At The Miami Olympic Classes Regatta
Day | 2 | 3 | Final

Day 1

The Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta opened today on the waters of Biscayne Bay. The 23 boat Yngling fleet has quite a bit of depth, including 8 of the top 10 from the 2002 World Championship. Team Challenge US (Alison, Leech and Icyda) hold the lead after three races. They posted scores of 1 - 7 - 1 for 9 points in light, shifty ESE breezes.

Consistency was the name of the game. "It was essential to keep your head out of the boat today," said Icyda, "earlier in the day, playing the oscillations was key; later in the day as the winds lightened up, sailing in stronger pressure allowed us to make big gains." Two other US teams round out the top three. Carol Cronin sits in second with 12 points, and Jody Swanson is in third with 17. The team from the host country of the 2004 Olympic Games, Greece, lies in fourth with 18.

Team Challenge US, fresh off their win in the Palm Beach Ocean Regatta, attacked the race course from the start of race one. With the wind oscillating frequently and the current close to a change, it was difficult to stick to a definitive game plan. "We had a sense of where we wanted to be on the course, but with the velocity changing so dramatically in speed, we knew it was important to be flexible, and lead the competition to the next area of pressure," said Suzy Leech, "Downwind was particularly tough as the puffs filled in from behind, compressing the fleet towards us – especially in the first race today." The Team posted a win in the first race by a very slim margin over the Greeks.

Race two was even more difficult as the breeze shifted right just prior to the start. Most of the fleet worked to the middle right of the course, but the few teams that went hard left made the biggest gains (Cronin, Swanson, Bruce Chaffee). Alison and company were the only team to come out all right from the right side of the course. With the wind bottoming out as the race wore on, they were happy to be in touch with the leaders and take a 7th in the race.

The wind increased slightly in velocity for race three, but challenged the RC on direction. There were two mark changes made in the four leg course. Team Challenge US had a narrow lead at the top, split gates at the bottom with Dey, and worked slightly to the right to take advantage of a band of breeze that filled in from the right side of the course to extend to a one minute lead at the top. They never relinquished the lead, taking the gun at the line, to cap off a strong day of sailing.

Key Biscayne Yacht Club is hosting the Yngling and Paralympic Sonar fleets for OCR. They did a great job of getting in the first three heats of the 11 race series. Competitors will be allowed a discard in scoring after 6 races are completed. This is the second of three ranking events that will determine the US Sailing Team for the Yngling class. The final event is the Pre-Trials (Feb 7-9) which will also be hosted by KBYC. Stay tuned for more excitement from the waters of Biscayne Bay – and many thanks for all your continued support!

Day 2

With 5 races now complete, the Rolex Miami OCR counts as a regatta. Team Challenge US finished the day with a 9th and a 3rd , standing in second place with 22 points behind Jody Swanson of Buffalo, NY with 20.

Racing on the Yngling course that is situated off the southwestern tip of Key Biscayne, was postponed for 1 1/2 hours from the appointed start time of 11 AM due to unstable winds from the ENE. Once the breeze died and filled in from the SE, the Race Committee jumped to attention and got the races rolling. The forecast was for very light winds to veer to the right, but the gods were uncooperative providing only unstable light conditions for the competitors.

Race #4 was a tough one as the left corner on the beats proved to be the place to be. Swanson, Sally Barkow, the Greeks, Paula Lewin from Bermuda, Kristin Wagner from Germany – all worked the left side to their advantage. Alison and team rounded a close 7th and chose to jibe across course towards the upwind right. Although the initial move took the Team on a more direct course for the gate, the pressure dropped off and the pack on the left side were able to stretch out a substantial lead.

The second beat saw Barkow and Felicity Clark from Canada make big gains on the right, but they were the only two who pulled that move off. All the others stretched out their leads on the left. Team Challenge US played the middle left and actually lost a few places to finish 11th across the line. Both Hannah Swett and Lewin were called OCS by the RC, moving the Team into a 9th place finish. "Our game plan for the first race today was a bit flawed," said Alison after racing, "we focused a little too much on small shifts, and not enough on pressure differentials." Their plan changed for the second race of the day.

The starting line in race #5 was incredibly skewed – teams could barely cross on starboard. Team Challenge US couldn’t find a hole on the line to work back towards the pin, and started quite close to the RC boat. There was no opportunity to clear out after the gun, so the Team took all but two transoms to finally get to the pin end. Alison, Icyda, and Leech sailed about twenty yards on starboard, tacked and fetched the windward mark! Luckily, teams that had tacked away off the line fell out of breeze early, and most found themselves on the adverse side of a tide line. "We saw the tide line and the negative effect on the leaders as they crossed over it. Our decision was to try to stay to the left of the tide line if at all possible," said tactician Icyda. The strategy paid off huge as the Team was able to round the top mark just behind Kristin Wagner (GER) and Kathy Foster (GBR).

