Catching Up
A lot of time has passed since my last post. After a long and eventful 2010 season I took a break to recuperate and regroup. I learned that one of the areas that seems can always be translated into results is fitness. I used the off season to hit the gym doing nine gym sessions three with weights and six cardiovascular. I have been keeping this regiment for two months now six days a week. I have also added on the water training with Master's Laser sailor Vann Wilson. We have been hitting the water three to four days a week in addition to the gym sessions. So, with the new training regiment I have finished my first two regattas of the Laser season, the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club Olympic Classes Regatta and the Laser Midwinter's West. In the first, respectively, I had a good regatta. There were seven races scheduled and after the first four I was in a three-way tie for second. I lost a point in two races. The first was letting my emotions get the better of me and tacking on a boat one too many times to push him back in the fleet- after I was fouled at the leeward mark. This cost me a one finishing position- one point. In the last race the breeze was dying breeze and on the last leg to the finish I had trouble shifting gears and lost a boat within one-hundred yards to the finish. If I had kept one of these points I would have been alone in second place. This would have earned me a silver medal because the second day of racing, the final three races, was canceled due to a storm that had winds gusting to forty knots. Disappointed, but lesson learned.
At the Laser Midwinter's West I had
a flashes of brilliance and moments of gut-wrenching agony. The regatta started off strong for me and I rounded the first weather mark in 3rd out of the 47 boat fleet (pictured right). After a lackluster downwind I was fortunate to hold on for a top ten finish. Top ten was my goal for each race and for the regatta. In the end I finished a disappointing 12th. The low point of the regatta was race seven. In a dying breeze the race committee was determined to stay on schedule and ran a race that turned into a drift match. At the last mark rounding, before the finish, I was in a comfortable 6th place. With the breeze trending left as it faded I headed to the left side of the race course hoping to stretch the last bit of breeze out to the finish, but I could not have been more wrong! Thirty boats drifted past me and doubled my second worst score. Ouch! The positive taken away from the regatta was my downwind. Like the first race this has always been an area of weakness for me, but somewhere between the first and second race something clicked and I was sailing downwind better than I ever have.
A special thanks to Kip Meadows for his kind support without whom this regatta would not have been possible.
Stay tuned for updates throughout the season.
At the Laser Midwinter's West I had
a flashes of brilliance and moments of gut-wrenching agony. The regatta started off strong for me and I rounded the first weather mark in 3rd out of the 47 boat fleet (pictured right). After a lackluster downwind I was fortunate to hold on for a top ten finish. Top ten was my goal for each race and for the regatta. In the end I finished a disappointing 12th. The low point of the regatta was race seven. In a dying breeze the race committee was determined to stay on schedule and ran a race that turned into a drift match. At the last mark rounding, before the finish, I was in a comfortable 6th place. With the breeze trending left as it faded I headed to the left side of the race course hoping to stretch the last bit of breeze out to the finish, but I could not have been more wrong! Thirty boats drifted past me and doubled my second worst score. Ouch! The positive taken away from the regatta was my downwind. Like the first race this has always been an area of weakness for me, but somewhere between the first and second race something clicked and I was sailing downwind better than I ever have.A special thanks to Kip Meadows for his kind support without whom this regatta would not have been possible.
Stay tuned for updates throughout the season.
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