Well, today was the first day of the Olympic Trials.  We sailed two races in a light 6-8 knot sea breeze, finishing 9th and 7th.  We are in 9th place overall, 9 points behind the top women’s team.  This is only day one of a very long regatta, so buckle your seat-belts and hang on for some exciting racing!

In the first race we had a great start towards the left, pin, end of the line.  We played the left side of the upwind in a 40 degree right shift.  That was tough.  We rounded the first windward mark deep, and caught up a lot of distance downwind.  On the second upwind we caught a nice little left shift and were back in the game before we again played the left side and the breeze went right.  We were caught in the traffic jam at the back of the fleet downwind, and did well to stay ahead of them, passing two boats on the last downwind to finish the race in 9th.  Crisis averted and on to the next race.

In the second race we were convinced that right was the way to go.  We had a great start at the right, boat, end of the line, were the first boat to tack over, and led the fleet towards the right.  At a crucial moment when we could have tacked and consolidated our gains on the fleet, we kept going right and, you guessed it, the breeze went left 20 degrees.  Ouch again.  We were again in a tight pack going downwind, and passed two of the four boats in front of us to cross the line in 7th.  Again, not great, but it could have been a lot worse.

The weather forecast is for lighter winds tomorrow, more of the same except a little bit lighter.  

As always, scores are posted on the regatta website faster than we can get them to you:

http://www.ussailing.org/olympics/OlympicTrials/race_results.html

Best,

Erin and Isabelle

www.470TeamUSA.com

erin@470TeamUSA.com

isabelle@470TeamUSA.com