Ft. Lauderdale
Hello Everyone,
The ISAF World Sailing Games at Lake Neusiedl, Austria went from May 10 – 20, but I only had to sail the 16th – 20th.
This was because ISAF had invited the top ten sailors in the world rankings to sail in the regatta and get an automatic
bid into the gold fleet. The first five days of the regatta were the qualification for the gold fleet cut. Once the cut was
made, the qualified sailors dropped their qualifying scores and joined the top ten for four days of hard racing.
And hard sailing it was. The first day we didn’t have any breeze until 4:30 ish when they sent us all out. We started one
race, and I found out at the first mark, that I had been over early on and had to drop out. Luckily for me, the wind was
dying again and the race was abandoned. The next day brought breeze from 15 knots to low 30 knots. We had three
races that day and the conditions were very tricky. The pressure difference in the puffs vs. the lulls was quite different,
meaning that if you missed a puff downwind, half the fleet would pass you, which is exactly what happened in the first
race.
I had a terrible start, but fought back to twelvish at the first mark, hung onto that around the course until the last
downwind leg, when the side I was on did not get the big puff. Eleven boats passed me leaving me with 23rd place.
The next race…windier yet…was better. I fought hard off another bad start to round the first mark in 6th. I held onto that
the whole way until the last downwind leg, where I capsized. I only lost one boat though, so all I had to do was round
the gybe mark, reach to the finish and I would finish the race 7th…but I couldn’t do it. I capsized at the gybe mark (
along with half the fleet), and kept capsizing everytime I got my boat upright and started to sail again and finished the
race 30th. There was no excuse for this performace really, and I learned a lot from it.
By this time I was really mad, but with some encouragement from Brad and from my friend, French Radial sailor
Sophie de Turckheim, I pulled myself together and finished the next race in 4th. At the end of the day I was lying in 19th
place. While I didn’t know exactly what the forecast was going to bring for the next two days, I did know I had to sail very
well in the rest of my races.
Day three brought lighter, shifty conditions. The first race I had a great start, but all but 10 boats of the fleet got on the
wrong side of a very big right hand shift. I rounded the first mark in about 12, but finished the race in 8th. The next race
brought trickier conditions still, and I sailed very well to finish in 5th place. The lighter conditions scrambled the fleet a
little bit, so at the end of the day (after one race drop too), I was in 10th place overall…now I was in the top ten, I had to
hold onto it to make the cut for the medal race on the last day.
Day four again brought big breeze, but not as much as the second day. Conditions were very shifty and I sailed
decently, finishing with a 13th and 16th in the first two races. The third race of the day the wind started to die into the
conditions I felt most comfortable in…and my comfort showed as I rounded the first mark in 3rd, and passed boats on
the second beat to go on to win the race. This race was very important, as a lot of people in the overall standings
around me had bad races. At the end of the day I had moved up to 7th place overall and was glad to hear that I had
made the medal race.
The Radial race was at 2:45 pm on the last day. The day started off with light winds, which made me quite excited as I
had a chance to move up to 3rd place overall if everything fell into place. But as the day progressed the wind picked up,
and I knew it would be harder to move up to 3rd, but I’d sure give it my best effort. Using what I had learned in my last
medal race (to hold nothing back), I headed for the left hand corner in the hopes that I would get a good shift and round
the mark in 1st. Well I got a good shift, but I wasn’t the only one out in the corner and finished the race in 5th place,
keeping me in 7th place overall. Paige Railey from St Petersburg, Fla., took the gold medal and Sophie the silver. The
full results for the Gold Fleet series are at http://www.worldsailinggames2006.at/results/html/laser_r/gold.html
Overall I am quite please with my performance in this regatta…considering how it started anyway. I learned a lot about
racing and what I need to work on before the World Championships in July/August.
The Worlds in Los Angeles will be my next Radial regatta. Between then and now I am doing a match racing regatta
with World Champion Sally Barkow, coaching some clinics, getting in shape, and training hard.
I’ll write another update soon,
Until then,
Sail hard,
Anna
5-23-06
Ft. Lauderdale
Hello Everyone,
Well my Europe campaign has finally come to an end and I am back in the USA. The last you heard from me was from
Riva Del Garda, in the northern Italian mountains where I was training for a week before I went to Austria for the ISAF
World Games.
For those who don’t know what Lake Garda is like, it’s a long skinny lake where the mountains literally stop at the
water’s edge. And like clockwork everyday, the wind fills from the south between 11 AM and 1 PM and can blow up to 20
knots. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. There was plenty to do to stay in shape. We went on
runs, bike rides and hikes up the mountains every day. On the sailing side, the training went well. We had anywhere
from four to 10 Radials sailing. Of course, the wind wasn’t quite on its clockwork routine the week we were there, but it
gave us all sorts of conditions and provided great practice for the upcoming regatta. We had two days of big breeze,
two days of medium breeze, and two days of no wind at all.
From Riva, I headed to Austria. The whole Europe trip up to this point I had been traveling with my training partner Lisa
Ross (CAN), and Brad Funk (USA). We all split up to head to Austria because we needed a little time apart. Lisa went
skiing. Brad had to be at the regatta earlier than I did, so he drove up with the Laser sailor from Chile. I rode up with
New Zealand windsurfer Tom Ashley and Canadian Radial sailor Keamia Rasa. The trip was an eight-hour drive
through the Alps, and it was fun ride, as the three of us got to know each other a little bit.
