US Nationals Final

The last day of Nationals brought with it excellent breeze for a long awaited day of sailing! The breeze was already around 12 to 15 knots as we were making the 5 mile sail downwind to the course at 930 in the morning. I warmed up my downwind technique as I went and was feeling good because we were finally sailing in some breeze!

The first race was started under a black flag, so after my incident in Texas I decided to play it safe. Starting in a position were is was hard to be seen and yet had an exit route off the start. The first race I got to the top mark around 14th or so and I realized I had some work to do. The first big puff of the day hit us while we were on the reach and by taking it low and keeping it going fast I managed to slide by two or three boats. The downwind to follow proved to be a nice run, by taking the straightest path to the mark and surfing all the way I managed to pass another four or five boats. Then I picked the correct side on the next upwind and finished the race in second.

Race two started with a bad start and i was not able to save it after fouling a competitor at the top mark. The next race went well with a bullet in the rising wind, now around 18 to 22knots. The next one went much the same except a hit the leeward mark just before the finish and had to spin letting my competitor go by. But when it was all said and done I ended up 2nd overall which I was pleased with. CORK OCR this weekend! Lots to do and thanks to Avon Sailboats in Rochester, MI for their continued support!

Nationals Day Three

Yesterday races were cancelled due to a massive storm that was supposed to arrive. It ended up going north of us but it left no breeze behind to work with. Today we had an early start on the water which turned out to be about 5 hours of waiting till the first race, which happened to be very light. I had a decent start and was 6th to the top mark lost a little as the race went on. The light and very rough conditions were tough for me. I am sitting in 4th place, 8 points out of 1st. Hoping for more breeze tomorrow!

US Nationals

Today was the first day of racing in Milwaukee, WI. We are sailing on Lake Michigan which is a great place to sail, I love the great lakes! It is like sailing on the open seas except no salt in your eyes or sharks and jelly fish in the water! Nice!

I ended up getting very fortunate with a place to stay, a very nice lady at the Yacht club(Debra) offered me a place to stay when I was hopelessly searching for a spare room at 930 last night. So I have a wonderful house to stay on at the lake and great company.

The sailing today was better than expected with a three hour delay due to no wind. Once out on the race course the wind picked up to a steady 8-10knots from the east. I managed to get two solid races on the day in the lighter air and am looking forward to the rest of the week with an even stronger forecast!

Great Lake Champs/ No Coast Champs

Great Lake Champs in Sandusky, OH was a good time! It was fun to see my friends from Ohio and sail at a nice venue. On Saturday we postponed on shore until three in the afternoon when the race committee decided there was enough wind to go out. We sailed in the harbor right next to Cedar Point in around 3 to 5 knots of breeze with heavy wake from power boats. But it was steady enough to get a race off, after following the leader around three legs of the course I managed to get a pass on the downwind and hold off for the win in the light air! That was the only race for the day but the next one looked promising so RC decided to go for an early start at 9 the next morning. The breeze was around 12 when we got to the race course and it picked up through the day. As it built I got more confident and I managed to pull off four wins on the day! So when the regatta was finished I was throwing out a first place! It was a show of the skill I have developed over the summer, I believe I am becoming a smarter sailor which I am very pleased with.

I could not have done this without my work at No Coast Champs in Colorado where in sailing with the full rigs forced me to look at how I could be smart with my sailing because my boat speed was not equal to my competitors. I also got a better handle on my emotions during a race, learning how to stay calm and focused no matter what happens.

And THANK YOU TO AVON SAILBOATS FOR THEIR SUPPORT!! PICTURES OF NO COAST AND GREAT LAKE CHAMPS COMING SOON

Colorado!

Being out in Colorado is an amazing experience! I have just started to get used to living and being active at 9,000 plus feet. I worked out today for the first time and hope to do a large mountain climb on my bike tomorrow! It was a essential that I came out early for this competition because of the high altitude. The first day was brutal, the 10% oxygen kept me on the coach the entire day feeling like if I moved too fast I might lose my lunch.

Now though, I am going to start training on Lake Dillon, keep pushing my body to acclimate to the altitude and keep having fun in the endless activities that the Colorado Rockies have to offer!

District Champs/ New Program

Last weekend was the District 19 Championships at Gull Lake. This is a small lake near Kalamazoo, MI. When I arrived I realized I would be the only radial sailing against 25 other full rigs(meaning my sail was 33% smaller than everyone elses)... not the most exciting thing to think of at a small lake light air event. But since I was doing it for Grand Prix points and I was already there I decided to make a learning experience out of it. Since I knew I would be the slowest boat on the course the trick would be to do very smart sailing and catch every advantage possible!

The first race I was able to have a beautiful start and was able to hold out for fourth which I was pretty happy with considering. The next race I was able to get another very fast, clean start and was able to lead the race for two legs until I was over taken by two sailors on the second upwind. After these two races I had trouble getting nice starts and after it was hard to pick my perfect race to stay ahead of the full rigs. I also think people got irritated with the little sail beating them. Overall I finished 9th and won my fleet of course.

I have also lately taken some personal lessons on weight lifting for mass gain with a very knowledgeable guy at my gym. Just having completed my lessons I will work on gaining my goal of 15lbs by November in order for my body to peak at Midwinters East in February, 2011. I am very excited to start some new things and keep moving forward.

North Americans 2010

Coming home to the cooler weather of Michigan has been a very nice contrast to the Texas sauna! But down to the regatta. After the first day of racing I was in 10th place overall out of about 100 radials. Since that qualified me for gold fleet in the morning when I went to the club, checked the scores again, and saw over the night they had given me two black flags. This means the race committee thought I was over the line early with the black flag up which gives me the number of people sailing plus a couple points. Which means I was now in 59 bumping me back to Silver fleet.

I was very disappointed to say the least, it ruined my chances for placing above 50th and also I could not gather any grand prix points for this regatta. But I went out for the day, thinking that I might as well sail my best and learn what I could and I had a 1-2-1 on the day. I tried different starting techniques to not get called over the line and they payed off. I also learned some valuable strategy for all around racing. So what I got from North Americans was invaluable experience that I can carry on to all my future regattas.