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Star Campaign Final Report: 2011 in Review
December 29th, 2011 in Regattas, General.
The strange thing about Olympic campaigns is that nobody tells you how to end them. I’ve been lucky enough to both win and lose an Olympic campaign. Both endings have similar reality: “What are we going to do now?” That’s the last step in a process that started many years ago. A lot has changed since 2001 when I was a seventeen-year-old kid on the US Sailing Team for the first time. Ten years in the Laser and the Star have shaped my sailing career in ways I never could have imagined. Its hard to believe that this was my fourth Olympic trials since 2000 in San Francisco bay. In the most recent case, we had a very competitive trials with three strong teams that each could have won the Olympic berth if they had a great regatta this past month in Fremantle. Only the Star and the Laser really had that depth on the American team this year. We prepared as well as anybody could have for our trials:
Ian and I spent more than 110 days on the water together in the Star and close to 100 more each racing with other boats. In the last year alone we traveled to Miami four times for three training camps and two regattas; Miami OCR and Bacardi Cup. We made four trips to and from Europe: to Palma, Spain; to Hyeres, France; to Weymouth, England; and to Dublin, Ireland. We went to Fremantle, Australia before Thanksgiving to get ready for the Worlds in Australia. That’s about 60,000 air miles each for the Olympic circuit alone.
We fundraised hard to travel and race as well as commission a new boat from P Star in Michigan in August 2010 to prepare us for the final stretch of the effort. This year we budgeted and spent more than $120,000, half of which needed to be fundraised outside of the USOC direct athlete funding. We had four donors of five figures this year and close to a hundred others ranging from $25 to $5,000. Each of them has played a critical role in our success. The CISA Foundation and the San Diego Yacht Club Sailing Foundation were each outstanding partners in helping facilitate those donations. The Annapolis Yacht Club Sailing foundation of Ian’s home club were also very supportive in 2011.
The support of a number of key sponsors, both monetarily and through product assistance, also helped us keep our budget within reason. Sperry Top-Sider has supported our team above and beyond their commitment to the US Sailing Team Alphagraphics and we’ve enjoyed working together on product development of their new GripX3 hiking boots and deckshoes. North Sails One Design was a major factor in our success, helping us develop sails that we knew could perform at the highest level through the range of conditions. When we needed specific sails for specific locations, they had the insight to help us develop sails that would give us a shot to win. Kaenon Polarized has been keeping my eyes protected and helping me see the breeze on the water since I first joined the US team in 2001. Harken was instrumental in rigging our new boat last year, continued it’s support, and developed products that kept us on the racecourse instead at the dock doing boatwork. McLube not only provided us with spray dry lubricant, but was also very helpful in minimizing the time we spent diving the bottom of the boat thanks to their newly developed HullKote Speed Polish.
I began racing with Ian Coleman in early 2011 and our World Ranking climbed from finishes consistently in the top 10 to a strong 4th as we headed down to the Worlds this past month. I would be remiss if I didn’t give thanks to the hard work of Brad Nichol, my crew in the first few years of my star sailing, and Magnus Liljedahl, who helped me get serious attention from the US Sailing Team Alphagraphics in 2009 and 2010 when I jumped into the Star class out of the Laser.
Mark Ivey helped us come a long way in the first two years of the US Star Team’s campaign, coaching us to 1st and 5th place finishes at the worlds in 2009 and Leandro Spina helped us continue on a consistent track of improvement in the third year of this quadrennium. Our time in Miami this winter helped Ian and I break down our maneuvering to a point where we never got one wrong in the final few events of the season. Our speed tuning and testing as a team were the reason we had four US teams ranked in the top 20 in the world in 2011.
We spent countless hours in the gym with Harry Legum at Annapolis Sailing Fitness, with the Georgetown University Varsity Strength and Conditioning staff, and with Chris Herrera in Miami at Bow Down Training. I can’t speak for Ian, but I know he put on 15 pounds and improved his fitness immensely from our March testing to our October testing, which both took place at the USOTC in Colorado Springs. After losing nearly 20 pounds to get down to 165lbs for my Olympic regatta in Beijing in 2008, I carefully put 30lbs back on to transition into the Star.
