Silver In Hyeres
The 43rd 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 2nd 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.
In the finals, we were seeded against the Brits. We were sent further off shore because all the other medal races were taking place close to shore. We were delayed for about half an hour and then the breeze started to fill in. In our first race, we had a very big split and came together very even before a large right shift came in and made the course a one way track. We rounded behind and did not have an opportunity to catch up. In race two, we had a spilt start but shortly after the start we tacked at each other and we dialed her down and got a penalty. She then took the lead and we could not catch up. In race three, we were leading until half way down the run when we let her cross behind us and she was able to pass us at the leeward mark, thus winning the race and the series. We were a little disappointed about how the finals turned out, but we sailed a great event and are happy with our result.
We would like to thank the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics and our coach Dave Perry.
Next up we have the USSTAG May Qualifier in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
