Hello from 470 Team USA!

We’ve been silent since our victory at the 2008 World Championships.  We took a break from our own 470 sailing, and cheered for the US teams racing at Quingdao for the Olympics.  We’re back in the 470 and have lots of exciting recent news:  Erin’s wedding this past September (and Isabelle’s coming up in June), double nominations for the 2008 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Award, a new boat, and a #1 ranking on the 2009 US Sailing Team Alphagraphics after a strong performance at US Sailing’s Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta!

First of all, we would like to thank the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club Champion’s Fund for their grant to help defer some of the costs of the Miami OCR.  Going forward we’re looking for team sponsors, so any suggestions or help in that area would be much appreciated.  We will have advertizing space on our website, boat, and gear, and look forward to helping use our #1 ranking and World Championship to support any sponsor.

The past year has been momentous in our personal lives.  Erin married Brit Bischoff on September 20th in Stonington, CT.  Isabelle was one of the bridesmaids, of course.   Isabelle is currently busy planning her wedding to Jonathan Farrar set for the month of June on Fishers Island, NY.   Erin will be a bridesmaid at that wedding.   We are both enjoying new professional challenges:  Erin working for Louis Dreyfus Commodities in Wilton, CT, and Isabelle in her first year NYU School of Law.

In December 2008, both of us were named to the shortlist of five final nominations for US Sailing’s 2008 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Award.   Our nominations resulted from our victories early in 2008 at the Sail Melbourne Asia Pacific Championships and the 470 Women’s World Championships.  We were honored to make the shortlist of nominees and to be recognized as members of the American sailing elite.  The winner of the award was announced in January: Anna Tunnicliffe, Gold medalist in the Laser Radial Class at the 2008 Olympic Games.  We congratulated Anna on the Rolex, an exclamation point on a fantastic year!

This past fall, still glowing from our World Championship victory, we realized we sorely missed the competition of 470’s.  We decided to buy a new boat, and to keep racing in some capacity.

In order to stay in touch with the class, we decided to race in US Sailing’s Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta this past January.  This regatta, one of the new ISAF World Cup events, was also the sole ranking regatta for the 2009 US Sailing Team Alphagraphics.  In preparation, we made two trips down to Miami, FL to train.  The Bischoff family was generous in housing us and this year outdid themselves in supporting us with their inflatable “Racer Chaser” to use as a coach boat.   Also, many thanks to Jonathan Farrar for coaching us back into racing shape, and for helping us have a successful regatta.

US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR is a week long event held on Biscayne Bay.  The women and men’s 470’s raced together as one fleet even though were scored separately over the finish line (two 1st’s, two 2nd’s, etc.).  It made for some tricky racing trying to pick out the women’s boats amongst the men and not get tangled with boats that didn’t matter in your scoring.    We were in first or second for the duration of the event, eventually finishing in second behind a Danish team.   We were happy to see a lot of the old jewels of our racing skills were still there, despite being rusty from only seven days of 470 training since the 2008 Worlds.   We still had great boatspeed in most conditions and had maintained most of our downwind skills we had learned prior to the ‘08 worlds.

There were exciting moments of the regatta: like reaching along with the spinnaker up in over 20 knots, in 4th place in the combined fleet, gaining on the men’s team directly in front of us, and being 300 yards ahead of the closest women’s team!  And also less-optimal moments: like Isabelle unclipping from the trapeze wire and falling in the water when we were in 2nd place overall in the race.  Overall, the good definitely outweighed the bad.

The most exciting part of our second place finish at US Sailing Rolex Miami OCR was that we were the top American team, qualifying us to be ranked 1st on the US Sailing Team Alphagraphics!  This is the first time we have been ranked first in the US as a team and are truly excited about it.   What a great way to start off an Olympic quad!  Below are a couple photos from the event.

Our new boat arrived into Miami in January.  We actually picked it up from a shipping container yard early in the morning on the first day of the Miami OCR.  The new boat is laid out very similarly to our older boat but with a few more custom modifications.  Its also a newer mold, so the hull design should theoretically be a little faster.  Owning two boats will enable us to keep working, going to school and training in the U.S., while still being able to race in Europe occasionally.

Looking forward:

We split up our boats, sending the new one up to Norwalk, CT, and the Worlds boat over to Europe for any regattas we may do there.  Our regatta schedule for this year is still evolving, but it will likely include the Holland Regatta in the end of May, one of the Grade 1 ISAF World Cup events, and the World Championships in Denmark in August.  We will also be training in Connecticut this spring and summer.

We head out to the US Olympic training site, in Chula Vista just outside of San Diego, this weekend to work with the physical training staff there.   The US Sailing Team Alphagraphics team members will be learning how to optimize our workout plans and increase our fitness levels to maximize on-the-water performance.  We’ll have access to some of the best trainers available to the US Olympic Team.

Best wishes to all, on and off the water.  Many thanks again to our supporters.

Erin and Isabelle

470 Team USA
www.470TeamUSA.com

erin@470TeamUSA.com
isabelle@470TeamUSA.com
P.S. Our website is currently undergoing renovation, so our apologies in the meantime.