In the end it came down to two regattas in Weymouth and Fremantle this year. We knew the system and the consequences. We felt like we had a strong chance in the big breeze. The tuning leading into the regatta had been improving our 15-25 knot sailing. Our final few months of training prepared us well for that condition. At no point did we think we had given away our speed in sub-15 knot conditions. In Fremantle, we ended up having a few key situations that would have drastically changed how our final result turned out. The breeze shifted wrong for us a few times in ways that made us scratch our heads. I always preach making high percentage decisions on the racecourse and this regatta ended up being one where the other percentage worked out a few times too often. Things did not go our way. Looking back on it, I would race the regatta the same way again if we were staring anew. I think 8 times out of 10 we would be top ten at big events. At 8 big regattas out of 10 we were top 10 this year and beat our tough US competitors. Unfortunately the 2 out of 10 events that we needed to, we didn’t. I don’t think it was nerves or pressure, it was just the way the cards were dealt. We approached those two events with the same intensity and focus that we had all season. The success of our season gives me confidence that we approached those two events correctly. I am glad that we were able to perform well enough to qualify the country for the Olympics, any of three American teams could have done that. There are some strong teams from other countires still looking to secure their country’s berth. I want to congratulate Brian and Mark for the outstanding regatta they had in Fremantle. I hope that is indicative of how they can perform at the Olympics.
Let me take one moment to thank my wife Jacqueline for her unrivaled support, keeping me focused on what I needed to do to win and helping me have a ton of fun during the process. My entire family has been unbelievably supportive not only in their time and advice. They have all been a sounding board for ideas and have also watched from the wings as sailing has taken me places in the sport that they knew I could go and beyond. They are an inspiration to my sailing. Thanks to them, I have a complete understanding of how to approach and win at the top end of the sport, but also know how to have fun on the water with the people I love most. Sailing with my family is an experience unlike any other, just ask anybody who’s done it! They keep the pressure on while racing and smile about it afterwards. I can’t thank them enough for showing me the way the sport should be played.
So that leaves us with what?… The Star Class at the moment has been removed from the 2016 Olympic class list. It’s hard to believe that I’ve spent 10 years on the Olympic sailing circuit when I wasn’t going to school. The next step for now will be committing myself to professional sailing and coaching. I am looking forward to continuing to coach and sail on the match racing circuit and big boat circuits. Hopefully there is more small boat sailing in the future as well.
When I first started this weblog it was meant as a point of contact for my family, friends and donors. I could give them updates on my sailing and they could live my journey with me as I traveled around the world racing Lasers and more boats than I can think of off the top of my head. I briefly had a Monday Morning Tactician column that would break down racing situations for readers to digest and discuss, and hopefully develop a new perspective on tactical sailboat racing. This weblog has surprised me, to say the least. I’ve been invited to help with rules committees, write articles and talk at yacht clubs and clinics based solely on ideas that I’ve written about here. How lucky I am to be given the opportunity to give back to the sport I love. We’ve had as many as 5,000 views a week and averaged close to 2,000 during regattas. It still shocks me to see 500 viewers on an off-sailing week, and inspires me to get going and put something new and valid up on the website. I wish there was a way that I could repay all of your support and attention. I will do my best to refresh this website to talk about any sailing that I am doing in the future. Likewise I will be making an effort to re-start the Monday Morning Tactician column to hopefully provoke some more discussions about tactical sailboat racing and anything else that comes to mind about our great game.
Please check back, because there will be more to come from www.CampbellSailing.com.
Also check out the twitter feed @campbellsailing
14th at 2011 Star Worlds - Final Update to Come
December 18th, 2011 in Regattas.
Friday finally had a decent and steady seabreeze fill across Gage Roads and onto the Star course. Ian and I needed a couple miracles to make a push into the top ten and make any last shot at the Olympic berth. We had a good day, all things considered. But not good enough to break into the top 10 overall. We sailed most of both races in the top 15 fighting our way into the top ten in the first race briefly but finishing 13th. In race two we were in good shape coming into the first weather mark, approaching from the starboard layline, but got mauled by the crowd charging in from the left. Three boats tacked too close to us at the weather mark instead of ducking and crashed us up into the Japanese team to windward of us cracking our starboard transom. Then, as we were stalled trying to keep our rig off the boats to leeward, our teammates Andy Horton and John von Schwartz crash-tacked into our port rail about a foot from the transom giving us a 5 inch gash on the port transom. We were in no danger, but the boat was no longer in perfect condition, nor were we in the same position as we had entered the weather mark. We fought to get back into the top 20 and finished 18th. Honestly the holing put an exclamation point on a really tough week of sailing. Nothing really went our way and we never quite got into the groove we knew we had if the conditions had been a little steadier. As all sailors know, sometimes its your week and other times its not. This was not our week. I must congratulate Mark and Brian for sailing a fantastic series and showing the world that they are capable sailors to represent the US on the water in the Star class. It has been a tough season racing with George Szabo and Mark Strube, Andy Horton, Rick Merriman, John von Schwartz, Phil Trinter and James Lyne, under the watchful eyes of coach Leandro Spina. I am confident that all those sailors and Ian and myself have competed with a mutual respect for each other and competitive spirit that has made the US team one to be taken very seriously on the racecourse.
