Dear Friends,

We sailed two races today in a shift southwesterly breeze, and placed 12th and 18th.  Despite not feeling great about our results, we moved up to 6th place overall — the boats around us on the scoreboard had equally challenging days.  The good part about the day was that we had two great starts and, at some point in each race we were in approximately 5th place before losing boats in shifts upwind.  We are looking forward to three more days of racing — two days of qualifying, and the last medal race on Saturday.  For complete scores, please visit the regatta website:  http://www.skandiasailforgoldregatta.co.uk/  For details from today’s races, please read on!

Today was finally sunny — our first sunny day since we arrived in Weymouth!  The forecast was for a light northwesterly to back left to a west-southwesterly sea breeze.  The breeze had already started to shift left to the west-southwesterly sea breeze for our first race, but the northwesterly was fighting the southwesterly, making for a shifty and unstable race in 7 to 9 knots.  We had a great start towards the middle of the line, and tacked onto port in the first left shift.  As we looked around the upwind, we thought that the boats on the left were moving forward in better pressure.  We tacked on the first small right shift and went left, playing the middle of the upwind.  A large right shift filled in on the first upwind, putting us ahead of the boats on the left, but also putting many of the boats to our right ahead of us.  We kept going left, and tacked just under port layline to the windward mark, hoping for some sort of left shift.  We got a small lefty coming into the mark, and rounded the windward mark in the top 15.  Downwind we were able to gybe on to port and take advantage of the upwind right shift.  We had great speed downwind, and rounded the leeward mark in approximately 5th through 7th.  On the second upwind we gain played the middle, and again lost a couple of boats to the right.  We had a good last downwind, and were in 10th coming into the leeward mark.  The finish reach was very deep and two boats passed us: one above, and one below.  What a bummer!

The breeze had picked up for the second race to 11 to 13 knots.  The current had also picked up and was sweeping upwind, left to right.  We had several general recalls before the race finally got underway.  We again had a great start, towards the pin this time.  We played shifts on the middle left of the upwind and rounded in a big pack at the windward mark in approximately 12th through 15th.  We had a great downwind, and passed boats on both sides.  We rounded the leeward mark in approximately 7th.  Going upwind, we were playing the middle again, and 2/3rds up the upwind we tacked onto a small left shift, and went right.  This was our big mistake: we took a small shift towards the right, sailing away from the stronger wind and stronger upwind current.  Many boats got to our left, and we rounded the leeward mark in approximately 14th, losing all the gains that we had made downwind.  On the second downwind we got stuck in a pack battling high, and lost even more boats to finish the race in 18th.

We are finding that the racing in Weymouth is extremely challenging tactically, and we are looking forward to the challenge.  This challenge is reflected in the scores: the fact that, apart from the top three boats, teams have had extremely inconsistent scores.  We can’t wait 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

Stay tuned for more racing!

Erin and Isabelle

US Sailing Team Alphagraphics

Campaign for 2012 Olympic Games
www.470TeamUSA.com