Giles Scott is back ploughing a lone furrow on the water but he insists he has missed the Finn as he gets going at the fifth and final leg of the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup in La Rochelle.
The 26-year-old last sailed in a competitive Finn class back in the spring, clinching gold then silver at the Palma and Hyeres World Cup regattas respectively before turning his attentions onto the America’s Cup.
He formed part of the Italian Luna Rossa team, which was beaten by Emirates Team New Zealand in the Louis Vuitton Cup final for the right to challenge Oracle Team USA in the America’s Cup.
Scott has returned for the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup finale in France however and proved he hasn’t lost his touch as he sat second overall after a fifth and a first from the opening two races.
And Scott, who won the Finn Gold Cup, the class’ World Championship title in December 2011, is welcoming being back on the water individually as he builds towards further solo efforts in 2014.
“I’ve missed Finn sailing. It’s nice to be back and looking after myself a bit I suppose,” said Scott. “I’m having to steer a boat, call the tactics, provide the grunt and do it all on my own.
“But it’s nice to be back in the Finn for sure – although I’m sure I’ll soon start missing the other side of things as well.
“I’ve done seven days training in the Finn in the past two weeks since I’ve been back which has been good. The hardest thing has been working my legs; I haven’t done anything on them for almost a year so they are in agony.
“I’ll be using La Rochelle to find out where I am at, what needs to be focused on and what doesn’t need to be focused on if there is anything. Then it’s just a case of putting together a decent plan for next year which has been started.
“But it’s difficult to say what exactly needs to be done when I haven’t been in the boat for six months and the time I was in the boat it was only for four weeks, so I sort of need to let myself settle back in a bit.”
© Sportsbeat 2013