I will have a final report on this week as we travel back to the US before the Christmas holiday at
www.campbellsailing.com”>www.CampbellSailing.com.
Results: http://www.perth2011.com/competition/PERTH2011/SAM007000/results
Also check out the twitter feed @campbellsailing
The Fremantle Doctor is a not a real Doctor…
December 14th, 2011 in Regattas.
Ian and I talked on the way in from yesterday’s racing and commented about how differently we had pictured the regatta going than it has to this point. We’ve had a few glaring mistakes and more than our fair share of bad luck. The reality is that sometimes it’s your week and sometimes its not. At the European Championships this fall our friends Diego and Enrico from Italy, the current World Ranked #1 team, had the sailing gods seemingly guiding them to the perfect regatta. They were in the right places at the right times. This week, in very similar conditions, they are struggling to find their way into the top 10. While other boats can’t seem to find their way out of it.
Ian and I are left scratching our heads after some races. Yesterday we sailed a great first race in what seemed to be a building seabreeze. Finally the sun was shining and the Southwesterly was filling in across Gage Roads. We had a good start on the left end of the line and pressed into the left. It didn’t pay off like we wanted it to, but enough that we could round with the top group of 10 or 11 boats. We made a few gains here and there in the oscillating breeze, until the final run. We split to the course left of the group and watched helplessly as the wind started to die and shift left. This would normally be a big gain to boats in our position as we would just get headed into the finish line and reach over boats on the right that now were tight reaching to the finish. Instead 10 boats surged in the last fingers of the seabreeze towards the finish as we wallowed in the first part of the conversion zone as the easterly filled back in. We finished 20th. The scores don’t even do justice for the frustration and elation going on around the course. The leaders had sailed tight reached into the finish. We were lucky to finish with any breeze and then watched the back end of the fleet sit becalmed in 3 foot chop with their sails slapping them in the face as they drifted across the line. Remember, this race had been started in 12 knots of an apparently building seabreeze.
We sat for about an hour as the sky went overcast and the face of the day changed drastically. Our race committee moved about a half mile closer to shore to try and get set up better in the new breeze that was slowly filling from about 70 degrees left of the first race. After two general recalls, we finally got off under the threat of a black flag. Ian and I paced into the left figuring that the shoreline would be spilling off lefty puffs. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The first shift off the line was a lefty. We took that for a short while, but were quickly pushed back toward the left as a long right hand shift pulsed in to finish the leg. It was ugly, but we stayed committed to the left considering that the day had been crazy already. For that commitment we paid dearly and rounded about 35th. Luckily there is lots of room to play with downwind shifts in the back of the pack and we did our best to slice and dice down the first run, got into a few nice righties on the second beat and rounded in the mid twenties at the next windward mark. We set low behind a nice group of boats and finished overlapped with the 10-14 place boats to take a hard-fought 15th.
Heading into Thursday’s lay-day, that’s where we sit: 17th overall, in a three way tie for 15th. Somehow we’re only 12 points out of medal race contention. That will be our goal for Friday. We need to find a way to redeem ourselves after a ghastly week of sailing. Redemption Day is Friday.
Results and other information can be found at Perth2011.com.
More to come from www.CampbellSailing.com.
Also check out the twitter feed @campbellsailing
Boat’s in the Water. Racing tomorrow
December 10th, 2011 in Regattas.
