Things up to this point

Wow. So the last several months have had their fare share of ups and downs. A big win, a big loss, lots of good friends, lots of new friends, some great places and some great sailing. I used to write letters to the BOTG for everyone to read but I felt like creating this site would be easier for everyone. The last time I wrote to the BOTG I was in Palma, Spain calling tactics at the Copa Del Rey Regatta on Yasha (Swan 45). That was several months ago, since that time I have focused almost entirely on match racing.

About a month ago I hooked up with the Albatross Match Race Team from Tokyo, Japan. They were coming over for the Knickerbocker Cup and were in need of a tactician...I had nothing better to do. It seemed to be a good fit as we only lost one race through the entire match race regatta...yes, ....our only loss was to Chris Vantol due to a blown lee-bow that allowed him to get to the right of us and into the shift first.....a bad mistake but easily fixed. All in all it was a great experience, the people at the Knickerbocker YC were great and the Umpires did a fantastic job. For our team it was a pretty big deal, I had never competed in a grade 2 match race before, and my Japannese friends had never won anything that big before. That win got us an invitation to the Bermuda Gold Cup; a World Tour Event against the top sailors from all over the world.

Shortly after the Knickerbocker I called tactics for "Flash Gordon" in the Windy City Match race, and then followed that immediately with the US Match Race Championships. The US champs didnt go well for us as I had not driven a boat in almost two years, so the majority of my time was spent with my head in the boat...and because of that our tactics suffered. Still though, we finished with a record of 11-11 and were leading the race in eight of our losses.

So now I am in Bermuda for the Gold Cup and it has been a tremendous experience so far. We had a training session in Newport RI the weekend before with a couple AC friends of ours and they were able to introduce some new concepts and ways of thinking about match racing, especially for larger, slower boats than we are used to sailing at Bayview. Anyway, Im hoping to be able to post more soon and get some pictures up as well. Until then, just TRYNA.