Wednesday 6 July 2011

Day Two Wrap Up: we laughed, we cried just a little, we're having a great time and ready for Day Three


Day Two of racing at the Europeans saw conditions similar to Monday.  Breeze was 8-12 with shots of pressure into the teens and confused bumps uphill that frustrated some on TeamUSA but helped them downhill on the way to the gate in races 3 and 4.  Current was more of a factor with the slightly lower wind velocity.

It certainly wasn’t a boring day for the sailors.  Romain was involved in a port/starboard protest that was eventually dismissed, Alex added an OCS instead of a top ten finish earned on the course and Ian missed a shift in race 4 that cost him over 12 boats on the final leg of race 4.  While these challenges didn’t help our team move up the leaderboard as much as they would have liked they are learning like crazy and their performance is improving incrementally.

Provisional results for TeamUSA after Day Two:

Romain  25 
Cooper   30
Ian          46 
Alex       50

Cooper is really having a ball here.  Today especially he seemed to really enjoy the sailing here in Portugal and it showed.  Isn't that what international Opti sailing should be all about?

The sailors had a delicious dinner at the Albacore and then spent some time hanging out with their Canadian and ARG friends.  It’s beautiful here at night, warm with actually more breeze than the daytime.  The patio for the sailors and the bar for the leaders, reps and coaches is constantly abuzz and it’s great fun to exchange ideas about international Opti sailing.

More to come Wed for Day Three of this Six Day event.  TeamUSA is off to bed with dreams of going fast on Wednesday.  Thanks for checking in… bunky time, so night night from Tavira at 1AM.

1 comment:

  1. Blake Great Job - Love the information & pictures. Go Team!

    ReplyDelete