Just a short one tonight. I flew in last night. We go the safety equipment, boat and spars measured today and got out for a short sail around 1600. We were the only one to go out as most everyone has been sailing here all week. It was a very nice 12 knots from the east.
I had gone to the supermarket this morning and stocked up the apartment. We had dinner at home and had a
The forecast for today was not good… A weak NW gradient giving way to a weak sea breeze. That happened and it was a tricky day.
The wind finally filled in around 1300 from 130 at 7-8 knots. It looked promising. In this wind direction the left side is usually favored. We
started near the middle of the line and headed left. Unfortunately as we got towards the port layline, the wind kept lifting us. Our port tack heading was terrible and the boats in the middle of the course had a great shift.
We rounded the first mark about 80th. There were not many people behind us. I did notice that Mark Reynolds sailed off the course so the “black flag” must have caught him today. We managed to pass a few boats on the next few legs including Freddy Loof the regatta leader going into todays race.
For the final run to the finish the race committee changed the course with code flag “C” and indicated a heading of 310. However they actually positioned the finish line at 280… off by 30 degrees. That caught a few people by surprise like Vince Brun and Rick Merriman who had expected the finish line to be where it was indicated and headed down the right side of the run only to over stand and come back to the “downwind” finish with pole down and on a tight reach. Freddy Loof got so fed up with the race he just quit.
We hung in there, eating our humble pie, and finished 55th. To add to the pain, I hit my head in the barney post in one tack and got a pretty nasty gash that Sam our trainer taped back together after the race.
Alfonso Bermudez of Portugal won the race and I think Howie Sheibler had another good race in the top five. I honestly did not look at the scores.
Tomorrow will be our last day of training for this week. I am going home to San Francisco to visit my family and Phil is going to New York to see his wife. We are back next week for a couple days of practice before the Olympic Trials start on Saturday the 20th.
The Black Flag was back today and we got caught. We sailed up to the windward mark, not in particularly good shape and saw our bow number posted so we retired.
The day was supposed to be w windy one from the NW. We put our heavy air main on for the trials to give it a look. It was fine but by the time the start came along there was only 10 knots of wind so we shifted to our light air main. As we sailed the first beat the wind even dropped further to 6 knots.
The report from the guys who raced the whole race was that the committee moved the windward mark right but the wind stayed left and most of the race was a parade.
Peter Bromby BER won the race, Freddy Loof was third, Howie Sheibler was 5th. Loof is now leading the regatta and we have dropped to 43rd. There is a throw out in this series but I am planning on leaving on Wednesday night.
We towed in, washed the boat and pulled our rig out. This is our new rig, the one we bought to replace the rig we broke last Tuesday. It is very good and I want to keep it that way. So we will sail tomorrow and Wednesday with our spare rig to make sure we are happy with its tune and not risk anything with the number one rig.
I went to the gym for an hour and a half with my trainer Sam and Phil finished up a few projects on the boat.
We are feeling pretty good because everything on our work list is done. John Craig our coach has our coach boat very organized complete with spare mast onboard.
We went to dinner with Augie Diaz and his crew Hal Haenel. Hal crewed for me in the Star Worlds in Marina Del Rey in 2002 where we finished 4th and qualified the USA for Athens.
The forecast for tomorrow is not stellar but hope fully the land will heat up and pull a light sea breeze in.
Today started off slowly. The forecast was for 5-10 knots from the SSW. Eventually the wind was supposed to go all the way to the WSW. There is a cold front expected tonight and WNW winds 10-15 for tomorrow.
However, the gradient was weak today and it was very hot. For 2 hours, from 1200-1400, there was virtually no wind. The competitors just drifted around and waited.
Finally at 1430 6 knots of wind filled in from 155. The race committee laid a perfect line
Yesterday we had a day ashore, working on our masts, and getting items on our work list checked off. It was nice to be off the water for a day. I went to the gym late in the afternoon with our Sam and had a good high energy workout. Sam has changed our workout routine now for the last 2 weeks prior to the trials.
Today was another beautiful day on Biscayne Bay
Winds were 130 at 10-14 knots today. The water a bit smoother than yesterday.
The day started out at 0645 with a run to the gym and then an hour and a half work out with our trainer Sammy. Shower and breakfast and down to the club by 0945.
We went out with the
We had a better day today. Still blowing 14-18 form the ESE today. Today activities were; gym 0645, breakfast 0830, shower 0900, West Marine 0930, arrival at the club 0945, rig up and tuning, dock out 11:30. The water schedule was three races today.
Freddy Loof of SWE dominated the first two races. Xavier Rohart of FRA, the current world champion was up there as well as our tuning partner of these past few weeks, Andy Lovell and Magnus Liljedahl. We battled around somewhere in the top five or six.
In the third race, Perter Bromby BER got tangled up with someone at the start and shredded his main, Eric Doyle and Brian Sharp USA dropped their rig just like we did yesterday. Mark Reynolds and Steve Erickson were leading half way through this race but the wind went right quite a bit and we nearly caught them by the second weather mark. Rohart and Geroge Szabo USA had gotten by both of us and Rohart went on to win Freddy Loof had packed it in after the 2nd race.
We were going ok up wind but a bit slow downwind. Need to work on that tomorrow. The waves here are very short in length so the boats are constantly overtaking the waves. You need to find a way to snake through them without letting them slow the boat down. Sometimes you let the boat roll over to windward to the windward chine
Back to the Star after a good week on the Samba Pa Ti Farr 40 where we finished second in the SORC. The SORC now is a 10 races event, all short course buoy races.
Phil and I hit the gym this morning at 0700 for a few hours then ate breakfast at our favorite coffee shop. Oatmeal, 3 egg white omelet cinnamon raisin beagle and we were down at the club by 1015 ready for battle.
Today the breeze was 15 knots from 115 and a beautiful day. We have Ed Adams coaching us again and we are partnered up with Andy Lovell and Magnus Liljedahl for this session. Today
Recently during a training regatta for my Star Olympic Trials, I got reacquainted with an old friend. A friend that I sailed with in my first America
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