Gold fleet racing is always the real acid test and this is proving no different on the first day of gold fleet racing at the Princess Sofia Trophy in Mallorca today.
Leads earned through the initial Qualifying heats often prove transient when it is only the cream of each fleet battling it out for places in Saturday’s Medal races.
Among the ILCA 6 women in their Gold fleet, Eve McMahon of Howth YC was disappointed with her performance. "It was a very mediocre day for me; unfortunately, my starts today really let me down, which isn't like me," she said after coming ashore in C'an Pastilla. "I think the Black Flag (disqualification) on the first day has thrown me a little bit - I haven't had one of them in quite a while."
Fleet racing in Gold, Silver and Bronze divisions concludes on Friday with the top ten boats in each of the ten events that comprise the Olympic regatta format going forward for a high-scoring short medal race final on Saturday.
At this key Olympic classes regatta last year, post Tokyo, one notable absentee was the Dutch three times medallist Marit Bouwmeester. She was heavily pregnant then, giving birth to her first child Jessie Mae in May last year. Since then, the new mum has, predictably, limited her training and racing time.
After winning Laser Radial silver in London 2012 and gold in Rio 2016, bronze in Tokyo 2021 completed the full medal set, but it was something of a disappointment considering in 2020 – the year the Games should have run – she was reigning W orld and European. But an arm injury in 2021 meant that the Tokyo Olympic regatta was the only major regatta she could sail.
So Bouwmeester is back in the ILCA 6 in Palma, revving up her challenge for the fourth medal which would make her the most successful ever female sailing Olympian. And she is on typically impressive form. After a first and second today – discarding a 16th which was the result of catching the pin mark - she carries a lead of 24 points into the second day of Finals racing, ahead of her Dutch compatriot Maxime Yonker.
Washing down her boat in the sunshine in C’an Pastilla she smiles “ It is nice to be back in Palma but the days on the water feel very long. But today was a good day. I was a bit pissed off in the third race because I got a good start and then dropped my mainsheet and got caught around the pin end which was a bit stupid, but overall I feel like I am making progress.”
For her, she says, it is not the potential glory of potentially being the ‘best of the best but still – 13 years on from her first world championship silver medal –she is trying to get better every day and, now, doing it is a mum.
“If you can get a baby out, you can do anything!” she chuckles, “ I want to do it all one more time but first I have to qualify myself for Paris 2024 and finish my career in style and there is only one place, for me, that counts. I want to win a gold medal. I believe I can still do it. That is why I am here, still doing it. And I am really grateful to my boyfriend who is giving me this opportunity and he looks after out kid a lot and also to my coach who believes in me. He does a lot of work for me because I can’t train as much as I want to. I am probably doing half of what I did before.”
She asserts, “Having a baby puts everything in perspective. I am so very grateful to be a mum, really I am. It is not common to go sailing at this level and be a mum, so I really need to make every time on the water count. It has to be good and I appreciate being away. And then when I do go way to Lanzarote to train and take my babysitter she gets sick....so all these things you think you get it all sorted and these things happen. But I am going to give it all I can, my very best.”
And Bouwmeester concludes, “There is an addiction of trying to being better every day. After Tokyo it is unfinished business as I went to Tokyo after winning the World and European Championships in 2020 and then the Games were postponed. And then I had a big arm injury and could only sail one event and that was the Olympics. So that is not how I wanted my career to end.”
Results are here