Sorry for not writing to you yesterday, Wednesday. We had a very long day on the water with three races, and we did not have time (or energy) to send the usual update. In yesterday’s three races we placed 33, 21 and 12th. At the end of the day we had slipped to 21st overall. We had problems with both our boat and our sail that we were able to fix before racing today. Today we had one race and placed 6th! That moved us up to 17th overall, and is how we will end the regatta. Tomorrow we will have a full day of practice, and cheer on the other American teams that will be competing in the medal races. For details of yesterday and today’s racing, please read on!

Yesterday, Wednesday, we launched in a windy 16-18 knot northwesterly wind. We sailed the first race in that, and then the second two races were in a shifty southwesterly wind. In the first race yesterday we were appallingly slow, stuck on the wrong side of two big shifts, and crossed the line in 33rd. After the race, the wind died, and as we were training to set up for the next race Erin heard an unusual tapping noise in the boat. We flipped our sailboat onto the coachboat to inspect the bottom of the boat and, sure enough, saw that one of our gaskets had come loose. Gaskets are two thin strips of material that are glued onto the bottom of the boat on either side of the centerboard to keep extra water out of the centerboard trunk. When they come off it is VERY slow. Not only does a loose gasket create a lot of drag, but extra water also comes into the centerboard trunk. To do a temporary fix, we turtled our boat, sat on the bottom, and duct-taped the gasket back on. See the photo below for the action!

With our gaskets back on, we were a little bit faster, but still lacked our usual speed and the speed of the top teams. We placed 21 in the second race, and then placed 12 in the third race. We did not get back onto land until 7 pm, and then spent over an hour fixing our gaskets. We watched the sun set in the parking lot.

After discussing our sailing with our coach Skip Whyte at the end of the day yesterday, Skip and Erin realized that our new mainsail had a big problem. The sail we are currently using is made with a different bolt-rope than all of our other sails, and because of the new material, the shape of the sail is totally different. The bolt-rope is the rope that is sewn into the front of the mainsail and fits into a track on the mast to keep the mainsail attached to the mast. We contacted the sailmaker, and they suggested shortening the bolt-rope by 8 to 10 centimeters — that’s a big change!

We felt like a whole new team today, and launched ready to conquer the world, after fixing our gaskets and mainsail. Even though we were on the water from 10:30 am until 5:30 pm, we only had one race to show for the seven hours spent on the water. We got one race in this morning in a 12-15 knot northwesterly. We had a great race! We were playing in the top pack and ended up in 7th place — only a couple boatlengths out of 5th! After that the wind died, and became very unstable. We started a race, and were again looking much better — mid-teens and poised to move up on a tight reach — when the race got canceled. The race committee finally sent us in at 5 pm, just when a northeasterly that we could have raced in was filling in.

Looking back on the regatta, we are clearly disappointed with a 17th place. We were happy with our good scores — the 3, 9, 12, and 7 — but unhappy with the others. The mainsail and gasket problems clearly did not help our scores. We leave the regatta even more determined to work even harder towards our goal of the 2012 Olympics.

Thank you our larger team! To the many individuals who give generously to support our olympic sailing campaign, and to our sponsors who support our effort. The US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics sponsors: AlphaGraphics, Rolex, Atlantis, Sperry Topsiders, and Harken. And, our personal sponsors: Kaenon and Sampson Ropes.

All donations to our campaign are greatly appreciated and tax deductible. Please mail checks to: Sailing Foundation of New York, c/o Isabelle Farrar, 326 East 82nd Street, Apartment 5C, New York, NY 10028-4362. Or, donate directly through our website: www.470TeamUSA.com

Best,

Erin and Isabelle