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2006 Miami OCR Report | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Final Day 5 | The boys in the 470, Anderson-Mitterling & Hughes, file this report. - Enjoy. Day one brought us the promise of some leftover breeze from the past week, but it wasn't meant to be on the 470 course. Two races today. The first race saw about 7-11 knots, while Race #2 was in the 5-8 knot range - a general decreasing trend. Race #1. Okay start. Good speed. Lost some at the top, but rounded in third at the first windward mark. We ended up 5th after jockeying between 3rd and 6th at any given time. Not much separation existed between boat numbers 2 through 8. A solid race that, with some minor improvements, could have been a few places better. Race #2. Good start. Great speed. We leveraged the middle left, but lost out to the far righties by the top mark. Downwind didn't present many passing lanes and it seemed that you'd go the same speed whether in a pack or on your own. We took a few opportunities to break away and create some separation, but the gauge ended up about dead even. On the reach set our spin halyard got caught in the rig tension inside the mast. A quick move to switch to a fast jib-reaching mode, while Mikee released the rig tension and attended to the halyard (in the 470, the skipper hoists the halyard), saved us from what could have been a costly complication. Good stuff! We held a top ten -- 6-8th -- at the final mark. The light breeze made for few to no options in boat-passing moves. Teams seemed to be stuck in their position. On the final reach leg and about ten boat-lengths from the finish we were flagged by the Judge boat. Without hesitation we quickly took down our spinnaker and spun two penalty turns. It was very costly. We lost many boats. We sailed in not knowing why we had been flagged, so we waited for the Judge boat to come into the harbor so we could question them and make sure we would not risk future violations. They claimed we pumped both sails, though our recollection of the situation doesn't match up with their description, nor would have pumping yielded an advantage to us at that angle or time. Other competitors and witnesses agreed; however, some calls go your way and some don't, so we put it behind us. Nonetheless, we were excited by our speed in a condition that we've had some speed troubles with in the past -- light, dying breeze with leftover chop. We look ahead to tomorrow. It's supposed to be light again, but you never know! Stay tuned, 01/24/06 Top
The boys in the 470, Anderson-Mitterling & Hughes, file this report from day two of the regatta. - Enjoy. An all-in-all good day today. We rolled a 2-5-5. We could have shaved off a couple points overall, but we also could have easily added some unwanted points, too. We were fortunate to stay consistent and we came off the water very happy with our performance. Speed was good up and down. We felt our speed with the top boats was even. Starts needed to be better. The first and second race starts were fine, but our third start found us mid-line on what became a heavily favored pin end. Lessons learned. Downwind, the trick was to float the spinnaker away from the boat and remain calm. Upwind, speed helped, but keeping our eyes-out-of-the-boat was the key. At any one time, a 5th could easily turn into a 2nd or an 8th. Constancy and remaining calm was the name of the game. A few battles with the French and Brits made for some great fun!! Good stuff. We left the boat park early for dinner with a great family friend, Robbie Haines. (From a couple of starving athletes....thank you for dinner, Robbie!) We look forward to tomorrow. The forecast is for more wind, but we'll see what happens! More soon, 01/25/06 Top
Star Wow, what a long day! Three races in a shifty northerly breeze takes a lot out of you (we only had two races per day on Monday and Tuesday). We sailed conservatively, knowing that the northerly breeze would provide plenty of passing lanes all day. We wanted to be patient since we think we are somewhat stronger in shiftier winds -- if two guys from the northern lakes are good at anything, it is hitting shifts. We were fast and smart in the first two races (with a touch of luck), finishing 4th and 6th. In the third race, we showed good speed most of the way around the track but ended up on the wrong side of a shift at the end, finishing 23rd. In spite of this, we moved up to 2nd overall in the Star class with 7 of the 10 races in the books.
