was looking forward to catching runs once we turned downwind, but it wasn’t so straightforward. It was really chaotic and disorganized, so tough to catch any substantial glides. You’d start down something but then get slapped from the side, or plow into something else, etc. I was looking for some pattern but they were rare, and only worked briefly. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in the Gorge anymore!
I wasn’t able to paddle the course before the race, so was never confident in my line. Also, the swell made it difficult to see where you were going. Generally it seemed I was too close to shore. Definitely in the last couple miles I got caught inside two points, and it seemed like guys outside made up some ground. At the last point several of these guys converged ahead of me, so I had to really push to hang with them. One was a German national team sprinter so that was a non-starter, but I held my own with the others. Someone commented that I jumped out of my boat and ran more strongly than most, so I guess the deep squats paid off!
Ended up 48th out of 108 finishers. Deep field!! Three young French guys finished right behind Ken and Sean Rice - wow.
Oscar (7th overall) has been trying some of my rudders and was stoked with the one he used for this race. He said he had to really throw the boat around to stay with some of the runs.
It was good to get out of my comfort zone and remember that there’s a lot more to learn.
Don
Michael Gregory
10/29/17 #22133
Nice report. Congrats, Mike
Nicholas Cryder
10/30/17 #22141
I don't think I've ever seen this before, but wow I think it's incredibly cool and I'd love to see more racing integrate this technology.
You can see the entire race via GPS transponder for each athlete… all we need next are video feeds and it will help our sport immensely (our sport is terrible for spectators).
Also, did the Junior / U23 men start first in front of the main group but factor in the results?
waterbornewarrior
10/31/17 #22142
There was just one start for surfskis. About 10 OCs started a couple minutes ahead.
I have video of the start but won’t be able to share it until I return.
Don
