Hello to all!
I would like to start by saying that if you do not want to hear from me or be on this e-mail list to please e-mail me back to let me know. On that note, if you know of anyone else who should be added to this list, please do not hesitate to let me know that too! (or if you have a new address that you would prefer this e-mail to go to)
It has been a while since I have e-mailed you last, and its the first time for some of you. I normally send out e-mail updates at every regatta that I'm at to keep you all posted on my progress. There are a few things I need to update you all on since it has been a while...
As most of you already know, the Olympic Class has changed to the Laser Radial for women, and as a result I have made the switch to the Radial. For me it has not been too hard as I have been doing a lot of radial sailing in the last few years (Pan Am Games, World Sailing Games etc...) I am quite excited to the new challenges ahead of me as this fleet becomes more and more competitive! Bring it on!!
Now to do a quick update on the events that I have done so-far this year...
Miami OCR- Light and shifty and very tough for me. I finished 15th in this event and I was not very pleased with that result at all. I know that I can sail better than that. My head was not in the game and I was not really ready for an event like that. That said, I do not regret going there as there is no better way for me to get back into the racing scene!
Midwinters East, Clearwater Florida- Yet another Light wind event... quite an interesting regatta with only 3 races in 4 days... One of my 3 races was a BFD (Black Flag Disqualification) for being over the line early. 36th overall and not impressed at all!! Who knew that the first two events of the season would be so difficult for me?!
Midwinters West- Three times lucky, right? Well, not so much this year... ANOTHER light wind event at Marina Del Ray California, this time with big swells just to keep it interesting! I finished 14th which still wasn't very good, but considering the conditions and the general size of all the competitors in the fleet, I have to say that I was a little more pleased with my result, though I still think that I should have been able to do better. By the end of this regatta I thought that I was doomed to sail only light wind events for the whole year!! How depressing!
ABYC OCR- Alamitos Bay, California- Well... to start off I thought that my depressing thoughts from the previous regatta were true! For the week of training before the event there was some decent breeze, but when the regatta started, there were about 4 systems fighting each other right where we were trying to sail. This made for some super light wind and super shifty. In the end though, it cleared up and was typical ABYC with a beautiful strong seabreeze at about 15-18knots. As soon as the breeze came in, I managed to win every race and won the regatta. yay!!
Those have been the major events so-far this year...
You might be wondering why I mentioned the Finn Dinghy in the title of this e-mail, and well... that's because between mids west and ABYC, I raced the US Collegiate Finn Nationals. It was light wind and the racing was inside the bay at ABYC. I managed to finish 3rd overall and I now have a Finn Trophy sitting on my desk!! It was heaps of fun!! 8 short races and lots of tight competition! Not too bad for my first time sailing a Finn I'd say. It is the new Open Class at the Olympics you know.... ha ha ha...
What's next?
April 12th I leave to head over to Europe for several regattas. I will do the same tour as I did last year starting out in France at the Semaine Olympique Francais, then to Holland for SPA Regatta (though apparently its now called the "holland regatta") and then off to Germany for Kieler Woche. There will be some smaller events between these ones as well.
The last thing I want to mention that I think is pretty cool to look at is my World Ranking... As you can see, I haven't had many good results yet this year, but as the Rankings are new for the Radial (fresh start), my ranking is pretty good since I have gone to all the events that count in North America. Please go to www.sailing.org/rankings and click on Laser Radial-Single Handed Dinghy to see for yourself, but I will tell you if you'd like. I'm in 6th place in the world at the moment. I've already printed off the page to keep for my records!!
I really hope that all of you are doing well and i hope to hear back from you! Happy Sailing!
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