Nicolas Huguet, Vice-World Champion 2017 Raceboard

 

Nicolas, two-time reigning European champion, runner-up at the 2017 World Championship in Salou(website)! You're undoubtedly the French benchmark in men's raceboarding. You've just had a superb World Championship, where you were the only one to tease Ivan Pastor all the way to the finish, and also the only one to be able to take 3 heats from him in a championship for a long time. You were not far from achieving the ultimate performance.

Satisfied in spite of everything?

I'm very satisfied with this championship because I managed to set up my tactical game without ever being hampered by my speed, although I missed a few starts, particularly on my ^7th place run. For my^2nd Mondial (the previous one was in Blanes in 2014: 3rd), I arrived rather uncertain about my state of fitness but confident about my equipment, which was confirmed throughout the regatta. I feel like I've progressed throughout the championship!

Can we really think that with a little more wind it would have been even more playable, like the last 4 windy rounds where you scored the same number of points as Ivan Pastor?

I don't really know, but the last few runs were also very tactical and that's where I made the difference with Ivan. I also had a very effective technique on the unplanned racks. We had a lot of contact phases, and when he tightened the marking when he was in front, it was complicated for me because he has a physical reserve that I don't have, even if it makes less difference on the Raceboard rack. But I would have liked to have had some good runs set at 15 knots to see what I was worth in terms of fleet speed, because there were other serious clients!

You chose to use the daggerboard for which you are participating in development as part of a collaboration between Gasoil Fins and France Raceboard*. Even though it was barely unmolded, you quickly decided to race the entire championship with it. Can you tell us more about this drift and your choice? What do you think is the final version?

Yes, it's a real nice surprise! I did a training session the day before the championship with this daggerboard, which confirmed the good feelings I'd had in Marseille. It's a successful first proto that allows easy acceleration and control, while preserving sufficient leverage in light winds. Its characteristics include a fine profile, a maximum thickness set back from the original daggerboard and it's rather stiff. It's fully operational in its current version, but I do have a few ideas for its further development J

I'm happy with my equipment in terms of rig and float, but the appendages are a real performance lever for me, and it's great that Gasoil and France Raceboard have teamed up on this great project.

Overall, we had the impression of a hotly contested championship in the top 15, although you and Ivan Pastor quickly pulled away. Your overall impressions?

Yes, we have the arrival of several "retired" Olympic athletes like Joao Rodrigues (7 Olympic appearances!! Portugal), Jorge Maciel (Spain) and Fernando Pasqualin (Brazil). What I find great is that it's a very good regatta! placement, exploitation of the wind etc... When you're on the wrong side of the wind, you see it straight away and it's punishing! In previous championships, it was less open.

There are also quite a few youngsters arriving, who will undoubtedly progress to consolidate the overall level.

The 2018 world title in your sights?

I don't see why not! We'll see how I juggle family, work and windsurfing! A problem encountered by quite a few competitors in the raceboard fleet 😉

What's certain is that I'll have to prepare a bit more if I want the title against Ivan, not to mention the potential return of other Olympic athletes! gear development is one area of work, and rider preparation another!

My windsurfing practice is multiform between wave, slalom, raceboard and now windfoil on which I will launch more seriously in August. So I need to be clear about my calendar and my 2018 deadlines to organize everything.

* project to eventually manufacture a daggerboard that is universal for all boards and affordable. The aim of this first phase of the project is to develop modern profiles, focusing on performance as the primary development criterion. Gasoil fins has developed a profile using CAD and produced an initial mold using CNC. The first prototype was released on June 14th and was used directly by Nicolas in Salou. France Raceboard Association provided financial support for this development phase.