Bronze at Miami OCR

We have just finished up the Rolex Miami Olympic Class Regatta. We were in Miami for two weeks leading up to the event. For the first week we trained with the British team. The second week we had a four day, five team series of round robins. The teams were from Great Britain, Finland, Netherlands, and Russia. It was a great warm up for the event. A big thank you goes out to the umpires who came down to help us - Mike, Peter, Debi, and David.

There is a new format for the World Cup events this year. Instead of being spilt into three groups, we are now spilt into two groups. We were seeded into the A group. We raced six races the first day and won them all. We had the second day of the event off and then finished up the round robin on the third day. We were seeded first out of our group with a record of 10-1.

In the quarterfinals, we were matched up against Tamara Echegoyen and her team from Spain in a first to three points series. There were a lot of close races but we ended up winning the series 3-0.

In December, we competed at the 4^th annual Carlos Aguilar Match Race Regatta in St. Thomas, USVI. We sailed in IC-24’s with a crew of five. Joining us for the regatta was Janel Zarkowsky and Benny Allen. The format was different this year than in years past. This year there was only an open division. There were thirteen open teams competing. After the round robin we were seeded second, with a record of 10-2.

In the quarterfinals we sailed against Stratis Andreadis from Greece. We won the first race and were leading the second until the final downwind where we spilt. From there he was able to win the race. We then won the next two races and the series sending us to the semi finals to race Taylor Canfield.

The semi finals were first to three points, and were sailed in very puffy and shifty conditions. It was a back and forth series. We would win a race then he would win a race. Taylor was able to tie the series at 2-2 and force a race 5. We stuck to our conservative plan and were able to win the series.

In the finals we faced Staffan Lindberg from Finland. We controlled him in the first three pre-starts, getting a few penalties on him. We won the first race but that was the only race we won. We lost the series 3-1. We were bummed about how the finals turned out but were happy with our overall performance. We would really like to thank Janel and Benny for sailing with us.

1^st at US Women’s Match Race Championship

We have just finished up the US Women’s Match Racing Championships held at the Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans. Since the event was held in J 22’s we had to add person to our team. Our ringer for the event was Amanda Callahan. She did the bow and kept us all in check. It was great having her there.

The first stage was a double round robin with the eight teams. We went 13-1 in this stage and were seeded first into the semi finals. In the semi finals we were paired up against Kaity Storck and team in a first to 3 points series. We won the series 3-0, and moved on to face Genny Tulloch in the finals. The racing in the finals was tight. We won the first race, she won the second race, we won the third race, and she won the fourth race, so it came down to race five. She led us off the line by about 4 lengths. It was very shifty so we played the shifts and caught up to about 2 lengths behind on the first beat. At about this time we realized that she was on the layline sailing to the wrong mark. We followed her to the wrong mark until we were well above the layline to the correct mark. We tacked and sailed to the correct mark, she rounded the wrong mark. She led us into the leeward mark and we did two tacks and we spilt with her.   We led her around the next windward mark and went on to win the race and the regatta.

We would like to thank Southern Yacht Club for putting on a great event, Kyle Smith for housing and entertaining us, and the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics for all their support.

3^rd at US Trials Part 1

Last week we competed in the first phase of our US Olympic Trials. The event was hosted by the Key Biscayne Yacht Club. There were eight teams at the event. We sailed a double round robin before the top four moved on to stage 2. The top four from this event will compete in the second part of the trials in May 2012 in Weymouth, England. We finished the double round robin 11-3, which seeded us second, and qualified us for the second part of the trials.

In the semi finals we sailed Anna Tunnicliffe and team in a first to four points series. We sailed the first three races on Friday. We had even starts in all three of those races and rounded right behind her in the first two. In the first two races, we gained on the downwinds and put ourselves in a position to pass her. We got in a gybing duel and were able to pass her and win the first two races. In the third race, the positions were reversed. On the last downwind we were in a good spot but did not have luffing rights and got a penalty for sailing above our proper course.

The Knickerbocker Cup was cut short due to Hurricane Irene, but we did manage to get in two full days of racing. The event was sailed in Swedish Match 40’s and required 5 people, so we added one of our USSTAG teammate’s Trevor Moore as trimmer and Tom Loughbrough as bow.

We started out day one with a bang. We raced the number one seed, Laurie Jury in race one. We were leading him up the first leg and then got a penalty for tacking too close. We maintained our lead and held him past the windward mark. At one point we thought we could take our penalty, but were mistaken and hit his stern in the process. We got rid of our initial penalty but gained another one. We set our spinnaker and were charging towards him. He did not set his spinnaker due to damage. Once we caught up to him we were given another penalty, so we had to take one penalty immediately. After that he was able to beat us to the finish. We ended up 4-1 on day one.

