Posted By: Sydney ••••••DATE: April 10, 2010


Our first 470 event was the Rolex OCR in Miami this January. It was an amazing experience and we learned so much. With each race we were able to improve our boat handling and speed, allowing us to occasionally compete at the top of the fleet throughout the course of the regatta. The Women’s 470 fleet at the OCR was composed of some of the top 470 sailors in the world, with a spattering of World champions and Olympic medalists.

We had 4 days of actual time on the water sailing a 470 and 5 days of boat work prior to the start of the racing. The first scheduled day of racing was uneventful, with squalls passing over Biscayne Bay preventing the race committee from running any races that day. Day 2 brought moderate breeze with 6-10 knots out of the NW direction that shifted right to a North breeze in the afternoon. The wind was quite shifty making for some challenging race conditions. With very little experience in the boat we were definitely at a disadvantage in these unpredictable conditions. While the more experienced boats were able to focus primarily on race tactics, we had to do divide our attention between boat speed, boat handling, and tactics. Our coach for the event and one of the US Sailing Development Team coaches, Leandro Spina, continued to remind us to focus more on the racing and less on the boat. It is my belief that it is especially important when sailing a new boat to focus on tactics because when you position your boat well, your boat handling improves as a result.

Day 3 was very similar in conditions to day 2. We came into day 3 with a better idea of how we compare to the rest of the fleet, which allowed us to go into each race with an idea of where we would like to finish. Before each race we made a game plan for the first upwind beat and would then try to put ourselves in a place on the start line that would allow us to follow through with our plan. When we were able to successfully get off the line and sail our own race, we often rounded the top mark in a good position. The first couple of days of the regatta, we struggled finding a fast “low mode” sailing downwind. This posed a problem tactically, because we had fewer options as far where we could sail on the course. By the last couple of days we had managed to find this “low mode” and in turn had greater success on the downwind portions of the race.

Our overall goal for the regatta was to learn as much as we could from our coaches and the elite sailors we had the opportunity to sail against and steadily improve throughout the regatta. I believe that we accomplished that goal. We have a lot to learn and a lot more time to spend in the boat before we can start competing at the level we would like to be. It is a long process, so it’s important that we don’t get frustrated, remain patient, and always remember to keep it fun. We finished 16th overall and were tied for 3rd place USA boat.

Next up, Caitlin and I plan to compete at Kiel Week in Germany at the beginning of the summer and then head to Weymouth in August for Sail for Gold. We will both be coaching at Newport Harbor Yacht Club this summer during the month of July to raise money for both of these events. We are working in the same area this summer so we can train together for the month between Kiel Week and Sail for Gold. We are really excited to compete in these events and plan to use Kiel Week and our summer training in California to prepare to have a good showing at Sail for Gold at the end of the summer. It would great to establish ourselves in the class at this event and come away with a solid result.

A big thank you to all of you that support us. We honestly could not do this without you and we really appreciate it.