Kieler Woche - Wrap-Up

Kiel finished up today in fine form with 8-12 knots of northerly breeze under clear blue sunny skies. We had a medal race scheduled for 12:20 this afternoon only 150 yards off the Kiel harbor entrance. The conditions were choppy from spectator traffic and quite shifty as the course was in the lee of the local town of Strande. Of all the medal races this year, this one had the most spectators with two large ferries, a helicopter, and more than 50 small spectator craft in addition to all the race boats getting ready for the second half of Kieler Woche.

Andrew and I could conceivably move from our 9th position at the beginning of the day to as high as 5th if everything went perfectly but we had to depend on too many scenarios to play out so our goal was to break out and win the race. We won the start about two thirds of the way down toward the pin. When the fleet on our hip eventually tacked we consolidated and lifted off the group in a nice lefty while pinching off the boats still to the left of us. Mark Mendelblatt and Mark Strube, the other American team in the medal race, crossed behind us to the left and in the last 300 yards of the leg were able to snag a nice lift into the top. We rounded close behind in second. In an attempt to pass those guys, we gybed away and split from the group, but that turned out to be a loss of about three boats and we spent the rest of the race clawing back to a 3rd in the race. We were happy to find out that the 3rd sent us two spots up the scoreboard to take 7th in the regatta.

What a funny series we’ve had here: Only three days of racing two of which were one-race-days. Andrew and I are happy with the finish after so many teens to start the regatta. We have one more World Cup event on the schedule: Sail for Gold in September in Weymouth. We are currently fifth overall in the standings, but only three points out of the lead. It will all come down to a good finish in the World Cup Finals!

You can find daily video highlights at http://www.world-of-sailing.info/olympic-classes/star/ including areal coverage of the medal race. There should be GPS tracks of our medal race online at the Kieler Woche website but we have not been able to find the link yet.

As always, thank you to our sponsors – USSTAG, Sperry, Kaenon, North Sails, McLube, and all of our supporters who sent good wishes all week.

Kiel Week - Medal Race Bound

After a long week of waiting for wind we finally got some good sailing in today. Three of the regatta's four races were completed today in light lumpy conditions. It was very close sailing with hectic mark roundings and a lot of shuffling amongs the teams. Going into the last race we were in 15th and needed a good finish to make the medal race. We had a difficult start but we focused on staying in the pressure and keeping a clean lane with good rsults - 7th place, moving into the top ten.

Tomorrow we have the medal race which counts double and then back home for July 4th weekend.

Andrew and I were both interviewed by SailTV this evening. We will let you know when it is available online.

Kiel Week - Race Days

The first two days of Kiel Week has continued to prove difficult with a wide range of weather conditions, except for wind. Saturday involved 8 hrs on the water with only one race. We suffered through multiple rain storms, major wind shifts, and lots of waiting.

The race we did get off was challenging, with a pin biased start and a left shift early in the first leg. Andrew and I were flushed at the start and were able to catch a good shift on the right and consolidate to the middle of the fleet. The rest of the race we picked away at the fleet and finished 12th. A keeper in a tough fleet.

We have three races scheduled Mon and Tues with the Medal race on Wed. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Look closely at our boat in the picture, we are hiding under the main to avoid the hail!

Kieler Woche - Training

Andrew and I arrived in Kiel Germany this week for the next leg of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. We came armed with a new quiver of sails from North which we tested over two days and are excited how nice they look. The weather has been all over the place with everything from bright sun to thunderstorms with hail - and that was just before sailing today!

Kiel Week is a bit different from the other World Cup events in that it is part of a big festival. Think about having a Sperry NOOD Regatta and then adding a carnival in shore with food booths, beer gardens (we are in Germany) and small rides for the kids. The do a great job getting the public involved.

Racing stars tomorrow with two races a day through Tuesday and a medal race on Wednesday. Stay tuned tomorrow for more news and a picture from coach Mark Ivey on how to survive a hail storm on a star boat.

