OCEANA VIVO FLYING HIGH INTO FOILING WEEK

After some strong training at the start of the month, Oceana Vivo was excited to get back into racing at the 10th edition of Foiling Week. Set in the stunning location of Malcesine, Lake Garda, the week was ready for big celebrations. To mark the 10th anniversary there were 10 classes racing, as well as exhibitions and trials, the whole event dedicated to the charity The Magenta Project.

Foiling Week is always a special event but there seemed to be an extra buzz in the air coming into this event. For Oceana Vivo we were going into the week with a slightly different team – a big thanks to Robin Becker for stepping in with little notice and to coach Cas for keeping the learning curve steep.

The week started positively, we were feeling confident with our very-controlled and quick manoeuvres in the boat. Safe to say we were itching to get racing! The three days of practice races and training was a great opportunity for me to learn as much as possible from Cas and Robin and work on both my trimming and helming, setting myself up for the next three days of racing.

Going into the first day of racing, we were unsure of how we would perform under pressure. We pushed hard from the get-go and scored a win in the first race of the whole event. This set the tone for the team. We were looking to keep pushing from here and overall had 6 good races. There is always more to improve upon but finishing day one in 3rd is definitely a good place to start.

Day 2 brought challenging conditions. The wind came through strong, rain moving down the lake. Just 2 minutes before the start of race 1 we went for a bear away, hitting speeds in the high 20s, before I knew it our Vakaros GPS showed a top speed of 32kts before our bow buried, leading to a big crash. We landed hard in water, all a bit rattled for the first race; we finished up in 7th place. We got back into the swing of things in the second race and ended in 2nd. After a bad crash for Antigua Barbuda, the bow woman was taken to hospital with concussion, so with the ambulance gone the 69F racing was abandoned for the day. We finished off the day still in 3rd overall but the next day the team was definitely a bit sore. OV's new top speed: 32KTS.

Struggling to find our form for the rest of the week our final day was tough, seeing us drop down to 5th place on the leaderboard. This said, I am incredibly proud of our learning and progress. There is always more to improve but Robin, Cas, and I should be proud of the week and I cannot wait for more racing.

Thank you to 69F for running another wonderful event, thank you to my team behind the scenes helping make all this possible, and thank you to Foiling Week for such a fun week. Oceana Vivo is off to the European Dream Cup to do some coaching, umpiring, and spend two more weeks with 69F before heading back for some training in time for GP4 in Portoroz at the end of the month!