We spent yesterday measuring, buffing the boat and going out for a short sail. Here’s a photo of us tuning up with our German buddies, Misters Polgar and Koy:
Photo: Leandro Spina
We’ve put on our bow numbers for the regatta. We’re happy to have the #04 on the bow. We’ll have to work hard to hold up our end of the bargain and one-up our ranking. The boat weighed in a little heavy, but better than a little light. We had to shorten one mast by a smidge, but everything else went without too much trouble. Sail measurement went without a hitch. Ian and my weigh-ins will be happening every morning before we head sailing at the Annexe. The boats are currently moored in the water along the breakwater behind the Royal Perth YC Annexe. We’ve been joking that the grandstands to watch the Centre Course should be turned around to watch our mooring and docking area for the morning. It’s going to be virtually impossible to get in and out under sail. We’ll be avoiding the sharks while swimming on the boat bottoms in the mornings too! We’ll let you know how that goes.
Racing starts tomorrow at 1230pm on Leighton Course, to the north of the Swan River mouth on the Gage Roads. The conditions seem like they will be classic Fremantle conditions.
We will let you know updating here at www.CampbellSailing.com.
Also check out the twitter feed @campbellsailing.
Star class reps will be tweeting @ISCYRA.
The regatta live blog is perth2011.com/live-blog.
Results will be found here: http://www.perth2011.com/competition/PERTH2011/SAM007000/results
Meanwhile you can cheer on Paige in her medal race tomorrow.
Bitter End Yacht Club Pro Am Report
November 7th, 2011 in Travel, Regattas.
Only a week ahead of the 2011 Bitter End Pro Am, Ian and I were pushing ourselves through two weeks of training on the cooling Chesapeake Bay. We were meant to pack up the boat and take the next couple weeks easy, off the water and in the gym, when I got word from the BVI that they needed another sailor to fit the role of a Pro for their annual event. How could I do anything but jump at the opportunity to sail at the much acclaimed event? With such short notice I was skeptical that I could make it work, but some creative planning and it was a go. This year’s list of invited professionals presented a great field: Ed Baird, Dave Ullman, Peter Holmberg, Zach Railey and Anna Tunnecliffe Funk. Their experience with the event in year’s past gave me a lot of brains to pick about how to approach the racing and the regatta. What a better group to be able to go racing against?
The concept of the Bitter End YC Pro Am is primarily for sailors to have a great time on the water. The location is simply unparalleled at the northern tip of Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. Tropical easterlies are common in early November and the heat is tempered by a quick dip in the clear water all around. Guests can only arrive to the hotel via water, which sets the tone of the week. The Bitter End Yacht Club is an incredible hotel that has used the event to attract sailors from all over the US and around the world with its fantastic assortment of watersports and outdoors activities. They have what seems like an endless supply of options for sailing (racing or not), windsurfing, kayaking, paddle boarding, snorkleing and more available to all the guests of the hotel. The Pro Am Regatta is a promotion that allows all the guests of the hotel to race with some of the top professionals in the sport, whether they came down to specifically take part in the regatta or just happened to be on holiday. This set up a great variety of experience and generally unbelievable enthusiasm for each and every day’s racing. Racing open cockpit J24s called IC24s makes the boathandling a piece of cake and allows experienced sailors to be comfortable as well as first timers to get a quick handle on the sport. I sailed with close to thirty people through the course of the regatta switching crews in just about every race. I can’t think of one moment where my companions weren’t without a smile on their faces enjoying the sport of sailing. What a great thing! Because of the varied experience levels we could be having multiple conversations at once: sometimes taking about sailboat racing strategy, sometimes talking about weather, telling old stories about the other pros, teaching basic sailing concepts. It was all fair game!
I could certainly go into the specifics of the racing, but I’ll let the curmudgeon talk about that in his reports: www.sailingscuttlebutt.com. He’s probably got a better idea of the details anyway. The first day of sailing is racing in the dinghies. Day two is an IC24 “distance” race to a strange part of the island where massive boulders have piled up along the beach called The Baths. We race back upwind in the afternoon. Tuesday through Friday is IC24 fleetracing consisting of both intense and really fun one-design short course racing. Friday afternoon is the title-fight pairing the leaders up into match racing for a really exciting finish. We had a great week, finishing second to Ed Baird in the fleet racing, and I had to run on Friday afternoon so I unfortunately had to bail out on match racing. What a great event though. I can certainly recommend the regatta to anybody interested in putting in a lot of hours on the water while still enjoying an amazing time away from it all. Also many thanks to BEYC and the regatta organizers for the invitation. I look forward to racing with you all again!
