Kingston, ON to Allendale MI

I'm back at college in Allendale, MI where I attend Grand Valley State University. CORK ended well with my finish position being 17th. It was a tough competition with tougher competitors. I feel good about where I finished and about where I can go from here. I am purchasing a top of the line heart rate monitor to help take my fitness to the next level. During these next few months I will be focusing on endurance and strength in relation to sailing. Thank you again to the Ensign class for sponsoring CORK and helping me to progress my sailing career!

Three Days In

Today was another long day on the water getting two races off in about 5 hours. The first race showed a 30 degree shift on the wrong side of the course which was disappointing to see after a great start. The next race turned out much better however, after having another really nice start and going to the correct side of the course I was 2nd to the windward mark and managed to hang on for a fourth at the end. Tomorrow looks like it should be a squall free day, so we have hopes of consistent breeze! Looking forward to two more solid sailing days.

Rain Day

Today was an interesting mix between intense weather and good sailing conditions. Most of the morning was taken up by a torrential downpour that took all the wind, followed by light wind around noon. Then the breeze filled in and the rain went away at about 1 so we went out racing! Half way up the first beat of my best race yet, the RC abandoned due to thunderstorms coming our way. It was an excited sail downwind while watching the lightning strike behind you! And after that, more systems came rolling through which cancelled the sailing for the day. After a shifty day yesterday with questionable race management I am sitting back in 23rd, so I am very excited to get some solid racing in tomorrow!

CORK

Today was my travel day from Ensign Nationals in Canandaigua, NY to Kingston, ON for my next event. CORK OCR starts tomorrow and will go on for the next five days here on the mouth of Lake Ontario! There are some great competitors signed up for this event from around the world and the weather looks favorable for sailing over the next few days. So this looks like it will be a fun event to end the summer on. After a short sailing session today I feel good and am excited for the start of CORK!

Ensign Sailing

This week is my first Ensign regatta and it is turning out to be quite a fun experience. I am sailing with Tom Labelle and crew. I am in Canandaigua, New York and it is a beautiful area. Our boat the Foxy Lady is sitting around 5th place at this national championship. Not only does this class know how to have fun but it also is being very helpful in my pursuit of my Laser campaign. The Ensign class is sponsoring me so I can travel to Kingston, ON and compete in CORK OCR. This event starts this Saturday and will be well attended by various worldwide competitors, I will be traveling from here to Canada on Friday and start competing on Saturday!

France- Training

Today was the first day of training in La Rochelle. I felt a little rusty to begin with but as the day progressed I started feeling better and better. It was a good breeze with medium waves, my boat feels good and my rigging is all new and working like a charm! I feel with a few more days of sailing under me I will be ready to go for the event. Early to bed tonight to get ready for another good session tomorrow!

France Part 1

Today begins my journey to La Rochelle, France for Junior Worlds. I will leave from the Chicago airport, fly to Amsterdam and then from there to Nantes, France. Upon arriving there I will take a train to La Rochelle. While I am there I will be staying at a youth hostel, which are popular for younger travelers in Europe. Training will start on Monday, and the event starts on the following Monday July 18th! Check back for more updates on how training is going and how I fare during the event!

Texas

Right now I am in the middle of what is turning out to be a great training experience in heat of Houston, Texas! District 15 regatta has been part of the experience, everyone that I have been training with sailed in the regatta this weekend. The wind for the regatta was no different than the three previous training days, which has been around 18 to 22mph gusts up to 25 or so. This is exactly what I need leading up to Worlds which will most likely be a windy event over in La Rochelle, France. My hiking legs are starting to kick in, and I am feeling better in the boat every day. Tomorrow we are doing a 20 mile downwind sail from Galveston back to Houston. It will be a great way to practice our downwind technique. I am very excited and cant wait for four more days of training in Texas!

Atlantic Coast Champs/ District 18 Champs

Over the last week and a half I managed to throw together two regattas combined with training in the middle. I took off on Wednesday night with the trailer in tow and arrived in North Carolina the following night for the Atlantic Coast Championship. I went out sailing on Friday to get used to the venue, which conveniently was a great place to sail. Over the regatta, which lasted Saturday and Sunday, we had a nice steady breeze that kicked up some larger than life waves. It made for fun sailing and the competition was strong as well! I ended up 12th, I felt like I could have done much better but I had trouble getting off the starting line all weekend.

The great thing about this was that I was invited to train with the Canadian youth team for the next four days, so I decided to really focus on my starts the entire week. Thankfully there was nice breeze and good sailors, so I had the opportunity to really improve on my starts. Also I made gains everywhere in my sailing, an overall very productive training session.

