Day 1 Defi wind race report

A successful race on the first day of the 2011 Defi windsurfing race in France.

The wind continued through the night and I arrived at the beach in Gruissan at 10am to start rigging my gear. The plan was to have everything ready that might be needed for the 3pm planned first race start.

The parking lot is a parade of international license plates. I parked next to two British sailors who made the trip to the Defi with a massive collection of new JP boards and NP sails. Thankfully they knew how to help me rig the cams on the Gaastra sail (with a broken batten) that I had rented. I paid it forward by helping a French guy rig his NP V8 for the first time - I've got one of those at home. It took a while to get 3 sails and 2 boards ready to go and down to the crowded beach.

The beach scene at the Defi

After a quick bite of lunch (fois gras was available at the beach but I'd had some the night before) it was time for the 1pm skippers meeting. The hour long introduction to the Defi had all the important points nicely translated into English for us visitors. The race is a marvel of safety and organization and thankfully so as the course is set in a direct off shore wind. 50 support boats are out on the water. 40 markers are lined up 800m off shore to serve as a course boundary and as last resort rescue stations for anyone who might break down. There are sign out and return forms to ensure that everyone who goes out comes back. It sounded like there were around 800 racers participating this year that needed to be accounted for.

The race route was basically a 9km run down the beach, a gybe, return close to the start, gybe again, back to the first mark, and then back to the starting line. Apparently there is more wind as you get farther from the start line. But most of the sailors who were already out on the water had two speeds - fully powered or slogging as the winds varied from 9 to 30 knots. The big question what what gear to take. My choices were a 7.5 sail with 135l 85cm wide slalom board, or a 6.0 broken batten sail with a 91 litre speed stick. I decided to go big.

Wind at Gruissan 9-30 knots after the race start at 15h

Going big turned out to be the right decision. I was pretty comfortable in my few reaches over toward the start line. I didn't try to get too close to the several hundred sailors who were slogging right at the line where the boat would go by as it traced a rabbit start from offshore up to the beach. Instead, despite being late over the line.I was fully planing and passed around 100 sailors in the first minute of racing. I continued to catch and pass people for most of the first reach even though I was getting tired from going 9 km in the same direction. It was finally nice to see some of the fast sailors coming back at me and it wasn't as hard to find room as I had expected when 400 sailors are going one way while 400 are starting back another way.

At the gybe, the wind had dropped so there was quite a bit of action as sails were being dropped and people were floundering. I made it around slowly but cleanly and may have been one of only a few people smiling. Hey, I was 1/4 done, and maybe, just maybe I would make my goal of being in the top 1/2 of the fleet. Of course, just as I was thinking that, I got catapulted. I had a hard time waterstarting the 7.5 and got catapulted twice again right after each waterstart.

I took a deep breath, relaxed and started out more cautiously, and finally got my foot into the back strap. Most of the 2nd reach was pinching upwind to try and stay close to the beach and make it to the mark without needing to tack. I did make the mark and had a good gybe heading back downwind. Now I was over 1/2 done. It was scary a few times to bear off and take on full speed in the gusts. There were also a few big lulls, where for a moment I would plane longer and pass the people in front of me, only then to be passed by some others after I stopped planing.

The last gybe went well for me as well, as I had realized it was right in the shore break. Keep your head up, don't look at the wave, but know that it is there. Leave lots of room around the people who have fallen or are about to. I started back to the finish line, and again had a good run. A bit of slogging right at the end, but I managed to finish the race in what felt like the first 1/2 of the fleet. It is amazing to be out on the water with so many other people. Everywhere you looked there were windsurfers with yellow lycras.

Pretty happy to have finished!

Two boats were recording the numbers on our race lycras at the finish line. I'm really hoping they saw my number. We'll have results in the morning I'm told.

After getting back to the beach and signing in, I took some pictures and enjoyed a tequila flavoured beer. We all started storing and/or derigging our gear. I met up with the nice Dutch guy I'd met at Le Jai a week ago and we all watched the opening ceremonies. Each of the 25 countries' participants were called on stage and indeed I'm the only Canadian. There is also one sailor from the US. International sailors did well, with Patrick Diethelm of Italy being the first male, and Karin Jaggi of Switzerland being the first female to cross the line.

The big crowd at the opening ceremonies

I'm thrilled to have completed another one of my windsurfing goals. Sorry for the length of this post, but I'm guessing you can tell I'm pretty excited to have participated in the Defi wind. The wind looks questionable tomorrow and they have called an 8am skippers meeting just in case there is still some wind in the AM. I'm off to bed now as I am more than a little tired.

The one Canadian guy being interviewed at the Defi.