We have just finished up the Olympic Test Event, also known as the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta. This regatta was different from our world cup events because there were only twelve teams, so we were not seeded into groups. Instead we did a full round robin over three days. We finished the round robin at 7-4. That put us sixth going into the quarterfinals.

In the quarterfinals, we were seeded against Mandy Mulder and her team from Holland, in the first to three point series. We took an early 2-0 lead and then stumbled on the last downwind legs of the next two races allowing her to even up the score 2-2. In the fifth and final match, we got a penalty in the prestart. We led her off the line and held her well past layline. We realized we did not have enough space to complete our penalty, so we continued racing. On the next upwind leg, we had gained a little more and thought about spinning at the windward mark. Sally was all for it but the wise Elizabeth and Alana would not allow it. We instead drew her in downwind and we were able to come at her on starboard tack and do our penalty. She was initially ahead of us but on the long starboard gybe to the finish we were able to roll her and reached to the finish.

We have just finished up the sixth stop on the World Cup Tour in Weymouth England, at Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta. We were seeded into Group A for the first two days of racing. After being over early in the first race we regrouped and finished 5-2, meaning we were second in our group and qualified for the Gold Round.

On day three, our course was moved inside the breakwall where it was windier with more waves. We only managed to do two of the three scheduled races due to boats breaking. We won our two races and called it a day. Day four we sailed the remaining three races of Gold and won them all. Winning the round with an undefeated record of 5-0.

Day five was a long day. We left the dock at 9am and came in around 5:30pm. First up were the quarterfinals. We were seeded against Silja Lehtinen from Finland. The day began with a lighter and shiftier breeze. In the first race, the Finnish started right to windward of us near the pin. We were in a pretty large left shift so when we matched her tack it was the long tack and we struggled to hold. She rounded ahead, we caught up but it wasn’t enough to pass her. We adjusted our strategy a little after that and made sure we were using our fleet racing skills as well as our match racing skills. We won the next three races by starting well and sailing the shifts.

Last week in Sheboygan, Wisconsin we had a two day clinic and a three day US Sailing Team qualifier. The first day of the clinic we did a lot of speed testing. On day two, we got back in to our match racing drills. Thanks to Dave Perry for running the clinic.

On the first day of the regatta, comprised of four teams, we were scheduled to complete two of the scheduled four round robins. Due to fog we were only able to get one of the rounds completed. We won all three of our races. Day two again began with fog. It was decided that we would drop the fourth round robin and begin with the semi finals. We completed the round robins undefeated and selected the fourth seed Becca Dellenbaugh in the semi finals, first to two points. We won the series to advance to the finals against Anna Tunnicliffe.

The first to two points finals were sailed in 25+ knots and five-foot waves. We had some pre race issues that resulted in our boat being full of water. We were pressed for time and unable to get all of our pre race homework completed. In race one, we started behind and could not catch up.

Silver In Hyeres

The 43^rd French Olympic Sailing Week began on Easter Sunday.  We were seeded into the A group and were first up to sail.  We sailed three races and won them all.  Our second race of day one was against the Finnish team that we faced in the finals in Palma.   We were the third group to sail on day 2.  We went 2-2 for that day, to put us at 5-2 for our group, which seeded us into the Gold group.

In the Gold group we went 4-1.  Our only loss was to Lucy Macgregor and her British team.  There was a three-way tie and we ended up 2^nd in gold.  In the quarterfinals we were seeded against the French team, Anne Claire Le Berre in a best of five series.  In all of our races, we executed our plan well and were able to win the series 3-0.  Next, we faced Renee Groeneveld from the Netherlands.  The breeze picked up a little as did the chop, as most of the other courses were coming in for the day.  We stuck to our same game plan and were able to get the starts we wanted and the side we wanted.  We won the series 3-0.

The Princess Sofia Regatta started off with us seeded into the B group.  We began sailing in the middle of the day on Monday with the breeze blowing from the East over 20 knots, gusting to 29.   We sailed our three races and called it a day.  We ended up winning our group with a record of 7-0 and moved onto the Gold Round Robin to determine seeding for the quarterfinals.  In the Gold round, we struggled with our starts and ended up with a record of 1-4.  We finished 5th in the Gold Round and were seeded against the British Team for the quarterfinals best of five series.

In the quarters, we managed to get our moneys worth and took it to five races.   We really focused on improving on starts and our downwind strategy.

In the Semi Finals, we raced against our USSTAG teammates Anna Tunnicliffe, Molly Vandemoer, and Debbie Capozzi.  The first team to win three races would advance to the Finals. The racing against them was tight and heated.  Going into the fifth and final race, we had two wins and Team Tunnicliffe had two wins.  In the final race, we rounded barely ahead on the last leg of the race course.  We matched the other team gybe for gybe.  Towards the finish we split off for the favored end and won the race, advancing into the finals.