I’m writing this on a ferry across the Bay of Biscay with 24 hours’ travelling to look forward to, after an awesome practice regatta in Santander, the venue for September’s ISAF World Championships. That means one thing - sleep!

[Portrait - Luke Patience]

Because the 470 has been around so long, the class is a bit like a family, and the coaches all get together and run proper practice racing events, with entry fees, prize money, the lot. This one was four days, three races a day and 12 races in total - a full series of great racing. Everyone respects how seriously training races are taken and competition is fierce; all the top guys who will be at the Olympics were there.

Elliot and I missed the first day because logistically we couldn’t get over there in time after Sail for Gold, where we won gold. We knew that was always going to be the way, but in every race that followed we finished in the top three and won two races.

We feel so good about what we did in those three days - we were flying, like we had jets on the boat and the boat was in sixth gear, it was great.

As a training regatta it allowed us to gather information about the racecourse ahead of the Worlds. It is a very tidal venue, with a lot of high ground around. Around 8-12 knots would be considered ‘normal’ breeze but, because of where Santander is on the Bay of Biscay, it is big seas, big swell, and then a lot of chop on top of that swell.

It is dead challenging but Elliot is just exceptional crewing a 470 in these conditions, it is like dark magic what he does in the boat, an unspoken ability that only he understands in his head!

Elliot, of course, is a two-time 470 World Champion, and I’ve said before it has always felt like we hit the ground running because we have been good friends for a long time too. But there are times when we get a reminder that we are still a new partnership, and things happen on the racecourse we could have done better.

The more time Elliot and I can spend racing together seriously, the more situations on the racecourse we will experience together and we will be better equipped to deal with all eventualities, which will serve us well going into the Olympic Games.

We are also enjoying working with our coach Steve Lovegrove on our boat, and even in Santander we managed to find an extra ¼ knot of speed somewhere, which could make all the difference going into this year’s Worlds and as the Games get closer. 

This is going to continue next week when we are back at home, and we will be taking advantage of the vast reserves of expertise and experience being part of the British sailing team offers to develop, test and refine our kit, on the water and ashore.

Then, next Saturday, I get to do my first ever J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race with Volvo Car UK, and I’m so excited! Elliot and I are going to be on a Farr 65 with Question Time presenter, David Dimbleby, who is starting the race.

I don’t get a chance to do much big boat stuff, but it is something I find really enjoyable. I like the strange calmness you get on a yacht going upwind; it is so sleek.

On a wee dinghy like a 470, which is very high maintenance, something needs doing all the time, it is very frantic! But I like the flow on a yacht, and I’m looking forward to seeing all the hundreds of boats everywhere, and the whole spectacle of the Round the Island. I know there would be people all over the World who would think it would be a very cool event to be doing and we are very lucky to get the opportunity.

Our next regatta is the Europeans in Athens in early July. We arrive on the 5th and, like every event, it is important to race hard and try to win. We want to go to the first official Olympic Test Event in Rio in August with another good performance under our belts.

Rio will be an interesting trip for us. I’ve only ever been there once, on a recce with a couple of other sailors and our team manager, Sparky, at the end of 2012, and it will be Elliot and mine first experience of sailing in the 2016 Olympic venue.

It will be a bit of a fact-finding mission, but primarily we are there to race.

I cannot overstate how important it is to stamp your mark on a venue early. Statistically sailors that perform well in a venue in the build up to an Olympics tend to do very well at the Olympics themselves.

It is psychologically so powerful to be winning in the Olympic venue. You think if you can win there when you and your boat aren’t at 100% yet, and you have got another two years to develop, you have the actual memory of passing your competitors and standing on the podium, it is not visualization. Your competitors have the opposite memory; they remember you passing them and watching you get the medal. It matters totally and completely. Anyone who has won an Olympic gold will tell you.

We will have seven days’ training before we race, but the plan is to head back over there at least another two times before the end of this year.

This year has seen a lot of change for Elliot and I, but Santander showed me we are really continuing to gel, and with our coach Steve too. We have come on leaps and bounds in the way we work and the progress we are making behind the scenes.

It feels like there is a storm brewing and that is an amazing feeling!

Source: Volvo Cars Sailing