TIMO MULLEN
These days the Gwithian contest is normally the only contest I do all year and I really look forward to it. I built a house at Gwithian about 3 years ago and as I work in Cornwall I spend a lot of time down there now, so it is an event that I love competing in. The one thing you have to remember about contests is that you have to be prepared for anything. That preparation has to be mental and physical, but almost as important is being prepared with all the correct equipment. For sure all the pro sailors would love to turn up to pumping side offshore Gwithian, but Mother Nature invariably will have a different plan come contest day! Probably the worst possible direction for any of the Gwithian beaches is a NNW wind, so it was Murphy’s Law that we had this forecast for the entire weekend! It basically means the only beach with any angle is the Bluff. Now when I say an angle, I mean it was just about port tack jumping, I heard the term Starport jumping used quite a bit that day!
As with any contest though the conditions, however tough, are the same for everyone, so you have to mentally prepare for the whole day and draw together the positives. For me going out with that positive attitude is my number one tip, my outlook on the contest conditions were that already I was gaining 2 bonus days on the water, as normally I would not sail on the this coast in this direction, so I was super excited to get out there and see what was possible. It is as much of a challenge to sail these sort of conditions well as it is to sail pumping hollow waves.
