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Three Races on Day 5, In 5th going into Medal Race
April 28th, 2011 in Regattas.
Ian and I managed three good races today in Hyeres. The breeze slowly crept up into reasonable conditions this afternoon as we pushed through three races. We had a 3, 8, 10 according to the scores. The final race of the series was a battle for the finish. We had been in about 18th around the final windward mark and then made a few good passes on the last run. We finished the race overlapped with five other boats and apparently got the benefit of the doubt on the scoresheet. With those scores we’re in 5th going into the medal race tomorrow. Lots can happen, so we’re going to have to race hard tomorrow.
Full scores: http://sof.ffvoile.net/results/star.htm
Keep up to date at: sof.ffvoile.net
Three Races in the Final Fleet Racing Day at Hyeres, 5th into Medal Race
April 28th, 2011 in Regattas.
Ian and I managed three good races today in Hyeres. The breeze slowly crept up into reasonable conditions this afternoon as we pushed through three races. We had a 3, 8, 10 according to the scores. The final race of the series was a battle for the finish. We had been in about 18th around the final windward mark and then made a few good passes on the last run. We finished the race overlapped with five other boats and apparently got the benefit of the doubt on the scoresheet. With those scores we’re in 5th going into the medal race tomorrow. Lots can happen, so we’re going to have to race hard tomorrow.
Full scores: http://sof.ffvoile.net/results/star.htm
Keep up to date at: sof.ffvoile.net
Fluky Day 4 at Hyeres
April 28th, 2011 in Regattas.
After such a windy start to the week the breeze has fizzled here in Hyeres. Today we had an early start time and got a race going in a light and fading easterly. While the Sonars got around the same track just fine with two races, the Star class had a few fitful starting sequences and the breeze finally became unbearable. After one race and waiting for almost two hours, we moved about a mile north in the sailing area and started one last attempt drifted for eighteen minutes in painfully light air: both skipper and crew sitting to leeward, until the race was abandoned. The RC then attempted to further postpone on the water, but the damage was done, the fleet had dropped sails and begun a less-than-silent protest of the RC’s thought to keep us on the water any longer in the worsening conditions. At least it was a warm and sunny day. Ian and I finally got off the line in good shape and worked our way into 5th around the second top mark, but the wacky wind got the better of us on the run. The breeze filled from behind allowing the next group of ten boats to clamor up from astern and suck us into the fight for the top ten. We managed to scrape out a 9th in what could have easily been a worse score. We’re still very close to being able to make a push back into the top five with three good scores tomorrow, but for now we sit eighth.
43rd French Olympic Sailing Week
April 26th, 2011 in Regattas.
We’re two days into the next regatta on the Sailing World Cup here in Hyeres, France. The south of France is living up to it’s name on Day 3: Sunny and warm but not a breath of air so far. The training leading into the regatta showed why tourist season doesn’t start until May. We had 18-30 knots for three days, and 15-20 on the first day of racing. Early season in the Mediterranean can be fickle like that. We were lucky, in fact to have a strong easterly. The sailing in Hyeres sets up for big waves in an easterly. The sailing before the event was outstanding, when possible. The alternative, which is not forecast but very possible, is the Mistral winds that come from the North. Those Mistral days are generally cold and almost always excessively breezy. The peninsula here is legendary among windsurfers and kites because of the potential for those windy conditions.
Ian and I have had two good days of racing, we finished the first day in third and struggled in the first race yesterday, but recovered and remain tied for third overall with about four other boats. The star class is a hard fighting group. There’s virtually nothing between the top 20 teams here, just a question of who can carry clean lanes up the racecourse.
CISA Clinic 2011
April 22nd, 2011 in Training, General.
In the break between the Spanish and French World Cup events in the Star, I headed to Long Beach for the four-day annual CISA Clinic. CISA sets the standard for youth clinics in the US with more than 100 elite junior sailors and 15+ coaches. Six classes are filled by resume: 29er, I420, C420, FJ, Laser Radial, and Laser. We try to set a standard for fitness having Harry Legum from Annapolis Sailing Fitness working with the sailors (and some of the coaches) each morning. Then we are off the races for three days of training focused on Boatspeed, Boathandling and Tactics, culminating with a regatta on the final day of the clinic for the sailors to test their skills. The general focus is on personal responsibility as the young athletes are spending time out from under their parents’ wing and making improvements in their sailing on their own terms. More about the Clinic and the CISA Foundation can be found at CISASailing.org. I couldn’t have succeeded as director this year without the outstanding support of 15 great coaches, the One Design Management Staff, and the volunteers from ABYC and the other southern California clubs. I’ve been lucky enough to direct the clinic each of the last three years and look forward to continuing my involvement. Here are some of the photos from the week, thanks to JacquelineCampbellPhotography.com
Harry working on the fitness field:
Coach Brett Davis with the Lasers:
Local Brother/Sister Team: the Kirks in the I420:
Coach David Wright with the Radials:
6th at Trofeo Princesa Sofia
April 11th, 2011 in Travel, Regattas.