In the second race, we would have made it to the first mark in second place but decided to duck several starboard tackers at the weather mark on the port tack layline. The fleet was tight all race and we finished sixth amongst a big pack down wind. In the final race the wind became patchy -- lulls as low as 10 knots and gusts around 20 knots. The puffy breeze shifted through 30 degrees and the final shift on the final beat was a 60 degree righty. We were all over the place trying to stay in phase but got caught on the left in the final right shift and dropped a dozen boats. Ah well, sometimes you miss one! In these conditions it is tough to consume enough food and water. It is even more difficult to keep your body and mind focused for three races in windy conditions. We always joke about keeping the emergency Red Bull energy drink on the boat if one of us gets in a foul mood and needs a jolt of sugar and caffeine. Today, we went through three Red Bulls and are still ready to crash. Thankfully our dutiful press corps can edit this and send it to all of you while we are fast asleep. In case of emergency, pull tab... We apologize for not writing more, but our brains have stopped functioning. We are now in second overall with finishes of 2, 25, 2, 19, 4, 6, 23. Our 25th place finish from Monday is our discard race, so we have 56 points. This puts us in second place overall, and we are the top American team with three races to go. If our finishes seem erratic, consider this: only one team (George Szabo and Eric Monroe) have finished in the top TWENTY in every race. It is a testament to the competitiveness of the fleet (there are many talented sailors farther down in the standings who can win at any time) and also a sign of the difficult conditions we've seen this week. We are pleased to be in second but it will be difficult to recapture our OCR title, as the first place team, reigning World Champions Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau, are sailing extremely well and have 35 fewer points than us. Tomorrow's forecast is for stronger, steadier breezes. The race committee will try to complete two races, setting up a Friday final race showdown that simulates the new changes to the Olympic racing format -- we'll describe that in tomorrow's update though. Thank you all for your support. Stay
tuned, 470 A tough day of racing with many, many lessons. Boat speed was good up and down. Starts needed to be better. They were good. We held our lanes, but we could have nailed some great starts. Race number one offered up some tricky shifts. We ended up 6th. It was a tight pack of 7 or 8 boats at the final reach mark, so it was a good race. Race #2 was a stinger! We went right in what became a 15-20 degree lefty with pressure. The right never came back. We were on the tanks while the lefties planed over us. Not good. At that point the fleet split in two, so we made our best effort to be at the top of our 'fleet'. This worked to an extent as we ended up 13th. That race was equal to our drop, so it was costly! Race #3 made us get our heads out of the boat. We leveraged what became a right shift and battled four or five boats in the upper third of the first boat. A top five rounding at the windward and reach mark turned into a 2nd place after we gybed early on the run. We held on to the 2nd place for the remained on the race and at the finish. A good day on many fronts. We've become much more confident in conditions that haven't usually been our bag of tricks. We're very happy with the performance and know we can do better. Tomorrow promises some more wind, but we'll see what happens! Stay
tuned, 01/26/06 Top
Great Day. Long day. We'll make this update short! We rolled a 6-1-2 (maybe 3) today. 12-16 knots of breeze with lulls. The first race was very close at the finish, so a 6th could have been a 3rd, but a 6th was good. Race #2 came together on the second beat after a smart leeward gate rounding and first shift call. We had great speed and felt confident on the shifts and pressure. Things just came together. Afterward, we put the win out of our mind in order to focus on the next race. Race #3 rewarded the same ingredients: eyes out of the boat, catching shifts, keeping the boat going fast. We rounded the first mark in 2nd behind the World Champion Italians. We continued to battle with them throughout the rest of the race, draw closer, pass, fall back, draw closer, pull away from the fleet, etc. Good racing! On the final reach, we sat in a lull as the rest of the fleet planed toward us. The next place Israelis came in with pace, but they couldn't break through our lee and we took the 2nd, while they took the 3rd. Once on land, we found out that the finish boat had scored us exactly opposite, giving us the 3rd. At the finish, we heard the finish boat call our number first, then the Israelis. Moreover, their bow was at Mikee's back at the finish at it was a boat-end favored line. We filed for an scoring inquiry with the Race Committee; however, it seems they decided to keep the scores as is. Hopefully, we'll learn differently tomorrow, as it changes the balance of the scores going into the Medal race tomorrow. Regardless, we're in 5th place. We've qualified for the ten-boat Medal Race Final. One race, double-points, must count. We have a shot at the regatta and have a good shot at medalling. We're excited for tomorrow! Stay
tuned, 01/27/06 Top
