Olympic Games Race Day

A long tough day for us. Serious character testing stuff. Not much good to report.

We got tangled up with the Spanish and the Irish as the start and got off the line behind. Then we worked the left, mostly because the right looked sickly light. The left looked good for about 5 minutes, then it was all right and in a big way. The Dutch team, who banged the right corner, had a 1 minute lead as they reached in to the first mark…the shift went that far.

We were second to last but had made some major comebacks in this regatta so we thought the volatility would be good and it was still a long race. The bottom line is that everywhere we went was bad and we got further and further behind. We finished last and it was a long sail around the course in last. Very frustrating and disappointing.

Ross MacDonnald of CAN finished second in the race and the French were 8th so CAN got silver and FRA Bronze. We lost fourth to the Swiss by one point and finished up 5th just three points ahead of GBR in 6th.

I really did not sail my best at this regatta. It’s the rarity of this regatta that makes it so important. The Olympics only happens once every four years and even then, you have to qualify to represent your country. It has taken me 20 plus years to get this opportunity and to not sail my best has been very frustrating.

I have thought of a few things that I may have done wrong, such as being here since the 4th of July but it is too early for me to draw a certain conclusion. One thing is that there were 5 races that were in a “typical” breeze and 6 races that were in “random” wind. You could argue that if you are going to sail in “random” wind, you don’t need to train on site much at all.

The results seem to bear that out somewhat. The sailors who spent the most time training in Athens were Loof SWE and Percy GBR.

I will write some more thought in a few days after I digest this a bit more.

I changed my flight and I am getting out of here at 0555 tomorrow morning. I am really looking forward to getting home to Kentfield and being with my family.

Thanks for all the great support that you have given Phil and I over this campaign!