A Medal Race Win and Silver Medal to Start 2012!

It was an exciting finish to the end! The Medal Race was sailed in a light, but building Easterly breeze. It was almost a carbon copy of last year’s Medal Race, and we remembered what paid that time. Going into the race, we had to make sure the Finnish team did not beat us by more than six boats.

At the first windward mark we found ourselves in 9^th and the Finnish in 2^nd. If the race ended there, we would have given up our silver medal. We had our work cut out for us. We took a split on the downwind from most of our competition by straight-setting and staying deep into the middle of the run. We rounded in nearly ninth again at the leeward mark, with room to run to the left side of the course. We took all the leverage we could, and found our way to the top mark in 3^rd, just behind the Finnish. We could breathe a bit easier, but the race wasn’t over!

As we approached the finish line, we positioned ourselves slightly low of the Finnish, on the starboard layline to the boat end. The Austrians, who had been leading, gybed away from the side a bit early, and were forced to do extra maneuvers in light pressure. We sailed the boat as deep as we could for as long as possible to keep our air clear, and then made a move at the last possible moment. We managed to sneak in and take the race win by inches in a photo finish! It was exhilarating to cross the line with our home crowd cheering as we took the silver medal in decisive fashion. Final results can be seen here.

We will certainly take many lessons away from this week. The best takeaway, however, has to be confidence. We will look to build on that as we continue our training and competition later this spring, as it will be the most important thing going into the Olympics.

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

Storck Moore Sailing

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