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In the News + the new boat is in production!
June 16th, 2010 in General.
There is big news brewing. I just got back to Germany from the massive road trip north with the boat, dropping it off in Weymouth for the next regatta: Sail for Gold in August. Thanks to Andy Mac for lending us 8250, and huge thanks to the Schmitz’s for lending me an animal of a VW! While I’m awaiting my long-awaited flight back to the USA, I’m catching up on a lot of stuff, hopefully it will provide some entertainment.
The biggest news is that the new PStar is under construction in Michigan. We didn’t expect it to go until July, but apparently its already fast! I’m looking forward to getting out to Gull Lake next month to see some of the production before our Melges 32 regatta in Harbor Springs.
Beyond that there are a bunch of articles out right now for some light reading:
Sailing World Magazine has my piece about starting in Current.
SAIL Magazine is running an interview I did with those guys this Spring about the transition between the Laser and the Star.
and RL Magazine has an interview about the finer points of Olympic Campaigns (RL used some great photos from Jacqueline!!! and Fried Elliott).
Can’t wait to be back in the States!
Make sure to thank your race committees!
2nd at 2010 European Championships
June 12th, 2010 in Regattas.
With a fifth place finish today in a better-than-forecast 5-10 knot westerly, Brad and I tied with Richard Clarke and Tyler Bjorn of Canada to take second place at the Championships behind only Germans Johannes Polgar and Markus Koy in the 135 boat fleet. After sitting in sixth going into today, a lot of people needed to have tough luck for us to move up the leaderboard and really all we could do was sail our best race to ensure a good final result. We got out into a nice lane after a mediocre start and took a long righty across to the top left of the course which put us fourth around the windward mark. We held that most of the way around the track and could only watch as the other teams ahead of us in the standings struggled to catch up through the entire race. We put as much heat on the rest of the teams as we could but luck was also on our side moving us to as high a position as we could have achieved: second overall.
We’re very excited about this finish. What a great day for San Diego Yacht Club, and another strong performance by US Sailing Team Alphagraphics! Coach Ivey really held us together through a grueling, light-air week, and I think the US Team put up a strong front with our 1215 daily line-ups. By the end of the week there were lots of boats that wanted to see how they would line up against us. All the guys sailed well. The points spread in the top ten was tight because of the extraordinary series that everybody had amongst the biggest fleet in class history. Consistency was our gameplan from the get-go, and that paid off (actually after studying the results we had the best overall six-race series, edging out the winners by a point!).
This regatta has put an exclamation point on a long trip to Europe for me. I’ve been here since April 28th, delivering the boat from Weymouth to Italy to Holland to Italy and back to Weymouth, training and racing in Garda, and training and racing in Viareggio. 50 days in Europe is quite enough for me, but the hard work has paid off, and the training we did in Garda and here with Coaches Mark Ivey and Leandro Spina helped us make clear progress.Without a doubt none of this could have happened without the sponsors of USSTAG, but also our team sponsors: Sperry Top-Sider, Keanon Polarized, North Sails and Harken, as well as a number of critical donors to our campaign.
Needless to say, I’ll be glad to get home when I do next week… still 1500 more miles to drive in Europe.
Full Results: http://www.stareuropean2010.it/classifica6.pdf
Photos: http://photos.friedbits.com/2010stareuropeanchampionship
3rd in race 5, Sixth Overall into final race tomorrow
June 11th, 2010 in Regattas.
Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. The regatta website http://www.stareuropean2010.it/eng/ unfortunately lists bow 111 instead of us (bow 11) as finishing third in today’s race. We had a three hour wait, but finally started race 5 at 4:15pm. A full two hours went by for the leaders to finish, but the fleet took easily an hour beyond that to finish. The breeze all but quit after we got through the line. There is one more light air day in the forecast for tomorrow, so we’ll see what we get. Currently we’re sitting 6th overall have good opportunity to move up the board tomorrow if we can mix the fleet up like happened today. More to come…
Here are some photo links from Fried Elliott
Top Reach Race 4
Leeward Mark Race 4
Same Leeward Mark’s Exit
Checking the OCS Board at Mark 1, Race 5
A slow and painful third just ahead of Puerto Rico and Spain
Flat calm after the finish
4 Down, 2 to Go
June 10th, 2010 in Regattas.
