Above: Frances Beebe and coach Carolijn Brouwer.

The European Championships were held in Kastela. Day one was frustrating, with no races completed despite a few hours of promising breeze. The race committee held out for a sea breeze to develop, but unfortunately it never arrived. Thankfully, after the opening day, the race committee worked hard to recover the schedule, and we completed five of the six qualifying races. A strong qualifying series saw me head into gold fleet in 25th place, making it only my second time reaching gold fleet at senior level.

First day of gold fleet was particularly tough, with a building sea breeze creating a very one-sided track. Recovery became almost impossible if you didn’t get the first upwind leg right, and I came away with scores of 50, 24 and 50.

Second day of gold fleet brought more frustration. We were sent out and barely made it to the race course before being sent back in due to possible approaching storm conditions, leaving us with no racing for the day.

Day six was a much more positive finish to the regatta. We raced in an offshore breeze with strong mountain influence, which created very shifty and challenging conditions. It made for exciting racing, and I was happy to finish the day with results of 13, 30 and 20.

I finished the regatta 31st overall out of 120 ILCA 6 women. I was really pleased to be racing amongst some of the top sailors in the fleet and to put together some strong moments across the regatta.

This event provided valuable racing experience and has given me even more motivation heading into my two major events later this year: the LA World Cup and the World Championships.

I’m incredibly lucky to have had such a strong team supporting me in the lead-up to this regatta, including RQYS, both Carolijn Brouwer and Dan Slater who coached me in Croatia, Ash Brunning, Adrian Finglas, Craig Colduck, and of course my wonderful parents.