Unless you have been reading our facebook posts, the last time you heard from us was Wednesday evening.  Since then we sailed one race yesterday, placing 4th, and three races today, placing 19th, 20th, and 14th.  Overall we are in 10th place, but the points in front of us are very close.  We are only 14 points out of 4th place!  The first three teams, the Dutch, the New Zealanders, and the Italians, have extended their lead.  Tomorrow is the last day of racing in the finals, followed by a medal race (counting double) on Sunday.  We have three races scheduled tomorrow with the first race starting at 11 am European time.  We carry GPS units on our boat, so you can follow racing — live — online!  Follow the links from the Worlds website:www.470Worlds2010.com

Yesterday, Thursday, July 15th was a VERY long day.  We launched at 10 am for the last two races of our qualifying series, in 25-30 knots of wind blowing against an upwind current.  The race committee measured some gusts in the 40’s!  All the 470’s sailed out to the race course, and waited for 30 minutes while the race committee tried to decide whether or not to race us.  They finally decided to postpone us ashore, and we all did our best to make our way back to the harbor.  We were postponed on shore from 12:30 until 6:00 p.m., when we were sent back out for races.  We started our first race of the day yesterday at about 7:30 p.m. in 15-18 knots of dying breeze.  At this point the current was going downwind, making the upwinds VERY long and the downwinds pretty quick.  On the first upwind, we sailed to the left side of the racecourse, were going fast, and found current relief.  We approached the windward mark in first and maintained our lead downwind.  By the time we got to the leeward mark the wind had died to approximately 8 knots.  The race committee shortened the course, but didn’t have the new windward mark in the water when we rounded the leeward mark.  We couldn’t find the windward mark, and didn’t cover the fleet.  By the time we found the mark we rounded in about 8th place.  Bummer!  We fought back to 4th which was satisfying.  The race committee tried to start another race at about 8:30 p.m., but the wind had died so much that it would’ve been almost impossible to go upwind.  They cancelled racing for the day, and sent us home.  By the time we left the sailing center yesterday, Thursday, it was 10 p.m….  And our first race today, Friday, was scheduled for 11 a.m. — quick turnaround!

Today was the first day of racing in the Gold fleet finals.  We sailed three races in about 20 to 25 knots, dying to 18-20 knots by the last race.  We were sailing trapezoid inner loop races all day.  Today was one of those frustrating days where you work very hard for so-so results.  The fact that we have been doing a lot of training in light winds showed when we had to race in the breeze.  The good news is that after three windy races today, we are that much better in big breeze and funky waves!  If only we didn’t have to learn this all during racing at the worlds…  In the first race current was still going downwind.  We had a great start towards the pin, went left, and rounded the windward mark just infront of a large pack, in approximately 8th place.  We slipped backwards all race long, ultimately crossing the line in 19th.  The second and third races were more of the same, except that current had switched and was going upwind now so there was no current relief next to shore.  We finished those races in 20th and 14th.  Overall, the right side of the racecourse was favored with more wind, and boats gained there all day.  We failed to realize this while racing, and didn’t make the right decisions to get there.

While we are disappointed to have slipped back to tenth in the standings, we are still close to the front of the fleet.  Only 14 points separate us from fourth place, and we are looking forward to three more races tomorrow!  Stay tuned!

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

We sailed two races today in 10 to 20 knots, and placed 5th and 10th.  We are now in 3rd place overall, with four days of racing left.  We have two more qualifying races scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday), and then the fleet will be split into gold and silver.  We can even hopefully start the final series tomorrow evening!  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!

Our racing today was characterized by not great decisions upwind, combined with good speed around the course, great speed on the windy tight reaches, and great downwind tactics to help us pass boats.  Today’s breeze was a shifty easterly, and the current was turning during our first race from flowing downwind to flowing upwind.  We started at the pin in the first race and went left.  2/3rds of the way up the first beat the left was not looking good, so we bailed and went towards the right.  Unfortunately for us, the left did come in, and we got bounced around the top of the beat.  We rounded the top mark in approximately twentieth.  We set immediately as the reach mark was low and blasted towards the mark, passing a pack of boats that had gone high.  We gybed at the reach mark, and passed some more boats downwind.  By the time the race was over we had moved up to 5th!

As we were preparing for the second race, we noticed a left shift during the starting sequence.  We decided to start towards the right end of the line so that we could tack onto port and get lifted immediately.  We worked the right side of the course, and the left paid again.  We were mid-fleet at the windward mark, and passed one or two boats on the tight reach.  We had sailed a great downwind tactically, and rounded the leeward mark in approximately 7th.  We missed a large left shift with pressure on the left side of the second beat, and lost five boats on the second upwind.  We were able to pass two boats at the leeward mark to finish the race in 10th.

