The web page and official results for this regatta can be found at this address: www.sailing.org/regattas/98mocr/
Many thanks to Kurt and Stephanie Read for donating air miles for the airline tickets to the Miami OCR! Thanks also to those who have responded to Team 2000's request for both domestic and international airline ticket needs to cover 1998 training time. Your help is TRULY appreciated! We are still seeking a couple of international regatta sponsors and several domestic ones.
Here's the report.....
Carrie Foerster * * * * * * * * * *
Friday 1/30/98 10:46 pm
Hello from miami
We just got out of the 470 class meeting. Working on orginaization for next year, so were running late.
The regatta actually started on wendsday, but Bill and I are trying to save our time off from work so we can go to Europe and more this year.
We were lucky however, because no races were held on thursday because of a lack of wind.
We got to our boat this morning and did a little boat work. then went out on the water at 9am. We were the first ones out and there was good breeze 10-15 out of the northwest. We did a little practice to tune up and get used to each other in the boat again.
The race was to start at 11am. By 11am the wind was geeting spotty (lighter and shifty). This would be the pattern for the whole day.
Race #1
We had two general recalls where we got flushed out the back
both times.
On the real start we got off to a good start near the boat end.
and worked the right side of the course hitting some shifts but
mainly going for the puffs. We rounded the first mark in the
with good lead (6 boat lengths over Morgan).
The course is a windward leeward windward leeward (downwind finish)
It was very shift and puffy but we managed to hold our lead all around the course for a 1st place. Not bad for our fist sail together in 3 weeks.
Race #2
The wind was still shifty. We started in the middle of the line
and worked the middle of the course. At the weather mark we
about sixth as a shift from the left put some boats ahead of
us. From there we gained on all legs and moved into the lead
with about thirty yards to the downwind finish. The wind
headed and one boat was able to gybe inside us to win. We were
second and now leading the day by a good way.
Race 3
We got off the line poorly and had to hit some good shifts to
stay in touch with the leaders. We rounded the top mark around
fifth and made gains on the run. Up the next beat we got a
little to the left early and got a nice puff to catch right up
to the leaders. We rounded third and passed the last two boats
up the final beat to win again. Not a bad day!! So after
missing the first two days of the regatta we moved into the top
half after today. We have scores of DNS, DNS, DNS,1, 2, 1 and
are 14th out of 29. We are very pleased with our results.
Morgan Reeser was not much of a factor today but he will be
back! We definitely go best in the shifty, flat water stuff.
Sounds a lot like Lake Ray Hubbard don't you think?
Tomorrows conditions should be much like todays.
The 470 class meeting followed todays activities. Most of the meeting was dealing with future venues for qualifying regettas for the US Sailing Team and the method of choosing team members. However at the end of the meeting they announced that the venue for the Olympic Trials would be St Petersburg, Florida. This was met with a mixed reaction from the attendees. We feel that St Pete will be a good location for the trials. The conditions are very similar to Biscayne Bay and it takes the trials out of our closest competitors backyard.
THANKS TO KURT AND STEPHANIE REED FOR FLYING US OUT HERE.
SEE YOU LATER
PAUL AND BILL
Saturday 1/31/98
8:42 pm
On the Airplane home.
Paul
Today was the last day of the Olympic Classes regatta.
The start was again set for 11am. We spent part of last night modifying Bill's Jib sheeting system. He was having trouble cleating the jib sheet from the trapeze. So we put some washers under the jib sheet block and the cleat. It seemed to work better when we tried it this morning.
We got out on the water at 10am today. It was a late night last night. We had the 470 class meeting then I spent an hour and a half tring to get the regatta report to e-mail. It didn't work, I sent it this morning.
Good wind today as we left the harbor again. It was out of the northwest at 6-10. But it continually died as we went to the race course. The race was set to start at 11am.
There are about 30 boats here. About 10 from Canada, 2 from Britain, one from Mexico, one from Bermuda and the rest from the U.S.
Bill
Race #1
We had a tactical dilema to concider. If we were to drive
Morgan back in the race we could end up ranked first this year.
Morgan is a bit of a loose cannon so driving him back would
probably make him terribly mad. Well, we came off the line with the best start and temptation stuck its ugly head right in
our face. Morgan had started right to weather of us and was
sucking down into our gas. We sailed this way for a couple of
minuites then tacked to port in a little header. Morgan had
tacked on our weather hip when we got another header. We
decided to tack to starboard, then back to port in front of
Morgan. He started screaming like a scalded ape and waiving his
little protest flag so we decided to leave him alone after
that. I can safely say that from now until the trials there
will be no love between team 2000 and the Reeser/Burnam team.
We rounded the top mark in the lead but missed a shift
downwind to drop to third. We finished third and called it a
weekend as the breeze was gone for the day. We are very
pleased with how fast and smart we go in the light to medium
stuff, we are anxious to get this good in the breeze!
After the race we spent a couple of hours refinning our jib cleating system and I am convinced we will have it perfected in the next couple of decades.
We now have three spinnakers from Ullman to look at and help figure out how to optimize the spinnaker for the new class rule. It is the most exciting thing regarding 470 sail design right now and has my little brain clicking. As always, Dave Ullman is Americas number one sailing mind and we are confident he will help us gain an edge on the rest of the world.
We are on the plane and I am desperate to get home to save my new dog's fine quality of life. Aparently he gets as upset as my
wife Jennnifer and son Stewart when Paul and I go sailing. He
ate all the blinds in the house, knocked the microwave to the
floor, did unmentionable things to the carpet all in one day.
I think if I submit to wood floors, the dog, marriage and
olympic campaign can all be saved. I'll know soon!
Bill
Paul
Our next plan of action is to get some Work done. Bill has 65
sails to make and I have started a new project at work. We
need to work hard so we can take the time off this summer when
the racing in Europe starts to heat up.
So, we will be doing some tuning and test at Rush Creek. Then
in 3 weeks we will go to miami for a practice and to tune up
for the ISAF world championships that start March 2 in Dubai,
the United ARAB Emirates (sailing on the Persian Gulf). Thats
were we get to see where we stack up against the rest of the
world. (hopefully we are getting better.
Thanks agin to Kurt and Stephanie Read for flying us out here. Thanks to Carrie for organizing everything. and thanks to Bill Cantrell JR. for helping organize FREE accomodation in Miami.
See you in Dallas.
Paul and Bill