Unfortunately, we had a bit of an ugly start to our medal race in Palma. We were pretty fired up to have a good race with good potential to move back up the leaderboard and get onto the podium with a good finish in the ten-boat final race. The only potential snag I could foresee was that the Italian Olympic Trials was going on at this event and there would be two Italian teams in the medal race: Diego Negri and Francesco Bruni. Having raced against Francesco last week in the Congressional Cup I figured he would be after Diego in the pre-start and that we needed to be clear of that mess; we had too many other boats to race against.
Sure enough, Diego and Francesco were sitting at the committee boat end at the warning and about to commence their duel. Ian and I had been struggling for height all we so we figured we should try and get down to leeward of the group anyway. We were set up with a nice gap between us and the French team at the pin with about 30 seconds to go when Diego and Francesco come screaming down the line. I closed the gap to ensure Diego went past. He did, sailing all the way to the pin. But in defending the pin, the French opened up a larger gap than I realized to leeward of us. I saw Francesco sail behind us a few seconds later and brushed it off, fully confident that he would continue to the pin to attack Diego. I looked at him and he indicated that was his plan. I assumed wrong. Francesco changed his mind about a second later and came head to wind in our gap to leeward. We were both about a half length over the line with 10 seconds to go and even with a substantial bear-away I couldn’t get back to the pre-start side. I’m fairly confident he was over the line with us at the start, but when the X flag went up I knew we should go back, and when we dipped the line the X came right down. We spent the rest of the race well behind, only able to pass Bruni and Alex Schlonski on the last run to the finish to take 8th in the race and 6th in the regatta.
The scores were so close in the end with a three-way tie for second place, it will continue to drive me crazy until we can get a chance to redeem ourselves next week at Hyeres Semaine Olympique Francaise. We had every opportunity in the world to make things happen and I committed a fatal error that cost us at that start. The reality is we had so many boats to worry about we got too passive. If we had only one boat to chase, we probably would have been more focused to make something specific happen. Lots of “what ifs” but the biggest reality of it all was the missed opportunity on race day 5 with two races in the teens. Things always feel like they come down to the last race, but we have some tuning issues that we need to take care of to really get ourselves on track to consistently win medals here.
Masts and sails are going to be the top expenses over the next three months. We have some flights booked and some housing, but I’m mostly concerned about making sure our equipment is correct for the rest of the spring leading into Weymouth. At the moment, as much as this campaign is on the cusp of being on the very top level we are also on the financial brink. I will be reaching out to many of you over the next few weeks to enlist your help for this final push to win the next two events just as we have been so close to doing in the last two World Cup Events.
Full Results: www.trofeoprincesasofia.org
Our sponsors have been vital to our efforts thus far: US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, Sperry Top-sider, Kaenon Polarized, Harken, San Diego YC Sailing Foundation, as well as many individuals and families from around the country. Annapolis YC Foundation has boosted our support this month while we have been in Europe covering Ian and my airfare and ferry for Palma. Thank you all very much. We look forward to your continued support.
After taking the ferry from Palma back to the mainland and dropping Ian at the airport in Barcelona. I continued on the road in a massive caravan from Barcelona to Hyeres, France. Probably a hundred trailers and teams made the journey in a massive armada on the highway. Its nice to get a friendly wave and a thumbs-up from another sailor letting you know that the trailer looks good every once in a while. On this trip it was like a mini-boatpark every time we got to a toll plaza!
I’ll fly back to the States from France to get ready for the CISA Clinic which starts Thursday in Long Beach, CA. I’ll do my best to have updates from CISA at www.CampbellSailing.com. www.CISASailing.org has all the info you might need as well if you have young sailors interested in the best youth sailing clinic in the world. This year we have 15 world-class coaches for our 115 young sailors. This will be my third year running the clinic and I’m excited to be involved again. We’re going to work hard to make these 4 days the best training of the year for these sailors, hopefully giving them a taste of what we have just been doing in Europe the last two weeks.