The race committee sent us back to land after the second race early, at about 12:30, because the coast guard had ordered the race committee to bring the 470’s in.  The forecast called for 100 kmph (62+mph) winds and thunderstorms.  We were postponed until 6:30 p.m.  The thunderstorms arrived slower, and the race committee canceled racing at 5:30 p.m. just as the first thunderstorms hit.  We got back to our bungalows at 7 p.m., and felt like it had been an early night!  See below for a photo of us sailing in after a good day of 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

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

2010 Delta Lloyd 470 World Championships
9-18 July 2010 – The Hague, The Netherlands

The Hague, 13 July 2010
Return to Qingdao
Jo Aleh : ‘it was China all over again”

After a first day lost initially to too little wind and then too much, it was with considerable relief that three races for the Men and two for the Women could be held off the Hague today at the Delta Lloyd 470 World Championship. But with breeze that ranged from 4-8 knots and shut down altogether at the start of the third race for the men, and the north-flowing tide building to 2-3 knots over the course of the afternoon, conditions were highly challenging.

Class act of the day was certainly Beijing Gold medallist Malcolm Page (AUS) and his new (since 2009) helm Matt Belcher, who scored a perfect 1-1-1 to take the lead in the Men’s class. ‘It was tricky conditions,” commented Belcher. ‘We were lucky at certain times, but we are starting quite well, with good judgement, sailing smart and putting the boat in the right position.” Belcher acknowledged that good fortune particularly smiled on them in the final race when there was a pile up as two fleets converged at the final mark. Keeping clear enabled them to leap from third place into first for the final run into the finish.

Page and Belcher reckon they have trained less off the Hague than other top teams, but, while they deny it, they are riding the crest of a wave coming straight from victory at Kieler Wocher, following on from second places at the Delta Lloyd Regatta and Rolex Miami OCR – a set of results enabling them to walk away with this year’s Sailing World Cup win in the 470 Men, with a regatta to spare.

Double World Champions, Skandia Team GBR’s Nic Asher and Elliot Willis won the first two races in their group, but posted an 11th in the third, leaving them third overall, six points adrift of France’s highly consistent Nicolas Charbonnier and Baptiste Meyer Dieu.

According to Asher the key to success in today’s races with the powerful tide intent on taking the boats across the line, was starting well as this would launch you up the beat with the favourable tide. ‘There wasn’t much going on shift-wise. It was mostly downwind, because then we were into the tide so if you were quick downwind, you could get away.”

In the Women’s 470, American 2008 World Champions Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar matched the Australian men with a perfect scoreline. ‘The current definitely helped us,” said Maxwell. ‘Where we grew up, there’s a lot of current between Long Island and the mainland coast.” Her crew reckoned that they had done well upwind, tacking into good lanes with clean air enabling them to make fewer tacks.

At the end of play today the Americans are followed closely by New Zealanders Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie who posted two seconds and the Netherland’s Margriet Fokkema and Marieke Jongens on five points, the highly rated Dutch defending World Champions Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout having finished a disappointing 19th in the first race, after they were forced to recover from an OCS.

Jo Aleh, who finished seventh in the Laser Radial at the 2008 Olympic Games, compared today’s conditions off the Hague to racing in Qingdao. ‘The current was the funny bit. It was crazy, some of the starts – it was China all over again! Light wind, everyone sailing downwind with a minute to go.” In such strong tide Aleh advises it is essential to play safe and make as few mistakes as possible, for the penalty for errors is much more costly. ‘You can’t get away from it – you just have to not make mistakes. I don’t think we did that much right, I just think we didn’t do too much wrong. It was just simple stuff – we didn’t freak out too much!”

In such conditions the general consensus is that the 2010 Delta Lloyd 470 World Championships will be a high scoring regatta. Fortunately the forecast shows the wind building over the course of the week, peaking at 18 knots on Thursday afternoon.

/// ENDS

Event web site: http://www.470worlds2010.com/
International 470 Class Association: http://www.470.org

Text: James Boyd

# Notes to Editors

Photography
High resolution photography will be available to the media during the event free of charge, for publication in relation to the Delta Lloyd 470 World Championships

http://media.470worlds2010.com/files

user: 470worlds
password: denhaag

Video Footage
Video footage will be available in B Roll to broadcasting stations during the final series of the event, 15 -18 July.
Please contact Mr. Simon Keijzer: simon@miles.nl

Live coverage of the medal races on 18 July.
The medal races will take place on 18 July and can be followed live over the internet with Track & Trace and live streaming video.
Track and Trace
The races can be followed by Track and Trace by MyLaps
Click here for the Delta Lloyd 470 Worlds tracking page

More information
For media inquiries, please contact:
Rick van Wijngaarden, Media Co-ordinator Delta Lloyd 470 World Championships
E. press@470worlds2010.com
M. +31 (0)6 46 200 333

CONTACT INFORMATION:
DELTA LLOYD 470 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

International Sailing Center The Hague
Hellingweg 136
2583 DX The Hague
The Netherlands
Tel: +31(0) 70-3520017
Fax: +31(0) 70-322844

Email: info@470worlds2010.com
Event website: www.470worlds2010.com

View 470 Team USA’s Travels in a larger map

The waypoints are built with MotionX GPS on the Iphone. Click here to check out the program. Pretty cool!

