It was one of those days for us. We managed only a 3-8-14 on the day, which keeps us in second overall, but outside of striking distance to first. It is frustrating to have sailed such a great event and lose a chance at the win in the final race, but we have definitely learned from it.
The first race today had more breeze than any other of the week, with puffs near 16 knots. It was fun to be in those conditions again, and we found ourselves leading around most of the racecourse. We gave up one position by forcing ourselves into a tight mark rounding at the final windward mark, and we lost another boat thanks to some poorly timed motorboat chop on the final run to the finish. Either way, we knew we had sailed a good race. The second and third race we did not sail as well. We gave up points in places we shouldn’t have. In the same way we talked yesterday about the ability to fight back and salvage a good finish, we need to be able to handle situations like today. This is why we sail so many regattas.
Tomorrow is the double-points Medal Race. We cannot move into first, and we have to protect our second place position by not allowing the Finnish to beat us by more than six boats. Our goal is to win the race, while keeping an eye on the boats closest behind us. You can see the standings here. There will be live tracking tomorrow on the regatta website, here. Our race is scheduled to start at 12:20 PM.
Thanks to all of our supporters and sponsors, including Sperry Top-Sider. We would also like to thank the sponsors and supporters of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics especially our title sponsor AlphaGraphics and Gold Partners Atlantis and Rolex.
Erik
