Hello,
The last two weeks I spent in Annapolis where I competed in two J/22 regattas. The first one was the J/22
East Coast Champs which we used as a warm up regatta for the Rolex Women's International Keelboat
Championship.
Unfortunately our whole team couldn’t make the East Coast Champs so we had Alex Bertrand fill in for Liz
on the bow. This regatta was pretty slow. We only got 4 races off over three days and our last race we
were OCS so our overall score was pretty high. We did finish 25th out of 45ish boats, but should have
been better.
The next week I had off from J/22 sailing and went to the gym every day to start gaining the weight I have to
gain for worlds (about 8lbs to go). I also sailed Radials against the High School kids on Monday and
Tuesday, but the wind was really light the rest of the week so I took it off from sailing and worked on the
J/22. My biggest project for the boat was sanding the bottom. You wouldn’t think that a 22 foot boat is that
big, but let me tell you…compared to a Laser, its huge. But I got the job done just in time for my team to
start showing up again at the end of the week.
Janet, Ali, and I were all at the Rolex regatta on Saturday (17th) to check-in, weigh-in, and measure our new
sails. Once we checked in, we went out and did about a 3 hour practice on boat handling with Cara
Gibbons-Neff filling in on the bow for Liz, who had to coach her high school team at a regatta (which they
won). So the whole team was ready to go on Sunday for the practice race. The race was going well, but as
the wind died and the current we were fighting picked up, no one made it to the windward mark and the
race was abandoned. The regatta started on the Monday. We had a decent day of a 12, 8. We lost some
boats so our places should have been better, but we were always learning and getting better as a team.
Tuesday provided us with better breeze and we got three races off. We didn’t start Tuesday off well
because we were over early the first race and had to go back. So we fought back to a 28, but it hurt us in
our overall standings of the regatta. We had two more teen finishes in the other two races. Wednesday
was when it all started to come together. The wind was great and we pulled off a 5, 6, 5 in the races.
Wednesday’s results pulled us up to 8th overall in the regatta. Thursday too started really well. We started
the day with a 4th place, but disaster struck at the start of the last race of the day…our backstay came apart
off the start line so we had to sail in big breeze without it on…not fast at all!! By the time we got to the
windward mark, we were in 41st out of 42 boats. We managed to get it fixed on the first reach, pop the
spinnaker and get back into the race and caught up to 19th. We were happy that we managed this, but
were disappointed because we could have placed top 5 that race. After Thursday’s racing we were in 9th
place which is where we finished overall due to no wind on Friday. Our team goal for the regatta was top
10 and we accomplished that so we were all satisfied.
I would like to congratulate Sally Barkow and her team for an excellently sailed regatta in defending her title.
I would also like to thank Scott Nixon for coaching us through the regatta, John Bertrand for letting us use
his boat and sails, and the Swata family for housing me for the two weeks that I was there.
I’m back in Florida now where its back to training and work. My next regatta is the Hinman Team Racing
National Championships which are Oct 13-16. I will be crewing on Team Trouble for Brad Funk.
I’ll update you all again soon,
Sail Fast,
Anna
September 10th
Hi All,
Its been a crazy last couple of weeks so thats why there has been a delay in the updates, so sorry.
As I said in the last update I was heading to Canada for a training camp with the Canadian team. I had a
great time and got a lot of sailing in. For 6 days we sailed for 4-5 hours and on the last day we sailed for
just under an hour because of thunderstorms. The Canadians were very nice to me and looked after me
well. We started the week with 7 Radials and more Full rigs, but towards the end of the week we only had
4 Radials left. We finished everyday with a World Championship Length race (about an hour long) and we
raced against the Full rigs which made it more fun. I did very well on the first upwind legs, beating half of
the Full rigs to the mark and all of the Radials, but when we turned downwind, the Full rigs all passed us
because they have bigger sails. The training was great though and definitely felt like I got stronger during
the week.
When I got back from Canada I had to get up the next morning and run a 1/2 marathon in Virginia Beach.
The half was a lot of fun, but I don't know why I put my body through that pain every year...its my mums fault I
think...hehe.
Then after the 1/2 I moved to Florida where I will be based out of for my training. I immediately flew back to
Annapolis though where I am sailing the j/22 East Coast Championships as a warm up regatta for the
Rolex Women's Keelboat Championships on Sept 17-23. We are sailing with 3/4 of our crew and Alex, one
of the guys I train in Radials with, is filling in on the bow. We had a rough day yesterday, but in todays race
we were doing very well (top 3) until the abandoned the race due to lack of breeze. Hopefully tomorrow we
will have more breeze to get some races off.
I am staying in Annapolis until the Rolex starts and will be training in the Radial by myself and helping the
high school Radial sailors around here get ready for their National Championship qualifiers.
I will right my next update soon after the Rolex event. I will put a link to the results on the website (www.
sailanna.com) so you can check my progress.
Until then,
Anna