Hello everyone,
What an amazing weekend I have just had. My team and I entered the U.S. Team Racing National
Championships as the 6th seed and ended up beating the world champions for a spot in the finals and
eventually winning the whole event!!!
The regatta was awesome. The wind was averaging 25kts with gusts up to 40 kts on the last day. There
were 14 total teams at the event. To start with, every team sailed each other. In this round, our team, Team
Trouble, did ok. We finished the round with a 7-6 record. After this round was finished, the top seven
teams went into the gold fleet and the bottom seven went into the silver fleet. We barely qualified for gold
being the 7th team. Once the fleet was split into gold and silver, the seven teams in each fleet sailed each
other. In this round, we had a much better time. We finished the round 4-2, but so did four other teams.
So after this round, there was a 5-way tie for first place. The team that finished 7th in the gold fleet round
was dropped out of the finals and the top two finishers in the silver fleet were brought up to the gold fleet to
make 8 teams for the finals. Luckily for the umpires and race committee, they had all of Saturday night to
figure out how to break the tie for the seedings into the final series on Sunday. Sunday's racing was to
consist of a quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. As the tie worked out, we were seeded 3rd going into the
quarterfinals and had to race the team that was seeded 5th. This team was originally seeded 3rd going
into the regatta. Each finals was a best of three series. We won the first race against this team, dropped
the second race, but came back and won the last race to advance to the semi finals. However, in the next
round we had to race the team that had just won the World Championships two weeks before. We weren't
too worried though because we had beaten them in the gold fleet round, so we knew we could do it. But
then race one started and it was disastrous. We lost the race pretty badly. But in race two, the roles flipped
and we won the race. In a tight last race, we pulled off the win for a chance to compete for the National
title. In the finals, the wind had picked up to a good 30 kts, with frequent gusts to 40kts which made for
some very exciting racing. We beat the team we were sailing against 2-0 to win the Hinman Trophy, the
National Championships. I was crewing for Brad Funk, Tim Cain crewed for Matt Allen, and Heather
Pescatello crewed for Mark Zagol.
Before the event, I had been doing a lot of Radial sailing. Brad, my training partner, is sailing Radial
Worlds too, so we have been training hard together. He has been teaching me a lot and everyday small
progressions are being made in my downwind sailing.
This coming weekend, I am heading back up to Norfolk, Va. to train with the ODU girls to get them ready for
their Singlehanded National Championship qualifiers. And then I am coaching the Co-ed team up in RI at
a regatta.
When I return, I am sailing a ISAF Grade 1 Match Racing event in St. Pete, Fl with crew Ali Sharp, Janet
Thacker, and Genoa Griffin. Immediately from there I fly to San Diego for a U.S. Sailing Team Physical
Training camp where we will get tested on our physical abilities and learn about training and nutrition and
all that good stuff.
Once I return to St. Pete, I am training in Clearwater for two weeks with the Canadian Team in preparation
for Worlds. Then, we have one more week at home and its off to Brazil for a weeks training before the event
starts.
I'm very excited with how my sailing is going, and am really looking forward to the World Championships. I
appreciate all of your support along the way!!
Sail Hard,
Anna