Next on the calendar are a few days here in DC, followed by a few more in San Diego. Then we’re off to Australia to prep for the Worlds. I’ll be updating both here on www.CampbellSailing.com as well as on Twitter. We’re going to be putting up loads of photo and video content from our adventure down under so stay tuned!
Thanks to our sponsors:
Hinman Trophy 2011, Houston YC
October 3rd, 2011 in Regattas.
The annual US Team Racing Championship for the Hinman Trophy is always a fun event to try and put on my schedule. The regatta is a great way to stay in touch with former college sailors and the teamrace-minded crowd is a different breed. The game seems very complicated to some outsiders, but for those who know, and for most who have ever tried, it is hard to say “no” to a weekend of racing against top talent. Three on three racing makes match racing look exceedingly simple. Teamracing is a game of trust amongst your teammates, calculated playbook application, sometimes unbelievable feats of boathandling, and all the while, good sailing. The best teams are those who have the right combinations of speed, team race experience, and cohesion amongst their teammates. The beauty of teamracing is that pattern recognition and brains can often trump boathandling. That said, the fastest teams with the fewest mistakes will almost always win.
My friend and fellow Georgetown alum, Brian Bissell, asked me whether Jackie and I would want to race with him, Becky Nygren, high school phenom and SDYC sailor Nevin Snow, and College of Charleston Alum and recent Women’s College Sailor of the Year Allie Blecher. It was fitting that our team was named the “SoCal Luchadores” because we were akin to a band of Mexican wrestlers with our record-setting list of characteristics. We boasted the second-oldest sailor at the regatta (Brian), the youngest sailor at the regatta (Nevin) at 17, and the biggest sailor at the regatta (Me), weighing in at a whopping 192! We had the masks to prove our “Luchadores” status as well.
Houston Yacht Club is a great place to go sailing. The members and the facility make sailors feel welcome and Galveston bay rarely fails to provide good conditions. We had hot temperatures in the 80s and 90s, but clear skies and 10+ knots of steady breeze for the majority of the event made for good racing during most of the event. Fifteen teams sailed more than 150 races over the course of the weekend. Although the number seems high, it really averaged out to be a lot of shoreside time for the majority of teams.
Unfortunately, the organizers seemed a bit handcuffed by the boats and the format of the event. Fifteen teams is not significantly more than a normal Hinman, but the fleet of eighteen Vanguard-15s provided by Laser Performance was six fewer than years past. The boats they did provide, although brand new, leaked badly. Teams hauled the boats up on the docks and drained, often for a few minutes each time they rotated, about every half hour. One boat had to be replaced part way through the event by rotating in one of the hulls from the local fleet. Beyond the sinking fleet, the fact of the matter is that six boats are needed for each race, thus a fleet of eighteen can run three races simultaneously. This enabled a pace of about 8 races per hour. At any given time this weekend there were six teams on the water. That meant more than half the regatta, nine teams, were waiting on shore (Keep in mind that college regattas usually host eight teams per weekend, in eighteen boats, so six teams are on the water, with two teams waiting to be rotated in). Luckily for us, we started racing at 10am on Friday in the first set of boats, but there were teams that waited until close to 3pm on the first afternoon before they started their first race. We joked with other teams about their 27-hour break in racing. While I love racing the Hinman and HYC did a fabulous job of hosting the fleet of sailors, I cannot imagine that all the teams flying in from England and across America came away with a great impression of the regatta. Going into your first race after seven hours of waiting, only to get into boats containing as many gallons of water, takes away from what would have been ideal US Sailing Championship conditions. (more…)
2011 Star European Championship Report
September 12th, 2011 in Regattas.
Ian and I tune upwind back to RSGYC after racing
Photo: Leandro Spina
We arrived home from two weeks in Ireland yesterday to a warm and sunny United States. Two hurricanes have wreaked havoc on the east coast while we were gone. Yet, to some extent we felt some of both as we couldn’t race one day of the regatta because of the remnants of Irene and were jostled for a few hours on the plane yesterday thanks to Katia. The regatta was an all around success for the club and the class. Ian and I managed to make a small comeback on the final day of racing to take 9th in the event.
