A tricky day four shook up the fleets at French Olympic Week at Hyeres and Australia’s Laser Radial youngster Zoe Thomson took the advice from a couple of pros and prospered in the mixed conditions, recording a second then a first to catapult her from 17th to 9th on the pointscore.

“A breeze of 7-14 knots over the two races provided plenty of tight racing,” Thomson said. “I managed to get off the line clean and fast which made the biggest difference for me today. Keen for a big three races in the Mistral tomorrow.”

After struggling on day three, including taking a couple of unplanned swims, Thomson took advice from her Australian Sailing Team mentors who happen to be first and second in the men’s fleet, and found her mojo.

“I’d been chatting to the Australian Laser boys and their main message was to keep it simple, get off the start line and sail fast. I’ve been struggling with my execution and today I sailed fast and made less mistakes. ‘Swifto’ (Luke Elliott) and ‘Wearny’ (Matt Wearn) are the role models out there and it’s really good to get tips off them.”

May 2 was a day of shifting breeze, starting with unstable 6-8 knot south-westerlies and building then stabilising late afternoon. Matt Wearn consolidated his Laser division lead with a 2,1 day and had this to say: “A two and a one - can’t complain about that. The first day of Gold fleet is intense, you get a bit used to having a boat-speed advantage, whereas in the light stuff and quite flat water everybody is about the same speed, so it becomes really important to position in the right spots. 

“The first day is always a shock to the system, so it’s nice to get a good couple of races in on the first day of Gold fleet. Not having a considerable drop yet helps a lot. I’m pretty happy with having a solid regatta so far; it means I can race for the win rather than race conservatively.”

Luke "Swifto" Elliott from Western Australia posted a 1, 6 score to maintain second overall and behind him is Rio 2016 gold medallist Tom Burton who has some work to do to catch his teammates after scoring a 15th then bouncing back to 3rd in race two. “Another tough day with plenty of hiking,” Burton said overnight. “I didn’t have the greatest of starts so was playing catch-up most of the day. Tomorrow looks like more of the same with an added race to make it interesting.”

In the Laser Radial women’s fleet, Queenslander Mara Stransky is still the highest ranked Australian, her 9th and 3rd keeping her in the top 10 among the international fleet currently controlled by the Europeans. 

“Day three was a very variable day for the Radials,” Stransky said. “I made less mistakes and was happy to lock in two more steady results. It was also really exciting to see my teammates do so well with two Aussies in the top two in both races!”

The forecast for Friday and Saturday is 18-20 knot westerlies which is great news for the heavy-air lovers. 

About SOF: After 7 years as part of Sailing World Cup series, the event is back this year as "SOF", French Olympic week. Every year, the Semaine Olympique Française welcomes around 800 competitors from 60 different countries. The racing will happen across the same 10 classes that were selected for Tokyo Olympic Games.

Event website: sof.ffvoile.fr/

Full results list HERE

Laser (69 boats)
1st: Matt Wearn (7), 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1 = 9 pts
2nd: Luke Elliot 3, (8), 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 6 = 17 pts
3rd: Tom Burton 4, 3, 1, 8, 6, 3, (15), 3 = 28 pts
5th: Finn Alexander 6, 4, 2, 5, 5, 4, (28), 10 = 36 pts
11th: Mitch Kennedy (BFD), 16, 5, 4, 5, 4, 21, 7 = 62 pts

Laser Radial (49 boats)
9th: Mara Stransky (37), 12, 14, 8, 16, 10, 9, 3 = 72 pts
17th: Zoe Thompson 19, 19, 4, (25), 17, 25, 2, 1 = 87 pts
28th: Elyse Ainsworth 34, (46), 9, 20, 20, 32, 33, 17 = 165 pts

Photo Credit: Eric Bellande

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