Fynn Sterritt & James Peters 2018 Recap

2018 has been an up and down year for James and I. Having geared ourselves up for the year, training intensely out in Vilamoura Portugal, Fynn tore his anterior meniscus 2 days before the Palma Princess Sofia Regatta. With the injury requiring surgery, it wasn’t until 2 weeks before the World Championships in August that we were able to return to the boat as a team. This meant we missed 3 major European regattas – Palma, Hyeres and the Europeans.

 

Having missed so much crucial training and racing time we naturally felt a bit rusty leading into the Worlds. However, we believed we had as good a chance as anyone at taking the title. After a long week of racing, we came away 5th overall and 1st British boat, securing Great Britain a spot in the Olympics.

 

The next big event and our outcome regatta of the year was the Tokyo World Cup at the Olympic Venue. The majority of the racing was held in shifty offshore conditions, making for some hard fought battles throughout the event. After leading the regatta and going into the top 10 medal race we then had a fantastic medal race win to move well clear of the rest of the fleet and take the gold medal. Gaining experience at the venue and showing to the rest of the world how strong we perform there gives us a lot of confidence going forward.

 

This years Miami World Cup was a light one, with all but 2 races carried out in under 7 knots. Having sailed ourselves into a 3rd position with the possibility of moving up to silver before the medal race we then, unfortunately, got an OCS in the medal race, dropping us to 5th overall. On reflection though, a good result at a tough venue and plenty of lessons learned to take into the European season.

 

Looking forwards we have another training camp in Vilamoura this month before we head to Palma in March in preparation for the Princess Sofia Regatta. Post Palma, we have the Genoa WC (April), Europeans (May) and Tokyo World Cup (August) before the World Championship in Auckland, NZ (Dec).

 

 

James Peters and Fynn Sterrit 2017 Review

2017 has been a breakthrough year for Fynn and I. The Princess Sofia Regatta in April of this year was our first major regatta win.  The style of sailing was typical of that in Palma; the thermal winds there demand consistent starts, clever positioning for clear air and the capitalisation of any small gains on the fleet. It was a tight finish but we nonetheless came away with the trophy.

June brought with it the World Cup Final in Santander. Once again we used our strength on the startline combined with an ability to manage the risk associated with changeable conditions to come out on top by the end of the week.

Come July and the European Championships in Kiel were upon us. We sailed a solid week and came away with an Open bronze and European silver medal. With no sailing on the final day, we unfortunately didn’t get the opportunity to fight for the gold, but nonetheless, we were very happy with this result.

September brought the climax of the year, the World Championships in Porto. Fog and light winds made for a very relaxed (yet somewhat restless!) start to the championship with no racing for two whole days. When we finally got going, we once again kept our nerves at bay, sailing convincingly and coming away with a silver medal.

2018 will be a year closer to the Tokyo Games, the competition will be tougher, but obviously we intend to rise to this and challenge for the top once again. We are lucky to have an incredible support network around us. Allen Brothers is very much part of that team and we are very grateful to everyone at Allen Brothers to have their support going forwards. Our 49er quite simply has to be kitted out with the best hardware on the market. Working with Allen certainly ensures that box is ticked.

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