First and second day:
It was a long day on the water for the sailors engaged in the 44th Semaine Olympique Francaise in Hyeres. In order to catch up with the racing schedule, after yesterday's cancelled races due to the mistral, sailing started early and finished late in the afternoon.

Three races were scheduled for the Stars but the second took nearly three hours to complete. After many general recalls, race 2 started but abandoned when the top mark started drifting. The Stars came back at 7pm. World #5, Richard Clarke and Tyler Bjorn(CAN) are in the lead with top three results. Olympic Champions Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR) are in second place with Xavier Rohart and Pierre-Alexis Ponsot (FRA) third.

After winning the first race, Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA) have retired from the event due to personal reasons.

Interview with Robert Scheidt

Video of Star racing day two

Third day.
The Semaine Olympique Francaise started early. With a pessimistic weather forecast predicting strong winds, the race committee had decided to start the day as early as possible to make the most of the sailable conditions. At 8am, all the sailors were ready to hit the water for their races scheduled at 9am. The Stars sailed only one race.

Report by Richard Clarke:
I thought I set my alarm incorrectly this morning as it was dark out when it went off, unfortunately it was correct and indeed it's dark at 6am. Luckily when I peered through the darkness there was only a hit of breeze so hopefully we did not wake up early in vane and the committee made a good call to race before the big winds. Sure enough when we got down to the site in the post dawn grey the winds were starting to pick up but still moderate enough to send us out for one windy race.

The toughest call of the day was when to leave the dock, our race course is the closest to shore and in strong winds we get there pretty quick. Normally we like 45 minutes of prep time before the first race of the day to get a handle of what the winds are doing and confirming our setup but when conditions are on the edge of sailable our sails deteriorate rapidly so we try to cut it a bit finer. We left the dock at 815 and blasted downwind to the course arriving 25 minutes before the race, just about perfect.

The race started in a little over 20 kts and actually died a bit as it went on. We had a solid start a few boats down from the boat, played the shifts nicely up the first beat to round the first mark in 4th. Some solid sailing down the run found us in 2nd nipping at the tail of our British training partners Percy and Simpson. We both stretch away from the fleet making it a 2-boat battle for the win. On the second lap they stretched their lead but a crewing error on the last lap saw their lead evaporate to one boat length down the final run. We drew even with them approaching the finish but they caught a little more of the last puff and surged ahead to take the bullet.

Second place was enough to keep us in first place overall and in the leaders yellow bibs. Tomorrow (Wednesday) forecast is for lighter breeze and 3 races, looking forward to it.

Fourth day:
Different skills were tested today with light and shifty winds on the race course. Few leaders could maintain their position while others collected high points.

After three races in the Star and two won by Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR), the British take the first position from Canadians Richard Clarke and Tyler Bjorn. The Swedish team of Loof/Salminen won the last race of the day to be in third overall.

"We had a mixed bag - I guess overall it was a good day." explains Percy. "We won two races but we should have won three - we certainly had the speed but it got very patchy and light in the last race and we just got a bit unlucky on the last run and a group of three boats got past us which made it a little bit frustrating to end like that. Overall, the good news is we're really fast upwind - we're struggling a little downwind which is unusual for us but we're really fast upwind and that's a nice place to be after a couple of years of not having that."

Fifth day: The Star race was a survival operation with 13 boats retiring from the race. Just one race as the conditions were too windy to continue on the water. Clarke/Bjorn broke the forestay on the way to the race course but saved the rig and managed to fix it, completing the race. Olympic Champions Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR), broke their mast while in the lead. They are still leading the regatta with Swedish Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen climbing to second and Canadians Richard Clarke and Tyler Bjorn third. The race was won by the French team of Xavier Rohart and Pierre-Alexis Ponsot in fourth position.

The forecast for the last day of racing in Hyères is for very strong winds that could compromise the medal races.

Sixth day:
A windy medal race concluded the 44th Semaine Olympique Française. After breaking their mast yesterday, the Olympic champions Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR) won the medal race by 1 min 20 seconds and the event. Bacardi Cup winners Xavier Rohart and Pierre-Alexis Ponsot take second in the Medal race and the second position, consistent with their Palma results. Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen (SWE) placed third. The Stars are staying in Hyères to train ahead of their World Championship next week.