Here’s what CISA Clinic is all about:
Day 5 is a Rough One, Medal Race Saturday 1250pm Local Time
April 8th, 2011 in Regattas.
We had a couple tough races today and slipped back into 5th overall going into tomorrow’s medal race. Heres’ the interview from sailingteams.ussailing.org. The medal race is tomorrow afternoon, and if you’re awake to follow along check www.trofeoprincesasofia.org. We’ll be on Echo Course at 1 o’clock.
Stellar Day 4 at Palma - 2nd into Final Day before Medal Race
April 7th, 2011 in Regattas.
Team USA Lineup. Photo by Leandro Spina
It was a long day at the RCNP today, but well worth the time for us as we scored three big races in a light seabreeze. The day set up very similar to our training days with nearly flat calm upon our arrival to the yacht club, clear skies and cool temperatures in the morning. After diving on the boat at 830am, we sat and waited under a postponement until the thermal started working and a seabreeze pulsed across the bay. We left the dock around 1pm and headed to the sailing area for three hour-and-a-half long races. We finished our last race at around 6pm and hit the dock around 630pm. Luckily all three races turned out to be good ones for us.
The first race had a wild right shift in the start and we were able to get around in about sixth, but the Ukrainian team on #8119 had to have been 250 yards ahead of the fleet as they had pounded the right hand side of the course on leg 1. We chipped away at the boats ahead of us and rounded about 10 lengths behind the leader at the next windward mark. The assault on the run took every bit of our patience, but I have to admit that the match racing I just finished sailing with Dave Perry and our team at the Congressional Cup set Ian and I up for a significant advantage in the close quarters racing into the finish. We finally got to the leader’s breeze and drew him back into the center of the course. We traded three gybes with him and at the last moment we gybed and split for the pin end of the finish line and won the race by a quarter length or less.
The next two races were far less exciting but just as intense. The breeze faded as the sun cooled off, but the Race Committee just kept pressing until we got back on schedule. Two more races in similar conditions tomorrow will hopefully set us up for the medal race Saturday. We did move up the leaderboard from our original 6th position to 2nd in the standings. We’ll have to don the blue jerseys tomorrow…
Full results: www.trofeoprincesasofia.org
Light and Odd Day 3 for Star Fleet
April 6th, 2011 in Regattas.
After a short postponement on shore today we were rushed out to the racecourse to try and get one race off in a fading northeasterly. The offshore breezes here are very unstable and as the island heats up the seabreeze is quick to dominate the weather pattern. Sure enough after an hour and a half of sailing, two beats and 75% of the way back down the last run the breeze quit and the fleet was becalmed 150 yards from the finish. An hour and a half of racing for nought. The RC abandoned the race and the seabreeze promptly filled across the bay in towards warm Palma.
Our fleet had four general recalls before finally going on start number five. Steady conditions and 6-10 knots faded to 5-7 knots as we finished one good race this afternoon. We tried to start another, but the committee was either fed up with the fickle breeze or were hungry for lunch, so we went in under AP over A.
For those keeping score: that’s one hour of sailing in 25-30+ knots, then two races in 18-25; two races yesterday, plus 75% of another that was abandoned during the seabreeze transition; and one race today, plus 95% of another that was abandoned during the seabreeze transition. We’re beginning to see a pattern here. Frankly the fleet knew they had a good thing going showing up for training sessions at 11am, having lunch and then sailing at 1:30pm in the seabreeze. Instead, our first start is scheduled for 11am, which basically means its colder when I’m diving on the boat bottom in the morning, and the sun hasn’t made it over the wall to dry out my gear yet! Boohoo, woe is us. We’re managing just fine, but it seems like there has been a lot more racing gone on here than just the 5 scores on the board.
Full results: www.TrofeoPrincesaSofia.org
NE turns to Seabreeze on Day 2 at Palma
April 5th, 2011 in Regattas.
After an hour postponement ashore the RC called us to the course for racing in a fading Northeasterly. Wild conditions yesterday relented to a timid 12 knots and quickly subsided to flat calm after the first race. We started the second race in painfully light air, but it quickly died and shifted 100 degrees right into a southerly seabreeze. The second race went much better for us. Ian and I started to leeward of the majority of the group and used clean lanes to round the first mark 6th and beg borrow and steal our way into another 4th place finish. We had a 20th and a 4th and still sit in 6th overall. The forecast is for more seabreeze tomorrow and we welcome that.
Full results: www.trofeoprincesasofia.org