Ahhhh working internet! Bit of trouble finding working world wide web over here in La Rochelle but we've made it across the pond and are two days deep into the regatta. Let's get you up to speed...
After leaving USNA on Thursday we jumped on a plane to JFK in New York, eventually made it on to our Air France red eye and seven hours later we were on French soil! Quite the the long day of travel but very cool to be on such a whirlwind adventure. After landing in Paris, we boarded our train and sped through the French countryside towards La Rochelle. We arrived in La Rochelle, caught a ride down to race headquarters and we're brought to where we were staying. Team USA was under the impression that we would be staying at the university here in La Rochelle but turns out all of the SYWoC competitors were being put up in the La Rochelle Youth Hostel! Quite the surprise when six guys are sharing a room, especially when one of those guys is your coach. The room is probably 15 by 20 with the tiniest shower you have ever seen. Look up the definition of "cramped" in Merriam-Webster and our pleasant little hostel room will be there. A meet and greet with all the teams at race headquarters followed. Lots of great people from all over the world bringing traditional dishes and drinks. Pretty cool way to start off a regatta.
Saturday brought about lots of breeze and gray skies...unfortunately too much big breeze. We weren't allowed to sail because of gusts in the 40's and 25-30 kts sustained. Big disappointment to come all ready to sail and to have the rug yanked out from underneath you. However we did get some productive boatwork done and we're able to fix a lot of interesting problems we found with our "Grand Surprise." Kudos to Mary Cox and the crew for their good work.
Day 1 of racing brought solid breeze and a pretty good first day for Team USA. After a brief dilemma in which the majority of the fleet ran aground in the mud on the way out of the harbor (led by the Irish), we got out to the race area and had about an hour to figure out a boat that none of us had ever spent a minute on while underway. Got the basic upwind, port tack, stbd tack, set, downwind, jibe, jibe, jib up, spin down warm up in before we went into sequence for our first race. Pretty good result in the Race 1 with a fifth behind the Candians, Irish, Defenders from France and Norway. In Race 2 we suffered from a poor second row start and found ourselves footing off to the left in order to clear our air. A tenth in that race really left a bad taste in our mouth as we found ourselves fighting through messy air upwind on both legs. The day finished off with a 16 mile distance race. Team USA set up for a port approach but had another tough start as we found ourselves set down onto the pin as the fleet sailed over top of us. After jibing back down below the line and heading out on port tack, we fought our way back up wind, maintained a decent position on the long downwind toward Isle de Aix and then faced the longest upwind leg of the race in front of us. The breeze was forecasted to trend left in the afternoon so after hanging with the fleet who was tacking on each lift up the middle of the course, we decided to leverage ourselves out left and go for the calculated hail mary. And boy did it pay off. The Americans and Canadians who were the last two boats off the line at the start crushed the fleet by going left and were well ahead in the last few miles of the race, battling it out for the lead. Unfortunately the North American lumberjacks edged us our at the mark and were able to reach on in to the finish under spinnaker. Great first day overall and we put ourselves in a good position for day to ending up in fourth place with 17 points.
Day 2 was a different story. With breeze blowing 10-15 we did great in the first race with a well sailed fourth but then suffered a costly two turn penalty on the second upwind leg of the second race in a port-starboard situation with the Swiss. An ugly twelve was the result but luckily it will count as our drop. The day ended with a twelve mile distance race in which splitting from the fleet on the downwind leg in light air didn't quite pay off and the ole Stars and Stripes found themselves way back in the fleet at the second to last mark. BUT, after great upwind number crunching by Ralph Duffett and Taylor Marton, we fought our way back to an 8th place. Certainly a tough day for USA but we live to fight another day tomorrow.
Tomorrow brings two windward-leeward races and two distance races, one of which will be the infamous night race. Look for Navy Offshore Sailing to shine in the night race. Great moments are born from great opportunity, right? Lots of opportunities out there tomorrow and Wednesday before the wind blows of the chain on Thursday and Friday. Look out Canada, we're coming for ya, eh.
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