Here’s a great example of the size of the crowd. Fried Elliott is here taking some cool shots.
We’ve had four races in four days here in Viareggio. Light air is still the name of the game, but the steady and relatively even pressure has provided for some very nice racing. This morning we sailed out in a hot offshore breeze ahead of a low pressure system to the west of us. But, by the time the start time came around, the dry wind was fading and signs of the seabreeze moved across the course. The RC patiently reset the course for a southerly and got our 2 hour marathon under way. Because of the sheer size of the fleet, the starting line is in two segments totaling 1.4 kilometers, more than 4000 feet long. The beats are kept to a reasonable 2+ miles and except for yesterday’s five-leg course, we’ve been tallying up 8 mile races no problem. So, two races and almost 20 miles of racing to go.
Brad and I managed to get off the line in places where we could continue straight in each of the last two races. That seems to be the name of the game: finding clear lanes and not getting bogged down by traffic or little one-on-one battles. Halfway up the first beats we have been able to make a break for what I think the favored side is at the top of the leg and we can come into the first windward mark in the top 20. Yesterday we clawed our way into the low teens and settled for a 15th. Today we had a similar race and similar result: 13th. There were about 10 boats called OCS today as well, so I’m sure there will be some mixing and moving in the scoresheet. Consistency has been our name of the game, hopefully in the next couple of races we’ll be able to make a move into the top group and fight for a top five finish at the end of the week.
More to come from www.CampbellSailing.com
20th in Race 2
June 8th, 2010 in Regattas.
Here’s a look at our neighbors, both big and small:
After a great start on what turned out to be the wrong side of the course, we ended up fighting for 20th around the first top mark. We broke into the teens only to be swallowed up by a group of boats as we drifted through the finish line 2 and 1/2 hours after we started at 2pm. Light seabreeze was again the name of the game. We waited for about an hour to start the race and even after the wait stumbled through two general recalls. Rumors were floating that a large number of boats were OCS in addition to the handful given the label. We’ll take a 20 and move along happy, considering that some very top guys sailed the same 2.5 hours as us but instead have a 145th to show for it. Tomorrow has a better forecast, but we’ll believe it when we see it. More to come at www.CampbellSailing.com.
Sixth in Race 1
June 7th, 2010 in Regattas.
It’s official, our buddies German team Polgar and Koy beat more teams today than any Star class team has ever beaten in the 99 year history of the class. More than 140 boats lumbered around the racetrack in just less than 2.5 hours today. At the starting line only a mile from the beach the seabreeze was a solid 8-11 knots but the further upwind away from shore we got the lighter the breeze became. 2.2 miles later it was a measly 4 knots and after 140+ boats cut through probably less wind than that. We rounded mark 1 in about 18th position but were able to slice and dice or way into a very solid position in the top ten.
Full results: http://www.stareuropean2010.it/eng/news-det.asp?news_id=20
Couple of shoutouts: first congrats to SDYC for being voted as the host for the 2013 Star World Championships, and secondly congrats to my Georgetown Hoyas for putting 8 new All-Americans on the books after a solid performance in at College Nationals last week, taking A division by storm!
European Championships Set to Start in Viareggio, Italy
June 6th, 2010 in Regattas.