The RC was still setting the gate as competitors were about to round through it, and the only option was the gate leading to the left. The French, and Cronin were early to take clearing tacks. The French worked up the right side. Wagner led to the left with Foster. Alison and team took a clearing tack and worked middle left – gaining precious distance on Wagner and the Brits. The end of the beat saw Cronin and the French lead in to the top from the right, closely followed by Alison, Swanson and the Germans. Those were the finishing positions at the end.

Tomorrow’s racing will allow the competitors to discard their worst score in the series. The forecast is for light sea breeze conditions which could make it difficult to get in more than two races.

Top 10 after 5 races:

Day 3

The Yngling fleet at the Rolex Miami OCR completed 4 races today in a NNE breeze. What looked to be a early morning dying breeze developed into a fine day for sailing. Though they had an OCS in the first race of the day, Team Challenge US bounced back to post finishes of 3-8-3 to retake first place in the series. Sally Barkow and her crew sit two points back in second, and the Greek team with two bullets today are currently in third. Jody Swanson, who topped the leader board yesterday, dropped to fourth with some mid-fleet finishes and an OCS. Carol Cronin and team round out the top 5 just one point behind Swanson.

Alison, Leech and Icyda did a nice job by playing a fairly conservative game today. Consistency for all of the competitors here has been difficult, as conditions have been challenging for both sailors and Race Committee. Tomorrow will bring the event to a close with the final two races. Forecasts are for moderate breezes out of the NW with the passing of another cold front. Though the top 5 have a decent point spread on the rest of the fleet, anything is possible on this unpredictable Biscayne Bay. OCS calls can be costly, and with the top teams vying for medal spots, the racing should prove to be close and exciting.

"We did not expect to be leading the fleet after racing today. Though we had decent finishes, we did not feel 100% on our game. The strategy for tomorrow will be to stay close to the players we need to beat in the first race, with every intention to finish at the top. Whether we attack more aggressively in the second race or not will depend on the outcome of the first race of the day," said Alison. Stay tuned for the final report from Miami, as Team Challenge takes on the fleet in their quest to take the second title of the "triple crown" series of events for the 2003 ranking system.

Tough Conditions Hamper Team Challenge US On Final Day

The final day of Racing at the Rolex Miami OCR was a tough one for Team Challenge US. A minor cold front passed through the area but lacked any kind of punch in wind velocity. Coupled with a lot of powerboat traffic on the Key Biscayne YC course, the light winds made racing difficult. Two poor finishes were costly for the Team, dropping them in the standings from first to fifth on the last day. This puts the Team of Alison, Icyda and Leech in second place in ranking points behind Sally Barkow of Wisconsin, with the Pre-Trials this coming week being the final ranking event.

Team Challenge US, leading going into the last day, were ping ponged several times just after the first start of the day, and had a very hard time finding any opportunities to come back to the left side of the race course. The velocity and current were better on the left, and a shift towards that side made it almost impossible to recover from a poor first leg. A 22 place finish was not what Alison, Icyda and Leech had hoped for. The teams from Bermuca and Greece posted strong finishes, as did Barkow, Cronin, Swanson and Swett (all from the USA).

The Team did not fare all that much better in the second race of the day. The start line was a bit short, and Alison just barely got closed out of the pin. The Team ducked some boats and dodged a few bullets to get back into the race up the first windward leg, but on a ducking situation, Alison misjudged the distance and tapped Becker-Dey in the transom. A set of penalty turns was costly in both time and distance. Once again it was a difficult position to recover from, with the Team fishing in a distant 18. When all was said and done, Team Challenge US finished 5th overall at the Rolex Miami OCR.

Though their final position was somewhat disappointing, Team Challenge US is in good spirits as they look forward to the Pre-Trials this coming weekend on Biscayne Bay. The top US finisher at tbe Pre-Trials will represent the United States at the Pre-Olympic Test Event in Athens this August. "Sometimes you have a bad day on the water, and Sunday happened to be ours," said Alison, "I have to admit that we are disappointed in or performance in the final two races, but we will not let that impact our dedication and determination to get the job done! The ultimate goal is to represent the USA at the Olmpic Games and bring home the gold."

The Pre-Trials will begin on Friday, February 7 and finish on the 9th. Stay tuned for more reports as the Team takes on a strong international field at this event.