2nd at UK Grand Finals 2020

Happy to say we came away with a second place at the UK Grand Finals after a very breezy weekend and a strong fleet. It was a pleasure sailing with these brits and it worked absolutely fine crewing for Joe, which is fantastic news. Would be worrying otherwise ;).

From left: Joe Burns, Jack 1, Jack 2, Isabelle Bergqvist and Vicky Cowan (miss being dressed in Magic Marine gear, also really missed my Bliz glasses the few times the sun came out).

So the Grand Finals was a three days event, with 16 UK teams competing. A lot of them had won this regatta before back in the days, and came back hungry for more. After starting off a bit shaky, we got used to sailing together and in the heavy breeze. We finished 2nd in our group which took us straight to gold finals. Due to the heavy breeze they didn't have time to go through with proper finals, so the winner of the gold finals round robin would win the regatta.

We sailed the last day very well, it was all about winning the start. With the heavy breeze we sailed without spinnaker and with reefs which makes it really hard to overtake during the race. A few silly mistakes made us lose too many races to have a chance at winning. But the whole gold fleet were very tight with lots of ties. We managed to win our last race which made us break the ties and finish 2nd! The winner of the event sailed very well, congrats to him!

Loads of fun to be sailing again, and always so much fun meeting new sailors. I've actually never raced in the UK before but I'll definitely come back another time. I'll tell you this though, can you imagine me trimming the main in 35 knots in a J80, with one of those masks on!!! It was not a nice experience gasping for breath in one of those, and of course Joe thought he needed to do a million spins every pre start. Even though we didn't have spinnakers, it was full on for me. I loved it though, getting those muscles warmed up again. They've been hidden for a little while. Do prefer to sail without a mask though, if I could choose.

So this regatta was sailed at Queen Mary Sailing Club in London, a man made lake in the middle of the city. The fact that it wasn't huge made it super shifty and very very gusty. It could go from 20 knots to 35 knots pretty quick. Luckily the shifts weren't fully crazy. Last time I sailed a J80 was in Finland 2,5 years ago and that was even more breezy. Plus we had no reef and kites up, this is a photo from the finals and the race that made us finish second. We had a massive broach, and it was a very hectic one. Great photo though.

I'm now back in Sweden, and back at Uni. Johanna and I will try and find all the upcoming regattas since we're both starving for more sailing. We'll do our absolute best. Otherwise we have a very cold period of winter sailing coming up. We'll keep you updated.

Here's an article about the event written by RYA. (UK Grand Finals) https://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/news/Pages/matchracingchamps2020.aspx?fbclid=IwAR1aPRcJB6uUJNypRo11vTAeQyquj7YDFePEL2eu1QBKzZqqcLiiaUheht4

Hejdååååå

//Isabelle