European wraps up

Day 6

A high pressure is parked over the Polish Baltic coast again, giving us more hot weather and an afternoon sea breeze. Today actually was a decent sea breeze and our one race was held in a nice 7-10. We were full double trapping sometimes and never easing the sheet. After a rough 1st beat, where our settings were not dialed in for the building thermal, we had a great race. We passed boats on the 2nd upwind and then a bunch of boats on the final run to finish 13th.

Once we got enough vang on and the job halyard on tight enough, our upwind pace was great. We had some good lee-bows (pulled a good tack off in a pressurized situation) and were doing a good job keeping the boat steady in the water. This was something we wanted to work on over the summer and with all the light/medium air we have had, we are starting to feel more comfortable in these conditions. On the runs, we were doing a good job working low when we could, but all the while holding our speed when we needed to. This is done by both of us moving in and out on our wires to make sure the boat never heals to windward as we soak low when we can. It is a feel thing and comes with time in the boat.

Overall we ended up 14th in Bronze (28 boats) and 68th/82 overall. Not an amazing result and not up to our goal of top 2/3, but it was great exposure to the highest level in the world. We simply need to sail more with a focused program to get to the higher echelons of the class and that is exactly what we are planning. We are excited to get some training in because we feel we are a few key mistakes away from moving up in the class. These mistakes takes hours of practice to work out, there is no way to fudge your training in this boat. The lack of hours in the boat since Miami were apparent, but we made the most of this month of sailing and have made training contacts all over the world. We are going to be training with top North American sailors in San Francisco Bay in September/October. Should be great heavy air practice!

Jesse is driving the boat to England right now and I stay here to coach Laser Jr. Europeans. We both get to recharge in Bermuda before heading to England to sail the Olympic Test Event (Sail For Gold, Weymouth) in early August. We look forward to continue our treacherous dance up the learning curve!

This all happening and we are stoked!