Peter Cope Winter Waszp Update
Peter Cope shares his experience competing in Barcelona in December and is excited to get back to sailing in 2025.
I competed in the second round of the Barcelona Winter Series Waszp regattas in mid-December. I arrived on Wednesday lunchtime where I then travelled along the beautiful seafront to the yacht club, greeted by a lot of rain to really make me feel at home.
I had a quick sail and then went and found my accommodation in the centre of Barcelona just off the famous ‘La Rambla’ street. On day 2 the wind was in strong with big waves, I went out for a sail it was extremely sendy*, however after coming over a particularly large wave my wing broke leaving me stranded in the water - big thanks to the French coach who rescued me and took me ashore! The rest of the day was spent repairing the boat in preparation for the first day of racing.
Race day came along with beautiful Mediterranean conditions but unfortunately no wind, we launched and it was lovely to be out on the sea however we couldn’t race. For the next race day we launched at sunrise to catch the morning breeze. It was super challenging conditions with really patchy pressure causing big changes in positions. I sailed well to leave myself in second place - we then all went out for dinner and had a lovely evening.
For the third and final race day we launched early again, I sailed well and I was really happy to pick up a win in the second race of the day and sailed well again to finish second overall, a very good way to end the year!
I am now home on the island over the Christmas and New Year’s break and then it’ll be back to training and hopefully I will be able to go out to Barcelona for the third and fourth regattas of the winter series as well.
* A term used when the conditions are quite extreme.