THE prospect of Scottish medals in sailing continues to look promising. Three Scots were in action on the water on Wednesday and all advanced their chances of making it to the Olympic podium come the end of their respective competitions.
It was a second day of action for Helensburgh’s Charlotte Dobson. Partnering “air hostess” Saskia Tidey in the 49er FX, the pair couldn’t match their achievements on the opening day when they claimed two first-places and a sixth.
But finishing fourth, second and five in Wednesday's three fleet races leaves the British duo top of the leaderboard at the halfway point and in a strong position when they return to action on Friday.
“I think what we did quite well today was just focussing on doing all of our little processes,” said Dobson.
“We call Sas the air hostess as we’re going down the massive waves because she’s in charge of the kite control. So it was quite a good day on Tidey Airlines today.
“We’re feeling good. We’re sailing the same boat that we’ve sailed for the last four years, we’re the same team, the same processes so it does feel really comfy. We’re leaning and playing on that a little bit at the moment.”
It was the opening day of competition for another Rhu sailor, Luke Patience, in the 470 class.
He and partner Chris Gruve had to call upon all of their experience when part of their mast failed and they had to rush to shore to make running repairs in between races.
Despite that unforeseen turbulence, the duo made a decent start in the first two of 10 fleets, taking third and eighth to sit fourth overall.
“We had a fairly severe gear failure that we had to come and check wasn’t about to de-mast us, but we couldn’t fix it,” revealed Patience.
“We were wounded soldiers in the second race, the boat was bleeding and we had to go harder. It was mostly ups today though really.
“We had to deal with a bit of adversity that others didn’t and that’s sport. Hopefully that’s the bad luck out of the way. This will be our last regatta in the 470. So we’re mad for it and we’ll drop the bow and rip our way around that ocean for the next week.”
There were nerves for Anna Burnet as the Shandon sailor took her Olympic bow in the Nacra 17 with partner John Gimson.
But the duo made a strong start to lie in fourth place after the opening three of 12 fleets.
“I was pretty nervous but just really excited to get started, be able to breathe and to get into the normal routine of the sailing and forget about everything else,” admitted Burnet.
“Everyone had the extra year, it’s just about how you used it. I think we used it wisely but because there were no competitions there wasn’t really any opportunity to check in with the rest of the fleet.
“And for a number of reasons with Brexit and COVID we weren’t able to mix in with other teams, so we were locked in with our own training group of five; the Italians, the Austrians and the Argentinians and I think luckily our group seems to be going quick.”
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