My name is Daniel Links, and I had the honour of sailing in the 49er class at two esteemed international regattas: the French Olympic Week in Hyères and the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma.
These large prestigious regattas were a large step for us in the 49er class as we were competing against the worlds best athletes in amazing locations. Keizo, my crew, and I have been working hard in the 49er for over a year now and have made major progress since our last international regatta in Galicia, Spain, last year July.
We left on the 14th of March and arrived in Palma on the 18th after transporting boats from our Barcelona storage. Our trip in Palma was filled with excitement and improvements from tight racing and some setbacks. This was highlighted on our second day training with the Australian team when a 53 knot Mistral came through as we were out sailing.
These impossible conditions led to us being capsized near the yacht club rock wall and we realised we were in a very dangerous situation. We managed to cut down the main and had to let it sink as our main focus was to keep the boat from reaching the rockwall. The massive waves and hazardous wind meant we couldn’t get saved by any safety boat as they couldn’t even get close enough. We were about to swim away from the boat to save ourselves when we had one opportunity during a lull of 40 knots where we managed to get the boat up and got beside a safety boat and towed to safety. The water was freezing, so we were lucky to have our Vaikobi Flexforce extra-thick wetsuits. Unfortunately, our mast was destroyed and we lost our main and jib. At least the positive is that any wind that can hit us from now will seem like child’s play.
We then had a massive scramble to try and get a mast and some sails together in the days leading up to the regatta. Due to our class inexperience we were not able to replicate our setup in such a short amount of time and thus struggled for speed at Palma and Hyere.
Overall we were happy with how Palma and Hyeres went not because of any results but because of the learnings that came from it and the resilience we showed as a team. The opportunity of having tight racing against some of the best athletes in the world presented us with so many situations where we made major improvements. We were able to come back home with a large list of areas to work on and new ideas complemented by a positive and excited mindset. Looking ahead, we’re more motivated than ever to build on the momentum from this trip. Each challenge, from high-pressure racing to handling extreme weather, has made us more resilient and refined our approach both on and off the water. We’re grateful for the support from our club and community, knowing we have a strong team behind us makes a huge difference. We’re excited to keep pushing forward, and we look forward to representing the club proudly in future regatta.
Daniel Links