Though the regatta had a bumpy start thanks to three out of four days with gale force winds, the Royal St. George Yacht Club put on a wonderful event and completed their series on time against the elements and the odds. Spending time ashore during postponements actually allowed us to enjoy and explore the great facilities of the club. Its testimony to a good sailing club that one can welcome 60 or more large sailors from all over the world just to hang around and clog up the internet while nervously leering out the rain soaked windows at the gale outside. More than once club members expecting a leisurely Tuesday afternoon lunch and Guinness were quite surprised by the crowd of conspicuously oversized men speaking Ukrainian, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Scandanavian or American-english making good use of the house bar and dining rooms. In exploring the place we did get a chance to see an amazing history of the club dating back to an era when America was just a young country much less one with established yacht clubs. The neighborhood in Dun Laoghaire was a bustling suburb of Dublin lined with tall Georgian row-houses and the odd Irish palm frond. The place is well worth a visit if you ever get the chance. The club is renowned for their teamracing, Dragon and SB3 fleets. There are but a handful of Star sailors from the area, and their efforts to attract the fleet were hard fought. The membership could not have been more hospitable and accommodating to the sailors at the regatta. We used the facilities as if they were our own and are indebted to the locals’ efforts to host such an event. Although, the usual local response to bad weather tag-line “Geez, it’s never a gale for four days in a row!” was under serious suspicion from the sailors.
Because of the lack of a local fleet, the regatta was somewhat of a smaller fleet of 28 boats, especially when compared to last year’s class record of 132. But the smaller fleet did allow for close racing and an outstanding opportunity for Ian and I to tune our P-Star one more time before shipping it Australia. George Szabo and Mark Strube were the only other boat from the US at the event so we were able to get some good testing and training in with those guys under lens of coach Leandro Spina.
Ian and I just couldn’t buy a break at the outset of the regatta. We had great speed, probably some of the best of the season in 15-25 knots of breeze, but keep getting hung out on the wrong side of the course in shifty offshore conditions. We kept rounding out the back end of the top group in the middle of the pack. Fortunately the breaks started coming our way in the second half of the event. We had three top fives in the last four races and were about the fourth best team over the last two days. That was a big improvement on the scoreboard after being about 15th what seemed like all week. Sometimes the breaks come late in the series, and we came away from the event with a strong feeling that we got some great experiments over with and finished the event well, with a decent result to show for it.
These next couple months will be very important for the success of our campaign as we ramp up towards the World Championships in Perth in December. This event has been a good stepping stone with our equipment to prepare us for how to train between now and then. But we are glad to be back from a cold season in Europe. We traveled back and forth for 4 regattas including a 6th at Palma, 6th in Hyeres, 15th in Weymouth and now 9th in Ireland. It sure will be nice to race in some warm water for the fall here in the States!
As you may have noticed, I experimented with a more live-update style via twitter during the regatta to augment my regular website updates with short notes and photos from the regatta scene. I know that regatta and club live updates are becoming a better and better way to watch and get the inside scoop about regattas as they happen. I’ll try and continue to do that in the future as well. Check out @CampbellSailing if you’re so inclined.
More to come from www.CampbellSailing.com.
Thanks to our sponsors:
Princes and Senators, Ireland Upcoming
August 24th, 2011 in Training, Regattas.
Photo by Karen Ryan
After racing along side the Prince of Spain last week, we raced against Senator Kerry from Massachusetts this past weekend at the Nantucket Race Week Celebrity Pro-Am. The regatta was a charity event supporting Nantucket Community Sailing which promotes the sport to local kids who wouldn’t otherwise have sailing on the island. The foundation apparently provides over a thousand scholarships for kids to take lessons each year. The event was quite a scene with 14 top US professionals donating their time to be auctioned off as guest tacticians for 14 local and invited amateur groups racing in the local fleet of International One Designs. The boats are classics, not unlike our fleet of PCs in San Diego. They are gorgeous to watch race, but are tough little boats to figure out. I had some experience from racing the same class at the Bermuda Gold Cup a couple years ago. I’m not sure the experience did us any good, but racing was really fun against some of the top brains in the sport from the US. I was lucky enough to race with Jim Richardson and some of his regular Barking Mad crew while they were between Farr events. Even though our starts were some of the best of the fleet, we couldn’t manage to get the boat rumbling like we would have liked. It was a hard fought battle for points in the middle of the pack. Wherever you look you see tacticians eyeballing you waiting for you to make a mistake so they can get their team an advantage. All in all it was a unique experience and certainly an enjoyable one. The hospitality of the Nantucket YC and Great Harbor YC was outstanding and the racing was intense while still being quite fun, and all for a worthy cause. If the access to sailing provided by this fundraiser can make a fraction of a difference in the kids’ lives that it has in the lives of me and my competitors, then the event was a great success.