We’re back in Italy after delivering the boat north from Garda to Medemblik, Holland for it’s owner Andy MacDonald to use at the Delta Lloyd Regatta and then huffing it back down to Viareggio. When we left Holland it was raining and 55 degrees, and since we’ve arrived in Viareggio it’s been hanging in the 70s and the sun is out, big time. We’re not the only ones here either. Besides the US Star Team, there are 150 other boats from all around the world training and tuning waiting for the 2010 European Championships to begin. As hard as it may be to believe, this will be the largest Star event ever. EVER! Pretty wild. Luckily, this is a major tourist town on the Italian Riviera, so there are plenty of hotels and restaurants to handle us. Likewise, the marina is massive, the home to both the local Coast Guard, but also a monstrous Perini Navi facility as well as a number of impressive mega-yacht boatyards. We’re definitely some of the smallest boats on the moorings (not a role we’re used to playing when there are 470s and Lasers in the boatparks elsewhere). The club is rolling out the red carpet for us no doubt. And we’re excited to get this show on the road. We’ve had about five days of nice tuning with coach Mark Ivey and we’re ready to go and defend our new ranking: 6th in the World! Its actually quite exciting to have three Americans in the top 6!
Having been in Europe since we delivered the boat to Garda in late April, I’m excited to get this regatta going so I can get back to the States. That said, Viareggio has a very San Diego-like feel. The boys make jokes about how similar the place is to Marina del Ray with its inland mountains, light air and a hint of swell. The water is a fair amount warmer in reality, but the palm lined streets and big dusty boatyards are a comforting sight. We’re not lacking for good Italian food either.
More pictures and updates to come. Racing starts Monday. Follow the regatta at: http://www.stareuropean2010.it/eng/
Win the Medal Race. Fourth Overall at Olympic Garda
May 16th, 2010 in General.
Jacqueline Schmitz Photography will have more shots up tomorrow…
The wind howled out of the north down the mountain passes overnight and this morning but eased just in time for us to start our final race today at 11am. The course was set close to shore for a 30-minute long two lap race. Seeing that the breeze was starting to get fluky in the middle of the lake I opted to wait patiently for a gap at the boat end of the starting line an immediately tacked and headed for the beach. After a minute or so a nice header gave us the opportunity to tack back and cross the fleet as they scrambled to get to the shore after seeing our success. We hooked into a nice left puff at the top of the course and never looked back. Xavier Rohart the former world champion from France was one of the few boats we needed to be concerned with and by winning the race put enough points between him as well as one of our german competitors to pass them in the series to take a fourth place finish. George and Mark, the other Americans in the race today had a tough start near the pin and never recovered, they took second overall. With Rick and Phil tied for tenth, we had a strong showing as a team taking two of the top four and three of the top eleven. This is in large part to our week of training here ahead of time as a group with coaches Leandro Spina and Mark Ivey. With their help hopefully we can capitalize on this performance as we look forward to the European Championships also in Italy in two weeks.
Full results at the Fraglia Vela de Riva website.
Top Ten Results: http://www.fragliavelariva.it/clientfiles/classifica/classifica%20finale%20STAR.pdf
Sixth Place Going into Olympic Garda Medal Race Tomorrow
May 15th, 2010 in General.
This high-cliffed lake has lived up to both it’s epic reputation of funneling breeze as well as being a traditional fickle lake. The wind on both the first and last days of the regatta started strong and ended glassy, while the middle two days had beautiful sailing conditions 12-20 knots and 20 miles of fetch producing some great wave action. Becuase the lake is more than 1000 feet deep at the center the committee often had the fleet bouncing along the steep shore making quite a spectacle for locals and tourists alike. The sight of 40 star boats short-tacking the shoreline often only lengths from beachside hotels along with a backdrop of 5000 foot mountains made for a spectacular bit of racing.
We are sixth going into the final race of the regatta where only the top ten left will compete for double points. Results are at the Fraglia Vela of Riva an Malcesine’s websites: http://www.fragliavelariva.it/public_new/RegataDetail.asp?RegataID=226
Jacqueline will have photos shortly. We’ll let you know how tomorrow turns out!
New Awesome CISA Video
May 7th, 2010 in General.
Here’s the follow up from the CISA Clinic 2010. If you’ve never been involved with the clinic this video will be a great introduction to what we do. If you’ve done the clinic before you’ll enjoy, no doubt!
CISA Advanced Racing Clinic from Jacqueline Schmitz on Vimeo.