When we arrived in Austria, we had to find our town Neusiedl am See, which is about a 30 minute drive south of
Vienna. We ended up finding it without problems and Tom and Keamia dropped me of at my accommodation where I
met up with Brad again and two other Radial sailors from the USA, Genoa and Sarah.
Sail hard,
Anna
Riva del Garda, Italy
4.30.06
Hello Everyone,
I just wrapped up the French Olympic Week regatta in Hyeres, on the Mediterranean coast of France. With a third place
overall in the first two rounds, I made it comfortably into the double-points Medal Race which is only open to the top ten
boats. But I knew that I had faced a difficult battle to retain a podium place. It wasn’t to be, and I finished 5th overall.
This was a tough regatta and even though I said that Hyeres was known for its breeze, we only saw one day of real
wind, which ended up dying a little during our races. In the Laser Radials there was a international field of 80 boats
competing. We were split into two fleets for qualifiers and then Gold/Silver fleets for the finals. The first three days were
qualifiers and we had two races each day.
I started the regatta on the wrong foot by being over the line early. I knew that I was over, so I went back to restart. This
move put me in a bad spot for most of this race, until the second upwind leg. When I spotted a left shift on the course, I
went out and caught it, and by the windward mark had shot up to 5th place from 28th place. I passed two more boats
downwind to finish 3rd in the opener.
The next race, along with the all but one of the qualifiers, went really well too. Counting five of the six races we sailed, I
qualified for the Gold Fleet finals in fourth place. My individual race finishes were 3-6-2-8-1, with a 13th as my drop
race.
With two 5th place finishes after the first day of the finals, I moved closer to the medals. I was now tied for 3rd place
overall. The next day served up very tricky conditions and I finished with a 15th and a 10th. There was some
consolation here. The 10th place had been a fourth until the top six boats were passed by competitors who banged the
left corner of the course.
We now had ten races in the series so we could drop our second worst score in the regatta. Had I finished 4th in this
race, I would have been looking pretty good overall, but Jo Aleah, the New Zealand girl who finished 2nd in the race,
moved to only one point behind. Also one point behind me was Lijia Xu from China.
The point spread going into the Medal Race was quite large between 1st and 6th, but between these places there
were some good battles that were about to happen. First and second place were close enough for a good battle and
three of us -- me, China and, New Zealand -- were practically tied for third place. It came down to a who-beat-who race
for the bronze medal.
Unfortunately, I medal race didn’t go as planned and finished 7th with China winning and New Zealand finishing a
close 2nd. The conditions were again tricky with a thunderstorm over the hills throwing some curveballs in the wind.
Lijia was the first to tack off the line and sailed far into the right corner of the course. The rest of the fleet sailed more
conservatively and played the shifts in the middle. As it turned out, Lijia played the course correctly and came out a
long way ahead of the fleet. She held onto this position all around the course and went on to get the bronze medal.
The full results are at http://hyeres.ffvoile.net/results/laserr.htm
The medal had been within my grasp and I was initially disappointed. Looking back at it, I learned a great deal about
the medal race and how to approach it, so it was an outcome that will be much more valuable in the long run. This
fleet was tougher than the fleet in Mallorca and was just about the equivalent of our World Championship fleet, so I’m
pleased with a 5th place.
I’m in Italy now where we are going to have a training camp for a week to work on some of the key areas of
improvement I have taken away from of the last two regattas and then we head up to Lake Neusiedl, Austria for the
2006 ISAF World Sailing Games, May 10-20. The games website is: http://www.worldsailinggames2006.at/cms/index.
php?id=94
I’ll write again soon,
Until next time,
Sail hard,
Anna
4.18.06
Hello Everyone,
The regatta ended on Friday with the medal race. The last couple of days of the final series were rough for me too. I
had one good race which I won, but the other races, I couldn’t get out of my own way and had a tough time, but as it
worked out, so did everyone else and I finished the final series 4th. This allowed me a spot in the medal race (the race
for the top 10 boats after the finals that counts for double points). This race was going to be tough. I had 5th and 6th
tied one point behind me. Third place was possible, but I had to either win with her finishing 9th or 10th, or me finish
2nd and her finish 10th. The wind was lighter, which was good for me as I knew I had good speed in that breeze and
one of the two behind me wouldn’t be too fast along with the girl in 3rd. I sailed a good race again and finished 3rd on
the water, but there were three OCS (over the line early), which meant that I really finished 2nd in the race as one of the
girls who beat me was one of the three OCS. The overall result was me finishing in 4th, which I was happy with
considering the competition and my goal for the regatta.
After the regatta we traveled to Hyeres, France for our next regatta. Racing starts on Sunday and it again will be a great
fleet. This venue is known more for being a breezy venue, so we’ll see what the weather brings and if its breezy will be
a good test of our fitness.
I’ll write the next update during the regatta. You can check the results on my website www.sailanna.com
Thanks for your continued support,
Sail hard,
Anna
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