The other pros at the event were: Chuck Allen, Sally Barkow, Dave Dellenbaugh, Robbie Doyle, Kevin Farrar, Peter Holmberg, Gary Jobson, Mark Reynolds, Dawn Riley, Dee Smith, Chris Snow, Mike Toppa, and Dave Ullman. Here’s the handout.
Next on the docket is one day of racing on the Log Canoes out on the Eastern Shore (Hurricane-dependent), and then getting back into the Star at our Europeans in Ireland on Sunday.
Back from Spain, Stars on the Horizon
August 8th, 2011 in Travel, Training, Regattas.
I just finished up racing this past week in Palma de Mallorca, Spain in the Copa del Rey as a fill-in tactician for the Yasha Samauri Melges 32 team. While good results were tough to come by, we improved significantly through the week as the team is on the upswing of their progression towards the M32 Worlds in Palma in September. I joked with some of my teammates that I had only been to Palma in March and April for the Princesa Sofia regatta, and what a difference a few months makes. Palma is a fantastic place to race spring or summer, but let me tell you its warmer in the summer. We were a few boats down from the Prince racing on the TP52 Hispano at the dock, so the scene at the Real Club Nautico de Palma was a little bit different from my years racing off the gritty beach down at C’an Pastilla as well! It truly was a race for the King’s Cup when he and the Queen hand out the awards.
The next month will be spent preparing for our next Star event in Dublin Ireland during the first week of September. The Pre-Olympic Test Event is going on in Weymouth right now, so I’m motivated to get my program back up and running after a well enjoyed month off. What an amazing amount of sailing and now Ian and I can get back to Star sailing refreshed and ready.
Jackie’s put an update on her website with some great photos she took at Weymouth in June to give you an idea of what the sailors are looking at this week at the test event:
JacquelineCampbellPhotography.com
Almost an all-good final day in Weymouth
June 10th, 2011 in Regattas.
Ian and I had dug ourselves a little hole over the last couple of days of racing with consistently mediocre scores and inconsistent if marginal speed upwind. Our downwind speed was keeping us in touch but the upwinds were keeping us out of the hunt. Our starts weren’t particularly good, but that all changed today. Friday was redemption day for us. We had a four great starts, including two under black flag. Lots of boats were listed DSQ for being over early in race one today, and a good start allowed us to round the top mark in 7th place. We made a couple good moves on the run and were fifth to the bottom. Our luck ran out quickly up the next beat as a 30 degree left pressure filled across the course. Already headed right and not able to fetch the mark ahead of the fleet were us and the four leaders. A complete fleet inversion forced some of the top sailors in the fleet to settle for horrendous scores and Ian and I went from 5th to 27th in one upwind leg. The final leg was a reach to the finish and we could only pick up one boat. Our hopes of being top American at the event were effectively dashed in one shift. Our competitors were able to get off the ropes and bounce back, all we could do was regroup and know that we were doing the right things and keep plugging.
The final race was yet another good start for us. We rumbled out to the right and rounded 10th and were able to make nice gains on the run. Two legs later we were on the run to the finish in 4th place. Our best finish so far in the event and a critical score to keep us ahead of a three-way tie for 15th place in the regatta, potentially critical points down the road for our trials. George and Mark were 13th and Mark and Brian 10th, making for a continuing close series.
Its been a cold and windy couple of weeks here and we’ve had a lot of hard and valuable lessons to take forward to Perth in December. I think we know the areas we really need to focus on to win a World Championship there. And, this regatta will serve as a motivation to do that.
Ian and I are going to be here for a couple more days to help out with Sperry Top-Sider and a photo shoot, and I would be remiss to not mention the support of our fantastic sponsors: US Sailing Team Alphagraphics, Sperry Top-Sider, Kaenon Polarized, Harken, McLube, New England Ropes and many donors from across the US. Thank you all for your continued support of our campaign. We’re close and getting closer all the time. The next step will be the critical one.
On Wednesday evening we will be speaking at the Tred Avon Yacht Club in Oxford, Maryland, if you are in the area, please feel free to contact me or the club to see about joining us for our evening presentation.
Results: http://www.skandiasailforgoldregatta.co.uk/Results/results2011.htm