Dear Friends,

Today was one of those days that both of us will remember for a long time!  We had two races today in light winds, five to eight knots with lots of current, and won both of the races!  All of our training on Fishers Island Sound is paying off!  There is still a lot of racing left — nine more races — but it’s nice to have a small head start!  We’re still two races behind on the schedule of races, so expect to have three races tomorrow, Wednesday, with an early start at 11 a.m. (5 a.m. EST)  (And we got off the water around 8:15 p.m. so have to hurry to have dinner and get to bed.)  There are four races left in the qualifying series before the fleet gets split into Gold and Silver fleets, so qualifying will go on through Thursday.  We carry GPS units on our boat, so you can follow racing — live — online!  Follow the links from the Worlds website: www.470Worlds2010.com  For details from today’s racing, please read on!

Both races were trapezoid outer loops sailed in light air with current going upwind, making the upwinds short and the downwinds very long.  We had a great start in the first race, in low density in the middle of the starting line.  We were able to play two shifts on the first upwind and were looking good when Erin tacked in a great lane on port, below layline, while many other boats went beyond us and stacked up on overstood for the first mark.  We rounded the first windward mark in approximately fourth, and were able to extend from the pack behind us on the top reach.  At the reach mark the top of the fleet split, and we went to the downwind right, and got a nice windshift.  When the two sides converged at the bottom of the course we were in first, by a lot!  See below for a photo of our lead.  We sailed the rest of the race conservatively and were able to extend our lead and finish the race in first — by a whole leg!

For the second race we started all the way at the pin, but didn’t have a great start.  At least we had a clean air lane below the pack of boats above us and were able to go fast.  We tacked on a couple of small shifts near the top, and Erin again picked the perfect starboard layline to the mark.  We were second approaching the windward mark on starboard, and Erin knew that if we pinched high in the raging upwind current we would round the mark.  The Spanish team in front of us tacked twice, unnecessarily, to round the mark.  We set onto the tight reach in first place and never looked back.  We were happy to win another race, sailing conservatively, going fast, and making good decisions!

The race committee started a third race, where we were over early and by the time that we cleared were way behind the other teams.  We kept trying to make gains, and had moved into approximately 16th when the race got abandoned — after we set our spinnaker on our way “upwind” to the windward mark.

We were extremely happy with our day, and are now on our way to bed.  Stay tuned for more racing!

Thank you to 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 check donations are 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.  Or, donate directly through our website:www.470TeamUSA.com

Best,

Erin and Isabelle

US Sailing Team Alphagraphics

Campaign for 2012 Olympic Games
www.470TeamUSA.com