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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!

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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/

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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

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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!

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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.

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New Sponsor Announced: Go Raise Green

May 4th, 2010 in Travel, Training, General.

After a serious amount of European driving I made it to Lake Garda Monday with the boat and met our two other American boats, our training partners. Brad and I made it out for a shakedown sail today after spending the morning rigging in steady rain. When we drove in yesterday there was no wind at all, but we woke up this morning to 25 knots and chilly weather. We sailed in 15-18 knots for about an hour to stretch in the new rig. This is a fantastic place for boat racing. Even in the chilly rain the lake surpasses all expectations I had for it. I’m looking forward to a week of training here.

This week also marks the announcement of a new partnership with Go Raise Green (www.goraisegreen.com), a company that supports fundraising efforts and event promotion through sustainable products. Look out for these guys at fundraisers and regattas in the future, I’m really psyched to be involved with Go Raise Green. I’m confident that their focus on sustainability can make an imact on how regatta, clinic, and sailing program organizers approach their outreach and event planning.

More to come from Lake Garda at www.CampbellSailing.com.

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Six countries in 24 hours

May 1st, 2010 in General.

I arrived in England yesterday, twice. First I flew in from Washington to London’s Heathrow Airport before catching a connecting flight across the channel to Dusseldorf. Once there I met a driver to take me to Jackie’s family’s hometown of Krefeld in western Germany. After a quick shower and freshen up I picked up the car and started my way across into Holland, Belgium and France to Calais where I got onto a ferry back to England, just 12 hours after I was first here. After spending the night I drove on to the US Team warehouse in Weymouth to pick up Andy MacDonald’s boat and haul it to Italy for our training camp at Lake Garda that starts next week. All’s well so far. Just hope my guy meets me to unlock the warehouse even though it’s May Day this weekend and a bank holiday across Europe. It is holiday season afterall here (ie every Friday with a good forecast). Planes, ferries and automobiles will continue at www.CampbellSailing.comÂ

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8th in New World Rankings, To Europe Next

April 22nd, 2010 in General.

One week from today, I head overseas for an extended trip to Europe, two training camps and two regattas at Lake Garda and Viareggio, Italy. I’m definitely looking forward to the training time and the regatta opportunities. The trip will begin picking up the borrowed car in Germany, driving to Weymouth to pickup the borrowed boat and then hauling back south to Garda, we’ll let you know how that goes.

Meanwhile the new ISAF World Rankings List has us into the top 10 at 8.

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Threading the Needle in Nassau

April 21st, 2010 in Regattas.

Photo from Fried Elliott www.FriedBits.com

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Breeze Eases, 10th at Western Hemispheres

April 17th, 2010 in General.

The breeze eased to a measly 10-16 knots today for the final two races at the Western Hemisphere Championships. The early start had a tinge of deja vu as 15 knots funneled into Nassau Harbour as we ventured out at 830am. Once we got to the course the wind moderated slightly and went 30 degrees right as it happened. Unfortunately we were on the left side of the first beat in race 1 and rounded in the 25 range. With some work on the runs and second beat we were able to scrape through to a 12th place finish. In race two I misjudged our position in our final approach and we were well late to the start. Fortunately the boat was finally getting to proper tune and we made a nice comeback upwind and downwind to finish 6th. With the throwout in effect we finished 10th overall tied with our roomates from the week Rick and Phil. Their winning the first race today rectified their double DNC day yesterday after they wrote off a mast.

I feel like this week was a wake up call for how to prepare myself for a breezy regatta. Having CISA Clinic finish so shortly before the regatta and virtually no tuning time didn’t do me any favors to have a great event. I was frustrated at time with how we sailed and I’ve left much room for improvement, but taking this as a training regatta leading into the Europeans in June we should be in good shape by then.

We leave for Europe in two weeks heading to Lake Garda after a lot of driving and then Viareggio, Italy.

Results here.

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