Posted By: Sydney ••••••DATE: August 17, 2010

June 19 – June 23 Kiel Week Regatta, Location: Kiel, Germany

A couple planes, one bus, and a taxi ride later, we arrived at the “Farm” where almost all of the US Alphagraphics and Development Team stayed for the Kiel Week Training Camp and Regatta. It was a beautiful location with every accommodation we could need, including a lovely restaurant and a soccer field to play our World Cup inspired soccer tournaments! It was really nice to have the whole US team living together because it built a sense of community. I met a lot of really talented and successful sailors and was able to talk to them about their experiences campaigning for the Olympics.

What was particularly exciting about arriving in Kiel was seeing our 2006 McKay 470! We spent the first few days getting the boat race ready, which was a long and sometimes frustrating process. After many hours of boat work and some late evenings at the Regatta venue the boat was good to go and it was time to practice! We worked with coach Lucas Calabrese training in some light air conditions with fellow US development team members Annie Haegar and Briana Provancha. Lucas is currently campaigning the 470 for Argentina and was able to share many of his own experiences sailing the 470. We also got the opportunity to sail against the US men’s 470 teams, Stu McNay/Graham Biehl and Adam Roberts/Nick Martin and get coaching from US Sailing coach Romain Bonnard. It was great to sail against some very experienced 470 teams and learn some of the techniques they have picked up over the years.

The five-day event began on the 19th of June, with four days of racing and one day devoted to the medal race, which includes only the top 10 competitors who are competing for the medaling positions. Throughout the four days of racing only four races were completed, three out of four were completed the first day of the event! The first day brought strong winds, 18 knots with gusts just over 20, and 6 ft. waves. We had only spent one day sailing in conditions like these in Miami back in February, and that was it, so it was a challenging day of racing for sure! In general, we were pretty fast in a straight line, but we struggled a bit with our heavy air boat handling, which kept us from having very strong finishes that day. The next two days were spent on land because the conditions did a compete 180 with not a breath of wind on the 470 course. We waited around the boat yard, entertaining ourselves with all sorts of games and activities, as hours passed under postponement. Racing for the 470 class was finally called off around 4pm both days. We were pretty bummed not to get any racing in either day, but it was another opportunity for some team bonding as we were all stuck on shore! The last day of racing finally brought some very light wind, just enough to complete one final race that day! The women’s fleet finished with the last of the wind and race committee announced that racing was finished for the day.

Kiel Week Regatta is an event that takes place during a time where the weather can go one of two ways. You either wake up in the morning and it is beautiful, sunny and warm with no breeze or it is cold, rainy and breeze on! Unfortunately, this Kiel Week had lovely warm weather, great for those enjoying the Kiel Week Festival, but not so great for the sailors. Thank you to all of our supporters, US Sailing Development Team, Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation, Southport Sailing Foundation, CISA and our friends and family, for their continued support of our 470 Campaign. Caitlin and I are so grateful for the experiences that you have helped us to achieve, traveling the world and competing against the top sailors internationally! For more information about Kiel Week 2010 and results visit http://www.kieler-woche.de/eng/livecenter/olympic.php.