On Thursday night I took off and drove to Indianapolis where I threw in the boat on Friday for a quick sail to adjust to inland lake sailing. It was quite a change but a good one, it is always nice to mix things up. This was the District 18 Championship and there was a solid showing from around the area. Saturday at Eagle Creek Sailing Club, turned out to be a really fun day with a steady 15 knots, quality racing!Sunday was lighter, but challenging and just as exciting. It was fun to walk away with the win, and see some old friends in the process. All in all, ten straight days of sailing, what a life!

As I walked to where my boat was this morning I was blasted in the face by sand whipping ferociously across the beach. After stalling as much as possible, everyone got dressed and rigged which was a team effort. It took an average of four people, rather than the usual one, to step fully setup rigs because of the intensity of the morning wind. After flailing around in the water while putting on the rudder and centerboard it was time to turn down wind. Just before I launched I heard someone yell they had just captured a 38knot wind gust on their speedometer.

Getting down to the course was an adventure in itself, I flipped about 3 times. After I managed that, it was time to start. Being my first European event I think it was only right I was given a proper thrashing. I was not on pace in the breeze, and the windward legs lasted for about 20 minutes even for the better guys. So with that out of the way, the wind looks like it will be more reasonable for the rest of the regatta and I am excited to go out there and show what I can do!

Rewind

The wind was great here in Spain for the fourth day in a row of training! I am starting to feel better in the boat, after taking a month off it takes a little while to get back in your groove.

For most of march I was home, working at O'Mara Sprung Floors, lifting weights at the gym, and rowing on the erg, as well as the all important yoga to get back some long lost flexibility. I had the goal to put on the 6 pounds that I had lost while training in florida. So I ate all the food I could, and slept very well. My mom was a great help trying to keep enough food in the house for me. I managed to put those pounds back on and I am really glad I did because it is looking like it is going to be a windy event here in Palma!

Over the third weekend of March I made the flight out to US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO for a physical fitness camp with the rest of the US Sailing Developmental and Alphagraphics Team. It was four days of fitness tests, work outs, swimming and informative talks about nutrition and overall body maintenance. It was well planned out and I felt like I walked away from the experience with many more tools in my bag!

Spain!

I must apologize for the long break between my updates. I have been sailing so much in the past few months that I can not possibly tell it all in one post. So I will start from what I am doing now, and work backwards through time, in the next few stories.

Right now I am six hours ahead of North America in the wonderful country of Spain! I arrived with my Mother, Grandma and Sister three days ago to begin training for the Princess Sofia Regatta that starts Monday. After adjusting to the time change I was excited to get back out on the water after taking a month off from sailing! And even better, I was out with other members of the US Sailing Alphagraphics Team as well as many of the worlds best that are coming out for this regatta. It is very exciting for me to be sailing in a different country and to be one of the few representing The United States on this stop in the World Cup Series. I will be posting how I fair during the regatta so be sure to check out the site regularly in the coming days!

Mexico

Today was the first day of training at the International Sailing Academy in La Cruz, Mexico! It happened that they had an extra spot open for me to come down for this clinic and with the attendees scheduled to come I could not pass up the chance. Today I went out sailing with James Espey(the top Irish sailor), Nick Thomson(ranked second in the world from Great Britian) and also from Great Britain, Paul Goodison the top ranked Laser sailor in the world who won the olympics in 2008! There are more good Americans coming later in the week to train as well. I am very excited for the next 9 days of training with these guys, I plan to take as much knowledge and sailing skills from them I can in this short period. Lets get er done eh!

Miami OCR

One day before Miami OCR begins! I have been in Miami for the past three weeks training in order to prepare for what is sure to be the toughest regatta I have experienced in my 7 year sailing career. Competitors from all over the world have been filing in to start their training, which has been great for me since I have been able to practice with them. I feel I am in good physical and mental condition and I am getting comfortable with the full rig now. I am excited to see where I stand in a true international regatta, I think it will be eye opening and I am hoping to learn from this experience so I can further improve my knowledge, skill, and experience!

Miami Pre- OCR

Today was the end of the US Sailing training camp that started Monday. It has been a good week of training with the team. I am in Miami, FL where Miami OCR regatta will be held at the end of the month. This regatta is the largest and most difficult regatta held in the US because of the level of competition that travels here for the regatta. Some of the best sailors in the world are already on site and in training mode. I will have the opportunity to train with some of them in the coming weeks and also fellow team mates that are living in the area. I am excited for the next week of sailing and gym training that I have ahead of me!

I am putting my all into OCR and I can not wait to see what I am capable of!