EM 2018: Rückblick Søren
Europameister Søren Dulong Andreasen hat auf Facebook einen Rückblick auf die EM gepostet. Mit seiner Erlaubnis (Danke!) veröffentlichen wir den Text auch hier:
So, I am back home now and had a few days to reflect on winning the European Championship.
As Simon Mussell said on the water just before the last race “I think we have to call you The Comeback Kid”
I was 11th after the first day and I was so frustrated, my boat speed was unstable, I did not follow the tactics I had in mind, and when I did they were the wrong ones.
After the second day, I climbed to 8th and then 6th on the 3rd day., 2nd after day 4 and then, well you know the rest.
How was that possible.
Well, first of all, because Marco Ferrari and the others in front of me started to make mistakes. It was a tricky place to sail that week, the advantage on the upwind course changed on every round, some races had less wind with small chops and some had more wind with flat water, most times it paid to go right and then sometimes the big gains were made on the left. I had no idea before the regatta but there is apparently also a lot of current in the North of Lake Garda and it changes speed an direction through the day, I never figured out how to use that to my advantage, but it was noticeable.
As racing continued I started to feel more comfortable in the boat, I could spend less of my focus on sailing the boat fast and rather focus more on the tactics and also how to position my boat according to my competitors. We had to do very few tacks on the upwind course so it was all about Starting well and being it the right position compared to your competitors.
My downwind speed was excellent compared to others, the waves on Lake Garda are moving slower than the contender, so most of the time I was trying to get over the waves instead of trying to ride along with them. I pumped hard, all the running and physical training I had done before the Championship really paid off. There were some downwind where it was almost impossible to break away from others, really hard to get over the waves and pumping and rocking just seemed pointless, but then you win a meter and one more and then one more, but oh boy it was hard work. my bottom mark rounding was rarely very good, my pulse was simply too high.
There is no doubt that I will maintain and even try to improve my physic before the worlds next year in France. In the contender when pumping is allowed, being fit just makes it so much more fun.
The pumping had one backside and that was blisters on both little toes and the big toes.
My weight,, I was 73 kg or less, I would have preferred to be heavier at this regatta, I was struggling upwind when I was not able to sail my own “track”.
The Italian Contender class did really well. Marco Ferrari, Antonio, Davide, and Luca all sailed well and it must be the first time there is so many Italian in the top 10 at an international Championship. If Andrea, Giovanni, Michele, and Virgilio Frau would have been there,, wow..
Again a big thanks to Max Billerbeck for standing in as my training partner (Jesper Nielsen has a knee injury and was not able to participate). Always important to have someone to talk tactics, do speed check and upwind split checks with.
An area where I was lucky was that Simon Mussell was hit by a bladder infection, he did not look well(or was it just a really bad hangover Mr. Mussel?)
Worth mentioning also is that in the Silver fleet Denmark's Claus Litzinger did 1,2,1 in the last 3 races, that's pretty amazing if you ask me!
At last, I would like to thank Søren Johnsen (Europe Class Master Champion 2018) for some really great tips, they were pretty accurate except for the races where they were not 😉. But that's what sailboat racing is also about, adapting to change!
I probably forgot to mention a few things, if you have questions, please ask.