Off the Wind

Racing ended for us yesterday with two crazy, shifty, funny races. The girls were supposed to race last after the two men's fleets. However, the constantly changing weather prevented the men's gold fleet from efficiently getting their races off, and the blue fleet's racing was cancelled in order to get our races in at the very end of the day. Rain cells moved through the course areas constantly, and every time a dark cloud passed, the wind shifted to move with it. The wind oscillated left and right, and big gusts and lulls anywhere from 5-17 knots touched down on the course. We raced starting around 4 pm, and made it back to the beach around 6:45.

I tried a few things that were different in order to break myself out of my usual race mode. The first was to try planing starts before the other girls went daggerboard up. I also started on port once (near the boat) and footed underneath the entire fleet. I was going really fast and got out into open air, but the wind shifted at that moment and I committed myself to the wrong side of the course! My plan was to hit that side because it looked better, but I ended up quite surprised. I learned a lot of lessons during this regatta, and now have a long list of new things to work on. It was great being able to identify weaknesses and try new things during this regatta, all made possible by our coach Mike Gebhardt.

The US Sailing Team overall had a good regatta and all logistics and coaching efforts were well worth it. Read the press release for more details.

I'm moving on to Kerteminde, Denmark to compete in the World Championships. I will get to be a tourist for a few days as the regatta doesn't start until the 29th. Thanks to the Polish windsurfing team who drove my minivan over from Sopot. Also a big thanks to my sponsor, Compass Marketing, for making all my Olympic efforts possible.