Delta Lloyd Regatta 2009 Wrap-up

What a week it turned out to be in Holland! The sun was out and the breeze was on for the last four days of the regatta, a phenomenon that does not often happen in northern Europe. We were treated to some great racing from the Dutch organizers and race committees who are legendary for running on-time races and never letting a boat over early slip past them.

Sunday’s medal race was no different. We watched the Finn and Men’s 470 races from the coach boat, but the course was set up less than 100 yards from the shoreline, so a crowd of locals and sailors alike stood and watched the action. The courses were windward-leeward three times around the smaller than average track for a target time of around 30 minutes, instead of the regular hour and fifteen minute races we had been having all week. The intensity ramps up for these short sprints and you would be amazed at the stuff that happens. We were cheering on the radials during their race on Saturday night and Paige Railey flipped near the top mark after leading the first leg, then the local dutch girl behind her sailed to the finish after only two laps while the fleet rounded the marks to head upwind for the last lap. Ed Wright from England in the Finn class re-started after being over the line and even with the light air, he battled back to be second in the race. His competition Giles Scott was top 5 most of the way around the course and was given a rule 42 penalty near the finish.

Our race was no exception to the fact that wild things can happen. The breeze came up in a big way before our race building to 15 knots and paralleling the Medemblik shoreline only a few hundred feet to the left. Brad and I wanted to start to windward of the group and lined up a bit too early for the committee boat end. Hamish Pepper from New Zealand stuck us head-to-wind for the final thirty seconds or so and pushed us to where we thought we were probably over the line. When we got up to speed and the gun went, we heard the X-flag go up and immediately turned back to clear ourselves. We cleared and the flag still did not go down, meaning somebody else in the fleet was over. At the time we didn’t know it was our American cohorts Mark Mendelblatt and Mark Strube, but the photos don’t lie.

After clearing ourselves we had to fight to get back into the race. Luckily, there are enough mark roundings during these short races that boats ahead go slow quite often. We knew we had to finish right next to the Croatian boat to beat them overall, and Mark was winning the race so we couldn’t worry about him. We finally caught the fleet at the second leeward marks. The German team tied for the lead rounded just ahead of us on starboard. They didn’t see us so close behind and tacked to port fouling us and were forced to take a penalty after some coaxing from the jury. We were able to catch our New Zealander buddies from the start because Hamish and Craig had broken their jib downhaul and couldn’t get proper jib trim. That left only one boat between us and the Croatians. Regatta leaders Robert Schiedt and Bruno Prada were the only boat to the left, and would prove to be a tough boat to catch on the final run to the finish. Instead of putting out effort into catching Robert and Bruno, we hounded the Croatian team to ensure that the Brazilians passed them. By covering the breeze of the Croatians, Robert was able to sail right around them to take fourth in the race leaving us to take 6th right behind the Croatians and defend our position in the standings. When we crossed the finish line and saw Mark’s number on the board we knew that we had moved up the leaderboard to take 5th overall in the regatta! After clawing back from being on the course side of the line at the start, we couldn’t have been happier with the result and it just goes to show that you can never give up in tough situations. We really did create our own luck in this week’s medal race.

Next on the agenda for Andrew and I is to plan out and go to Kiel regatta in the Star boat. This transition into the new team has gone much better than either of us could have imagined. I had high expectations, and am very pleased with how the progress is going. We need to sort out some upwind boatspeed, our downwind speed is where we’re really making our gains. But without help from some continued and new sponsorships, we wouldn’t be able to continue. With support from US Sailing Team Alphagraphics and our continued relationships with Sperry Top-sider, Kaenon Polarized and now Z-blok, as well as a number of private donors, we have been able to make a strong push into a new realm in the sport.

Full results at: deltalloydregatta.org

You can follow the medal race track here taken from the GPS systems on board for the final day.

Photos and more from: deltalloydregatta.org/2009