Dear Friends,

We write from Rungsted, Denmark, after Day 1 of the 2009 470 World Championships. We finished 5th place in both races today, and are in 6th place (tied for 5th) overall out of 57 boats. There are 11 races left: 4 more qualifying races, 6 finals races, and 1 medal race.

For complete scores, photos, and live GPS tracking(!!) of the races, please visit the regatta website:
http://worlds470.kdy.dk

Thank you to all of our sponsors who make our effort possible. The US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics sponsors: AlphaGraphics, Rolex, Atlantis, Sperry Topsiders, and Harken. And, our personal sponsors: Stonington Harbor Yacht Club, Kaenon, and Sampson Ropes.

Since we last wrote after placing 3rd at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Medemblik, Holland, in May, we have been busy. Erin continued to work hard as a commodities trader for Louis Dreyfus. Isabelle interned for a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, and prepared for her second year of law school at NYU. And, Isabelle and Jonathan Farrar got married, with Erin as one of the bridesmaids!

This summer we trained on weekends out of the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club. We were lucky to have both Jonathan Farrar and Skip Whyte coach us. On August 1st and 2nd, we raced in the 2009 470 Atlantic Coast Championships, hosted by the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club. We had a good fleet of 6 boats, and raced 10 races in just two days. There was good wind conditions and a lot of current. We won 9 out of the 10 races, and are the 2009 Atlantic Coast Champions! Jonathan coached us at the Atlantic Coast Championships, and is here working with us at the World Championships.

For the Worlds, Erin arrived on Thursday morning, August 20th. We were lucky that Jonathan was able to bring our boat to Denmark, arriving early and getting all of our gear sorted out. Erin and Jonathan took the boat through measurement on Thursday, Isabelle arrived Friday morning (after a week of interviews with law firms), and we had a double practice session on Friday. We had another solid day of practice on Saturday, working with some of the boats on the US Sailing Team, and later that day placed 3rd in the regatta practice race.

We were excited to start racing this morning, and defend our 2008 World Championship title. We were the first boat to launch at 10:30 this morning, only to return to the dock because we were postponed on land until 12:30 when the seabreeze filled. We sailed two solid races in a building breeze, 8 going to 12 knots in the first race, and 12 going to 15 knots in the second race. There was also a strong current going diagonally downwind, making all of the markroundings and laylines more interesting. We hit some of the shifts upwind, and were going blazing fast on the tight reaches and the runs downwind. We were very happy to put two solid scores up on the scoreboard, with many of the top teams sailing one deep race.

Please stay tuned for more exciting news from the racing this coming week!