Dear Race Fans,

Today was the first day of racing at the 2006 470 World Championships in Rizhao, China. For those who don't have time for the details, here's the quick version: We placed 10th in the first race, and 18th in the second, and are currently in 28th place overall with 11 races left to go in the regatta. For the details, please keep reading!

We arrived in Rizhao last Saturday morning, after having traveled over 24 hours from New York City. Four hours of sleep later, we started practicing that same day, and had five great days of practicing leading up to the regatta. Sailing conditions have been fantastic: we've had light winds, medium winds, and even one day of 20+ knots (a knot is slightly more than a
mph) with 6-8 foot waves from the side! We must admit that we did capsize that day and went for a swim, but we were also only one of about 15 boats to go sailing, so we weren't feeling that bad. Overall, we showed moments of brilliance throughout the practicing. One day in partcular was great -- we were doing practice races with about 30 boats, both men and women, and rounded the first mark in 1st, finishing the race in 2nd, ahead of all the women and almost all of the men!

Minus the absolute language barrier, adjusting to life in China has not been that difficult. Switching time zones 12 hours forward was not too bad (the 24 hours of traveling might have helped). Our hotel is literally a 2 minute walk from our boat and the sailing center, and a Chinese restaurant where we have eaten dinner at every night save one is 2 minutes in the other direction. We have been very careful with what we eat, and have thus far escaped the g.i. problems that have plagued other sailors in China (we're knocking on wood as we write).

There are about 64 women's teams here, so the regatta is split into two
parts: three days of qualifying races, and four days of finals where the teams are split into the top half --gold fleet--and the bottom half--silver fleet (the men are split into three fleets). Today was the first day of qualifying. Races were scheduled to start at 12 noon, so we launched our boat at 11 am. Due to race committee inefficiency, we did not start racing until about 3 pm.

The first race was in light winds, about 5-7 knots, with a lot of current! We had a great start, and rounded the first mark in about 15th. We passed boats gradually throughout the race, and ended up finishing in 10th. Not bad for day #12 sailing together, and our first race as a team -- ever!

We started the second race at about 5 pm--at this point we were worried about daylight as it gets dark at 7! This race had more wind, about 8-10 knots. Our start left something to be desired, and we rounded the first mark in about 20th. We lost and gained a couple of boats here and there. Our last downwind and reach to the finish was exciting -- we caught two great waves downwind to gain a lot of distance on the pack of boats in front of us. Around the bottom mark to the finish reach, we had a great rounding, immediately passing one boat that had to gybe (turn) around the mark and did not do it very well. After rolling that boat, we sailed past three other boats, to finish the race in 18th.

We are excited to be racing together, and looking forward to 6 more days of the Worlds.

Unfortunately, the regatta website does not yet have the scores, but hopefully they will get that organized soon: http://470.rz.gov.cn/.

There are 6 other American teams here. We don't have all of their rankings memorized, but Amanda Clark and Sarah Mergenthaler are currently 8th overall in the women's, and Stu McNay and Graham Biehl are leading the US men's teams.

Thank you for all of your support!

Erin & Isabelle