On The Road

Like many sailors, I've seen a lot of this country traveling to and from regattas. I pulled into Ithaca last night after 2900 miles of driving from San Francisco, and the funny thing is that I enjoyed it. The wide open spaces of Neveda, Utah, and Wyoming are spectacularly empty, and the constant hum of the road gives you plenty of time to think and dream.

Although my goal is to win sailboat races, what I'm doing isn't really even about sailing. It is mostly about doing something that I WANT to do, something that I am fully engaged in and attentive to. Whether it is driving across America, exercising in the gym, or reading the wind on the water before a race, the job of the sailing campaigner is to pay attention to the details, and to dedicate themself to improvement and awareness.

"The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called 'yourself'."

"The study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself. Working on a motorcycle, working well, caring, is to become a part of a process, to achieve an inner peace of mind. The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon."

-Robert M Pirsig

Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance

Presentation at Ithaca Yacht Club, August 1st, 6:30 pm

I will be giving a presentation at my home Yacht Club, ITHACA!, on Wednesday August 1st at 6:30 pm (right after the Junior Roast). Please come by to hear about The Road To The Olympic Trials and to help me raise money to support my campaign. See you there!

Big Breeze Training in SF!

Training partner Trevor Moore (2007 College Sailor Of The Year, Hobart '07) and I are have finished 4 out of 5 days of our training camp on the San Francisco Bay sailing out of The San Francisco Yacht Club. The breeze has been ON (as usual) and we have been averaging 3 to 4 hours a day on the water, but we are still psyched and pushing each other hard. Tracy Usher joined us yesterday for a 20 mile sail that took use out into the pacific Ocean to Point Benitas and then back under Angel Island. Trevor was a little dismayed to hear from Tracy that we were out in shark territory, but no shark attacks today! One more day of grinding, and then the cross country drive begins. Keep checking this site throughout August for regatta and training updates!

GOING BIG!

Ripping downwind in big breeze in a laser is one of the greatest experiences in all of sailing! The boat surfs wildly down, over, and into the waves, and aggresive yet smooth technique is needed to keep it from capsizing. The paradox is that you are often going the fastest just before you wipe out, so the best technique is to sail the boat on the edge of disaster without actually flipping over. However, in order to make this technique work, you need to go over the edge in practice so that you know exactly where it is while you're racing.

With this in mind, Emery Wager and I set off on Saturday, June 31st to sail downwind in the hardcore conditions of San Francisco Bay from the St Francis YC on the City Front to the Stanford boathouse in Redwood City. At over thirty miles, this is a long sail in a 14 foot laser, so we packed extra energy bars and a cell phone triple-wrapped in plastic as our safety gear, and went for it! Although we stopped for quick breaks every 30 minutes, the sail still took only 3 hours and 15 minutes, meaning we were averaging over 10 knots!

KEEP IT REAL

2nd place at Canadian Nationals!! June 22-24

The Buffalo Canoe Club hosted a great event at their beautiful club on the shores of Lake Erie, just 15 minutes on the Canadian side of the border. Big thank you's to Cam for lending me his boat for the weekend, to Kate Pearce for lending me her Forester to drive up and back from Ithaca(since my boat and car are in San Francisco), and to the Jordan Family for the fantastic housing! Meghan Jordan is a current student at my Alma Mater Hobart, and her parents, two sisters, and wild little brother may have given us the most fun housing ever!

I picked up training partner and friend Emery Wager at the Buffalo Airport on Thursday, and headed to the regatta site to get oriented and have a quick practice session. Emery is a recent graduate of the Stanford program (where I coached during 2005-2006) and is the 2007 Collegiate Laser Champion! It is essential to have talented and fun training partners in singlehanded boats, because you can push each other, share ideas, and stay motivated much more easily. I'm psyched to have Emery and other great sailors to train and race with, because it makes me better.

The conditions were great for the event, with 3 races sailed in a puffy offshore breeze of 15-22 knots, 3 races sailed in light winds of 6 knots or less, and 3 races sailed in a perfect thermal breeze of 10 -18 knots with great waves. In sailboat racing, the weather conditions play a central role in what techniques and strategies you employ in order to sail well and win. Interestingly, Emery won all three races in the thermal breeze of 10-18 knots and waves, while I won all three races of 6 knots or less. That makes me quite excited to practice and race with Emery in the future, because he is fast!

Emery ended up winning the regatta with 18 points in 9 races (3,6,1,5,1,1,1,2,4), while I had 21 points (4,4,5,1,3,5,2,1,1) and Third place Evan Lewis had 47 points. For you math wizzes out there, each competitor is often allowed to discard their worst score from their overall score, and low points win!

Laser European Championships. Hyeres, France.

I arrived to Barcelona, Spain on May 29th to begin my two week trip to europe for the Laser European Championships. The Europeans is one of the most competitive regattas in the world each year, and it was my first time in Europe, so I was in for a treat!

After spending the afternoon walking around Barcelona, which is a beautiful city, I took the first train in the morning towards France. Armed with my Carbon Fiber tiller and two duffel bags of sailing gear (see top photo), I worked my way along the south coast of Spain and then France, often seeing the Mediterranean to the right and stopping in towns such as Narbonne, Cerrebe, Montepellier, Marseille, and Toulon. I finally arrived in Hyeres in the evening, and headed for the sailing area to look for a place to stay. Luckily, I was able to stay with fellow American Andrew Campbell and Aussie Tom Slingsby, who were very generous to take me in, and were fun to hang out with. In fact, Tom won the regatta, and is ranked second in the world!

After 3 practice days to tune up my charter boat and get warmed up, competition began on June 3rd, which was also my 25th birthday. The first day had a nice seabreeze building from 10 to 16 knots, and the competition was fierce! The fleet of 150 competitors was split into three qualifying groups of 50 each, and after the first 4 days of competition, the fleet would be split into Gold, Silver, and Bronze divisions. My goal for the regatta was to make the Gold Fleet. On day one I finished with a 12th and a 23rd in the first two races. US Sailing Team Coach Gary Bodie had some usefull tips for Andrew and I, and I was psyched to race for 5 more days.

The highlight of the regatta for me was on day two, when I won the first race of the day! The winds were light at about 4-6 knots, and it seeemed that there would be more wind to the left side of the course due to a point of land 2 or 3 miles upwind that was blocking the wind on the right side of the course. So I sailed up the left on the first upwind leg, went out a little further than the rest of the pack, and got a nice left puff all the way up the layline. I rounded the windward mark in second, but the first place sailor (American Zach Marks) was flagged for illegal body movements and had to do a 720 degree penalty turn. So I was in first all the way around the course, with a tricky Russian sailor nipping at my heels! It was incredibly fun to win a race, and I pumped my fist at Gary after the finish, feeling pretty good!

After the 4 day qualifying series, my scores were 12,23,1,12,30,25. That was enough for me to make the Gold Fleet and sail the last 2 days with all the best sailors in the world, including world champions, many olympians, and a lot of hungry competitors! I sailed well against them, finishing 32nd and 29th out of 50 in the two gold fleet races that we completed, and most importantly I learned from the experience. When you are surrounded by the best players in your sport for 10 days, you learn a lot, not only about their sailing style and technique, but also about how they eat, how they exercise, and how they think. I certainly learned just by staying with Tom, who eats more than anyone I've ever met! As Gary said, "I bet he works out a lot too". Good point coach! My overall finishing position was 41st out of 150.