Today was a day of hurry-up-and-wait-for-wind, with an exclamation point of excitement at the end of the day where we had to race a squall into shore!  We were lucky to emerge from the day unscathed — our sails hardly luffed — while two teams bent or broke masts, and many teams ruined equipment.  See the attached photos of broken masts.  We didn’t have any racing today, and we have three races scheduled tomorrow with the first race starting at 11 am European time.  We will be carrying GPS units on our boat, so you can follow racing — live — online!  Follow the links from the Worlds website:www.470Worlds2010.com

We knew today’s forecast did not bode well when we the range in wind speed was calling for anything from six knots all the way up to fifteen knots.  The race committee postponed us this morning at about 9:45 a.m. because of thunderstorms.  Our races were quickly postponed until 4 p.m., so we settled in for the wait, and had lunch on the covered terrace of an Italian restaurant where we could keep an eye on the wind.  We saw it swing through 360 degrees — twice — in about one and a half hours.

We launched at 3 pm hoping to get some races in after the thunderstorms.  There was almost no wind, and we could not make any headway against the two knot current: we were getting swept backwards at the rate of one boatlength every five seconds!  With looming dark clouds on the horizon, the race committee sent us into shore at about 4:30 p.m.  They made this decision about ten minutes too late.  We knew we were racing a bad thunderstorm.  Coach Skip Whyte and Jonathan Farrar (who had come down from coaching Skuds in Medemblik to watch a day of racing) got us to the boat ramp just in time.  We had rolled our mainsail on the way in, and sprinted up the launching ramp dragging our 470.  We were able to drop our jib just five seconds before a squall with 40+ knots hit us.  Some other teams were not as lucky as we were.  Boats capsized in and outside the harbor, washed up on the beach, and ruined equipment and broke masts.  We felt like the day had been a stunning success.

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

Racing starts tomorrow, Monday, July 12th at the 2010 470 World Championships in the Hague, Netherlands.  See below for a photo of us at the opening ceremonies.  We have gotten four great days of training at the regatta site, and are ready for action!  Tonight we are watching the Soccer World Cup with bated breath, wondering whether we’ll be able to get any sleep if the Dutch win.  We will be carrying GPS units on our boat, so you can follow racing — live — online!  Follow the links from the Worlds website: www.470Worlds2010.com

Our sail number is USA 1757, and our bow number is 21.

For those of you who are new to the list, all you need to do is read the first paragraph of our updates to get the quick scoop.  For those of you who want to hear all the gory details, read to the end of each update!

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

This past weekend, Friday, June 11th through Sunday, June 13th, we, in partnership with the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club Sailing Foundation, organized and hosted the 2010 470 National Championship. It was truly a national representation of the US 470 fleet! Twelve teams competed from all around the country: three teams came from St. Petersburg, FL; two teams came from Connecticut, Illinois and Wisconsin; and three teams came from Canada. The event included a two-day warm-up regatta on Saturday and Sunday, June 5-6, and a three day training camp during the week with Coach Skip Whyte.

The SHYC SF ran a very successful event, thanks to the volunteer race committee led by Tucker Bragdon, and the outstanding scoring and shore crew led by Cindy Nickerson. The 470 fleet raced in thirteen races over the course of three days. Despite the fact that the races were light, the race committee was able to get in a large number of good races.

The Manton Davis Scott Memorial Trophy for the winner of the U.S. 470 National Championship was awarded to Brendan Kopp and Michael Costello, of Pequot Yacht Club, CT, who won the event with a total of eighteen points. The trophy is given “in fond memory of an outstanding sailor and fine person,” and was first awarded in 1973. Manton Scott passed away on May 6, 1973, when the mast of his 470, a shroud of which he was holding, came in contact with a high tension wire that was strung over a boat storage area in Duxbury, MA. At the time, Manton Scott was on-leave from his junior year at Tufts. Manton Scott was raised in Darien, CT, and raced in the junior sailing program at Noroton Yact Club, skippering to win the 1969 Sears Cup. He is remembered as a modest, almost self-effacing young man who was always eager to share information with competitors. He showed a quick and incisive mine whenever small-boat racing was discussed. Some of the previous names on the trophy include renown sailors Steve Benjamin, Kevin Burnham, Neil Fowler, Allison Jolly, Morgan Reeser, and Dave Ullman, among others.

Kopp and Costello are currently campaigning 470’s around their academic schedules, with their eyes set on the 2012 and the 2016 Summer Olympics. Kopp is a rising junior at Harvard College, and Costello will be starting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA, in the fall.

The Canadian team of Andrew McCorquodale and Oliver Bone placed second with twenty-four points. Andrew Sumpton and Daniel Goldman, of St. Petersburg, FL, placed third with forty-two points. 2008 World Champions Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar placed fourth, despite missing all five races on Friday. The team won six of the eight races that they sailed, but this was not enough to get them onto the podium.

Complete scores are pasted below and can be seen at: www.shyc-sf.org

The forecast for tomorrow is for a northwest wind to shift to a southwest wind. Hopefully we will be able to get three races in, the maximum we can have in a day. Stay tuned!

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

US Sailing Team Alphagraphics

Campaign for 2012 Olympic Games
www.470TeamUSA.com