Open/Disabled Midwinter's - March 23-25, 2007 Continued

Thanks to John Muir, who made it possible, we scheduled a three-day intensive training camp with Coach Mike Wolf.  We trained March 5-7 in Miami and found it exceptionally beneficial. Mike, you’re a great coach!  Our performance improved after practicing many drills: starts, time-distance, sailing backwards, stop and go, lay lines, mark roundings, and sail trim.  Karen used this opportunity to continue practicing using her gimbled seat and tractor steering system, designed by Gene Hinkel, the father of disabled sailing. He does great work! Thanks to Alejandro Montoya for donating many hours of his time to help JP with boat repairs.

When our training was over, with Bill Quesenberry’s assistance, we packed up the boat and Gene towed it to St. Petersburg.  JP worked on finding the leaks again and improved our systems. Three blow tests later (consisting in blowing air inside the boat and finding soap bubbles where the air is escaping) no more leaks were detected, but there is still a possibility of a crack in the keel trunk, which cannot be tested with the keel in place.

Karen arrived on the 14th to continue our training.  Our plan was to train with volunteer coach, Colin Park, and with Sarah and Bob (USA 001) the week of the 19th. Unfortunately, Bob spent the week in the hospital secondary to an infected sore on his foot.  The two Canadian teams arrived and we had the opportunity to spar with them in several short practice races.  However, they spent much of their time dealing with spinnaker issues and boat preparations prior to the regatta. The weather was compliant with breeze in the 10-15 knots range and slowly clocking from SE, to S and SW.  We had a great time practicing our sail trim and speed in the chop.  Magnus Liljedahl, founder and chair of teamPARADISE and gold medalist in the 2000 Olympics, arrived on the 21^st.  Thank you Magnus for your assistance hauling and cleaning the SKUD and for your coaching input.

The racing started on the 23^rd with three races scheduled.  We were delighted to have a fresh 12-14 NE breeze. Our racecourse was a trapeze with 5 legs. The current was flooding, so we decide to go for a boat end start. Our timing drills had been going great, however, we did not factor in the big wind shadow of the 40 plus RC sail boat, thus we found ourselves starving for air and speed at the start. We had our work cut out as were now in the back of the fleet. Thanks to our good boat speed in the chop, we are able to climb back to third place at the first mark rounding and then climb to second at the last windward mark rounding in pursuit of Sarah and Bob (USA 001). Our downwind speed has always been our strength, and we manage to pass Sarah and Bob to take first place. What a race! A great start for the regatta and a confidence booster for sure.

The second race was more of the same, second row start and a fight back to the top three with Sarah and Bob (USA 001) and Julia and Scott (USA 005). At the leeward mark rounding, we fought to keep ahead of Bob and Sarah who were chasing us on the inside and Julia and Scott coming in on port from the right. We made a good rounding and closed the door on Sarah and Bob. The rest of the race we were chassed by Julia and Scott. They get on our stern downwind, but we are able to fend them off with a couple of luffing matches and take another first by a boat length.  We finished the day with a third bullet giving us added confidence on our boat speed up and down the racecourse.

Saturday the 24^th came with a similar forecast with winds just a notch lower.  The scenario was very similar, less than perfect starts, but our boat speed kept us out of trouble. We placed first in the first and second races of the day.  However, in the last race we wanted to go left for an expected left shift, so we sailed in CAN 015’s wind shadow after the start to get to the favored side. Bad call, we lost a lot of ground since the wind did not go left.  We caught up to all the boats who had gone right, but we ended up chasing Julia and Scott on the last downwind leg. We were able to gain; however, they were too far ahead. We placed second in the last race of the day.

The forecast for Sunday the 25^th was more of the same with the breeze expected to be again one notch lower. When sailing to the racecourse, the breeze was holding around 12 knots at 60 degrees. We were debated on what rig tension we should set since we had already loosened the rig for the expected lighter breeze.  We decided to go back to “Base setting” for this fresh breeze. A last call by Betsy Alison (USDST coach) suggesting to set for the lighter range, as it is always easier to de-power in the puffs rather than starving for power in the light spots.  In the first race we get tangled up with Julia/Scott (USA 001) and Canada 014 at the leeward mark rounding, and to avoid the protest room, we decide to take a penalty turn just to be safe.  There is a 50/50 chance of losing in the room whether one is right or wrong. We battled it out until the end with Canada 014 and take third place. Third would now be our drop.  We now knew that we could relax a bit since we could not lose the regatta with only one race to go. The last race brought lighter air. We were close with Canada 015 and Julia/Scott when at the top part of the windward leg, we played the shifts right and made tremendous gains. We sailed conservative to protect our position to take another first place. What a great way to finish a very positive regatta.

This is only our second regatta we have sailed together. This win gave us confidence and motivation to continue to work hard. We have good boat speed, but realize how hard the other teams will continue to train.  Everybody is progressing very quickly from one event to the next, and it will take a full time commitment of training to stay ahead.  Next we have more training in St. Pete.  Unfortunately, instead of spending all of our time on the water, we will need to spend much time fundraising.  This is essential component to our success.  We need new sails, a seating system and control panel for JP, coaching fees and coach boat, and to fix the keel leak just to name of few.  Ideally, we need a new SKUD for the trials and the Paralympic Games.  We will travel this summer and fall to Newport in July and August, Annapolis in June, Chicago in August, and Rochester for the Worlds in September and most importantly Newport for the trials in October (Brrrrrr….).

We really appreciate our supporter.  We could not pursue this endeavor without you!

The coaching with Mike Wolf and Colin Park paid off, and we must continue to train hard to continually improve.

We are looking for any possible assistance while in Newport and Rochester with dock help, boat storage and housing.

We believe that we have what it takes to go all the way and bring back the gold medal from China.

Thank you, Karen and JP

25 Mar, '07, 13:31