..sTAR N.A. eND!

courtesy of sailinganarchy

Tricky

Andy Horton and Brad Nichol tell the tale from the Star NA's in Miami.

Today turned out to be another long day on the water. It was a tough day for the race committee and even tougher day for us. The breeze was light and really shifty. It was blowing from the city, which in Miami means anything can happen. It was so shifty the race committee had to abandon the first attempt at a race when it was nearly half way over. The wind had swung so far around on the first leg that it wasn’t a fair race so they blew it off. This was a great decision by the RC.

The wind settled down a few minutes after we all made it back to the starting line and the race finally got under way. Unfortunately for us the fleet was not as well behaved today as it has been all week. There were a bunch of boats over the line early at the start and two of them were directly in front of us. So, it was a pretty tough place to start.
Since we were back a bit compared to the boats over the line, we were flushed out pretty early and spent the rest of the race playing catch up. In the end we finished 22. This puts us in 6th overall. With a good race tomorrow we can make up to 4th, so that’s what we’re shooting for.

At this point I’m not quite sure how the rest of the scores look. One of the boats scored OCS protested the race committee and asked to be reinstated in the race. The individual recall flag went up a little late when the race was finally started. I believe the protest committee has decided to give all 6 of the OCS boats their average points, but the scores are not out yet. So it sounds like the two boats who started early right below us and kept sailing will not be disqualified, even though they started early.

Tomorrow looks to be another tricky day with light winds out of the northeast. With a good race we can move up to 4th place but Hamish Pepper has already won the regatta with one race to spare. He has sailed an amazing regatta and our congratulations go out to him.

Cheers!

Andy & Brad

***

Tough End

Andy Horton and Brad Nichol tell the tale from the Star NA's in Miami.

The final day of the 2006 North American Champs was no easier then the previous three. The 80 boat fleet was as aggressive as ever and it took three starts to finally get all the boats off the line. The wind was out of the NNW and very shifty again. Andy and I did not have the best start and once we were behind the leaders, we have no clear air to tack in the whole first leg.

By the time we got to the weather mark we had fallen to the back of the 80 boat fleet and had a lot of work to do. By the end of the 4th leg of the race we had clawed our way up to 18 place and were in position to make a move into the top ten with a solid last upwind leg.

In Miami the wind typically likes to go to the northeast for a few days after a cold front passes and the NNW direction was really unusual. We had made good gains down wind by playing the increased pressure on the right side of the course and late in the day the wind often goes right. We decided to play the right and were in good company with Ross MacDonnald (CAN), Xavier Rohart (FRA) and Mark Reynods (USA). When we rounded the leeward mark our heading on port was 040, by the time we got to the finish the biggest port tack lift that we saw was 000 (the wind went 40 degrees to the left!). Fifteen boats that went the other way passed us pushing us down to 33rd in the last race.

One of our major goals for the regatta was to improve our downwind speed in our new boat. We had figured some things out in our previous regattas and put a new mast step in the boat and made big changes to our set up. We were very fast down wind all regatta and passed boats on nearly every run.

Another goal was to improve communication on the boat and Scott Ikle (head coach for the national champion Hobart-William Smith Sailing Team) had worked with Andy in the past and was able to contribute a lot to what we were doing on the water. It also helps to keep getting a fresh perspective on the water bringing new ideas to the program.

It was excellent to work with so many talented people this week from Olympic Gold Medalists Kevin Burnham and Magnus Liliadahl to James Spithill and Etchells World Champion Bill Mauk, it was truly an all-star team and we learned a tremendous amount going forward.

We ended up 8th in the regatta putting us solidly in the lead as the top US Star Team for the 2007 US Sailing Team but we still have a lot of work to do if we are going to win Gold in Beijing. As you all know we have a fundraiser in Burlington VT on Wed Nov. 29th and just in case you prefer the warm weather, we will have an event in Miami the following day, Thurs Nov. 30th. If you cannot attend but would still like to support the team, you can donate online.

Or send a check made out to the "Conanicut Island Sailing Foundation" Memo: Horton-Nichol 2008 and mail it to:
Team Horton Nichol
1621 Collins Ave #704
Miami Beach FL 33139

We really appreciate your support!

Cheers!

Andy & Brad

courtesy of sailinganarchy