Mariquita Book - mk2.5

Secondly, in all my years of racing I’ve never come up against anyone quite like Mikaël Créac’h.
That Breton heritage of fishing and sailing on gaff-rigged boats, with all their traditional type rigs,
permeates through in everything he does. It’s in his blood. You can see it from the moment he
takes the helm in the morning. He has vast experience of how to get these heavy hulls to go fast
… sailing them ‘full and by’ making best speed to weather by keeping the sails full – coming out
of the tacks deep to overcome the extra weight of the hulls … going beneath his course so he can
get the boat speed to build. The sheer amount of time and experience Mik has had on the water
gives him a big advantage.
Therefore, before we beat him on the water we needed to win the mental battle. The way to do
that was to show no fear or weakness. More importantly we needed to dominate the start lines.
If we could get off the start line first we could keep Mik beneath us. Keep him pinned in so we
could get away.
John Caulcutt
116