HobieGirls: “Vive la France”

The wind picked up and the girls had been warned that it would get as strong as 40 knots in the gusts alone! On the beach the wind was measured to 15,9 m/s (about 32 knots…). It didn’t look so bad from the beach so the girls decided to give it a try. They managed to get out to the starting line but Michala was simply not strong enough for it and they unfortunately had to go in again. Others were following even before the first race and even more followed before the second race leaving only 35 boats at the end of the second race. The Hobie Gold Fleet had only 2 races that day; racing was called off for the remainder of the day. The sand storm on the beach made it very difficult for everybody to pack the boats for the night and masts were taken down as an added precaution.

Michala’s husband Kim has come down to Barcelona, so Michala moved out of the little beach apartment and into a luxury hotel in Barcelona. Don’t worry, Yoanna is not all alone she is together with 63 other Hobie teams and as she is our PR Girl, she has no problem socializing. She attended a great party on the terrace at the Castelldefells Nautico Club. It was a fantastic evening starting out with games organized by Hobie’s own “Clint Eastwood” followed by really good dance music – so you can imagine where Yoanna was. Unfortunately, she cut her foot (I know there is always drama) while dancing barefoot. But fortunately there was a doctor at the party….Yes, bad foot, bad knee, what else could go wrong.

Everything was so well organized by the Hobie organization, and the local team here at the sailing club is outstanding. The warmth and hospitality is second to none. For the HobieGirls it has been an absolute pleasure being part of this event, part of the Hobie family and friendships for life have been built.

But all things come to an end and yet another Hobie European Championships is over. The Hobie Cat 16 that the girls rented from France was packed up, put on a trailer and ready to go back to the South of France. The girls are also on their way back to little Denmark to spend the summer holiday in a little beach town called Hornbæk (north of Copenhagen). And that’s where it all started many years ago when they met as children on the beach and started sailing together.

Back to serious business… How did the HobieGirls actually do…? Well if you ask them they did very well – in the beginning where they started off with two first places, even winning over the Masters and the Grand Masters. (They were incredibly focused and had a great start rounding the top mark first on all three rounds, ending in first place. Second race they shared number 1 at the top mark, second round first again but third round 6th, finishing 6th in total but first place for the Women’s race – Nobody can take that away from the HobieGirls and they will properly talk about it for a very long time – you know how much they can talk).

Well, they finished 2^nd in the Womans. In the Qualifier, they were placed 19^th in total and in the Gold Fleet, 50^th. This might not sound impressive but taking into consideration that they only made 5 out of 10 races in the Gold Fleet and that they have been sailing/competing 8 days in a row they actually did pretty well. Considering Michala’s recent knee operation and the excessive wind conditions they did great.

But more importantly the girls have had some wonderful Championships and they are improving:

They are now very good at the starting line. They are all the way up in front getting free wind. Only twice they choose the wrong end of the line, which unfortunately really counts in the scores.
They have also improved in their tactics they have understood the meaning of how important it is to choose the bad leg first so that they can get a lift on the good leg up to the top pin.
They have learned that it is crucial to know the course by heart because if you eventually are the first boat round the top pin you have to know where to go next…
They have also learned that if you are leading the field you have to sail on the others.
They are also now very quick in tacking the boat. (The Hobie has two hulls so it is not so quick to tack and you have to make it right the first time otherwise it costs).

Of course they have still a lot to learn – but it is so much easier to learn when you understand the basics.

Last year they had a shitty boat, this year they had a shitty knee, next year will be perfect…. They never give up!

Ooh, we almost forgot ..

The winner of the Gold Fleet (European Championships Hobie Cat 16, 2014) were:

The two French brothers CEDRIC BADER/LAURENT BADER– with a pretty outstanding performance: 7,1,1,1,1,1,2,1,1,1. Congratulations wow…

Second place was taken by last year’s winner, ORION MARTIN/CHARLOTTE HILLIARD (also from France)-

-and third were French/Italian team JEROME LE GAL/MARCO IAZZETTA (Jerome was the winner of this year French Nationals).

Vive la France!

PS! Michala took home the wrong suitcase, I rest my case!

Thank you everybody for following us, have a great summer, we will come back with more adventure and fun pretty soon.

Blog writer Kirsten Larsen. Photo: Cristayn Fletcher and Erik Olsen.

Thank you so much to the Danish clothes designer Ilse Jacobsen Hornbæk www.ilsejacobsen.comwho have sponsored the HobieGirls with clothes and sailing bags from the Ilse Jacobsen CRUIZE collection.