470 A fun, yet hard fought day. Today's single race was the 'Medal Race" for the regatta. Ten boats, one race, places count double on a very short course. Very exciting. Press boats and coaches swarmed the course area. Multi classes all starting on the same course at varied start times. It was a treat to see all the other Medal Race qualifiers in the same vicinity – Finns, Ynglings, etc. -- something that never usually happens. The breeze was mid-teens with some higher and lower gusts. We had a good start mid-line. Some boats piled up on the pin end. We stayed on Starboard with the Brits, took a tack to the right but didn't get far enough right as the far right came in. We rounded the top mark about mid fleet. Racing was close! No spinnaker as the reach was too tight. No boat set. We set at the reach mark and only gybes once to the leeward. It was a very short leg!! We tried to catch a shift on the next beat and were somewhat successful; however, the beat was already over by the time we got into the shift. We rounded, one gybe, rounded the leeward mark as the Italians capsized in front of us, held off the Israelis at the finish, and took 6th. An okay result in a tough fleet. It surely could have been better. The race was over before we knew it! Lessons learned: This was our first experience with the new format. We need to get used to this new format, particularly on such a short course in breeze. It is fun, no doubt about it. The race only lasted about 20 mins, so we weren't out on the water for very long. Once on shore, we had to deal with the scoring mix-up from the day before. Once the jury had a chance to review the Finish Boat's notes, they deemed it cut-and-dry and granted us our revised score. It was a simple mistake and even the boat that finished next to us testified that we had beaten them. That gave us a 2nd in Race #11 and, gave us 4th overall for the regatta. The top five were: Brits, French, Israelis, USA (us), and the Austrians We remain very excited by our performance this week. Next to the first-place Brits, we had the best combined regatta finishes over the two regattas held here in Miami: North Americans and OCR. Sure, we could have sailed better. Sure, we made mistakes; however, we proved to ourselves and our foreign competitors that we can race with the top of the international fleet. Our consistency is getting better. Our speed is getting much better. Our ability to manage and race the 470 is getting much, much better. Even though we didn't win the event, we earned some hard-to-come-by respect among foreign teams. We showed that we have a few trump cards with speed and that we can put together some good races. All told we finished the regatta with 7 top-five finishes in 12 races, including one 1st and three 2nds
Stars Greetings Race Fans! We're sorry for the delay -- we were exhausted after the drama of the medal race, the long week of sailing and a series of post-regatta meetings. For those of you who can't stand the suspense or who haven't seen the final results yet, we came from behind on the final day and were able to put the necessary points between ourselves and the boat in front of us to place second in the race and second in the regatta. We were the top ranked American team in the Star class and were named the #1 ranked boat on the US Sailing Team for 2006, the second straight year we have achieved this milestone. To refresh everyone's memories, the top 10 boats after the first four days of racing were separated from the other 60 to sail a final "medal race" on Friday. The medal race is a new change to the Olympic format that will make debut in Beijing. In the meantime, regatta organizers have incorporated it into recent events. This was only the second time it had ever been used and the first time ever in the Western Hemisphere. The final race counts double for everyone's scores (so a first place finish is worth two points, a second place finish is four points and so on), and it cannot be discarded from anyone's scores. As any change is, there was some controversy surrounding the new system and some concern about how it would change the racing. While we knew we had to do well and put several boats between us and the second place team, our gameplan was to try to sail a clean race and not lock up into a two-boat race unless the situation naturally presented itself. It was windier than it had been all week, with a gusty, shifty northeaster that was at least twenty knots. The course was also shorter than the previous races to compact the fleet (in fact, the final race only took 36 minutes, whereas the others were at least 90 minutes). We did not see a situation to push our closest competitors over the starting line early so we began to sail our own race. After the start there was a large left shift. We wanted to tack but were pinned by Phillipe Presti and Jean-Philippe Saliou on our windward hip. Up the course, other boats began to tack on each other furiously. The tone was set and we no one wanted to give an inch. In fact, the boats who were able to avoid the rest of the fleet began to separate from the pack of disturbed air and constant tacking. John Dane and Austin Sperry began to extend on the right side of the beat and we tried to follow their lead. We rounded the windward mark in fourth and were immediately able to calculate our position in the regatta due to the smaller size of the fleet. This was a pleasant benefit and made the racing very interesting for us and the seizable fleet of spectator boats who came out to see the action. Every decision became ultra tactical. We gained a place on the run and tacked around the leeward mark out to the left side of the beat where we found better pressure and a favorable shift. We gained another place to move into second around the third mark and were able to hold that position into the finish. The second place team of George Szabo and Eric Monroe finished ninth, allowing us to move into second place in the final standings. At the awards ceremony, we were awarded silver medals for our efforts. While we were unable to defend our 2005 OCR title we were the top American team again and combined with our second place finish at the 2005 Pacific Coast Championships, we were named the #1 ranked team on the US Sailing Team in the Star class for the second consecutive year. We have proved we belong and are more focused than ever on being the U.S. representatives in the Star class in Beijing in 2008. We hope to continue our success at the Bacardi Cup in early March. We have an ambitious schedule planned for 2006 to train and race against the best competition across the world and hope to keep you posted at each step of the way. Thank you all for your support and assistance. Andy & Brad Horton-Nichol 2008 01/30/06 Top |
