Dear Friends,

What a long day! Yesterday, Sunday, October 29th, we sailed three races, finishing 7th, 7th, and 9th, to place 3rd overall, 2nd in the women's fleet. We were only three points behind Amanda Clark and Sarah Mergenthaler who had the lead in the women's fleet. Overall our day was not as bad as our finishes reflect. Please read on for more details! For complete scores, please visit the regatta website: http://www.ussclb.org/ Apparently the photos are in the press releases.

The first two races were sailed in less than 6 knots, with the race committee pushing for racing in light air. In the first race, the pin, left, end of the starting line was heavily favored. We did not have a great start, and were well behind the leaders at the first mark. We went fast all race long, especially downwind, and had caught up to 4th coming into the last mark. We were gybing, turning, onto the last tight reach to the finish when the boat behind us claimed they saw us hit the mark. Even though we did not think we had hit it, we spun a 360 degree penalty turn because neither of us had actually been watching as we rounded and we did not want to risk the matter in the protest room. One lesson learned! As we spun we lost three boats, dropping to 7th with no room on the racecourse to catch up again. After this race, we were barely in 2nd. We needed to be close to Amanda Clark and Sarah Mergenthaler in the next race to stay ahead.

In the second race, we had a great start but immediately sailed ourselves into a hole with no wind. We were in last at least 1/2 leg behind the leaders at the top mark. We continued sailing very fast and caught up to the top pack by the end of the race, but did not have a long enough racecourse to pass people, again finishing 7th. We had lost our lead to Amanda and Sarah and were now four points behind them and one point ahead of the 4th place team. No other teams could pass us.

In the third race things were looking alright until 2/3 of the way up the windward leg when... we had to set our spinnaker! We had been racing to the wrong mark, going to an orange mark instead of the yellow one we were supposed to be racing to. Backlit by the sun it can be extremely difficult to tell what color the marks actually are. The only good news about setting our spinnaker on the upwind was that we were in good company: Amanda and Sarah and the 4th place Czech team were right there with us! The three of us duked it out for 7th, 8th, and 9th, hopelessly far behind the leaders. We crossed the line in 9th.

Coming off the water we had to pack up our two boats and load them into big trucks bound for Miami. Our next training will be back at the Yale Corinthian Yacht Club, before heading down for weekends of training in Florida. The next 470 racing that we do will be the 470 North Americans over Martin Luther King Day, the 2nd of three ranking regattas for the US Sailing Team.

While it would have been fantastic to finish at the top of the women's fleet, 2nd is not bad. We are very excited about the progress we have made together in the 4 months we have been together as a team. We have a total of 32 days on the water together, and are looking forward to getting a whole lot better. We learned a lot about our speed in various conditions, and, most importantly, we learned that we have the potential to be great.

Thank you all for your support. We could not do it without you all! Thanks again to the Hogan Family, who provided a motor boat for our coach. Thanks also to our sponsors, RBS Greenwich Capital, SAMSON ropes, KAENON sunglasses, Harken, and the US Sailing Team. Alamitos Bay Yacht Club and the US Sailing Center at Long Beach ran a fantastic event, thanks to the fantastic race committee.

All donations to 470 Team USA, our Olympic Sailing Campaign, are tax-deductible and can be made out to the Sailing Foundation of New York, c/o Isabelle Kinsolving, 150 East 73rd Street, Apartment 6D, New York, NY 10021-4362.

Best,
Erin and Isabelle