On the Water Tough
End 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: We really appreciate your support! Cheers! Andy
& Brad |