Over the long weekend we headed to Miami once more for a 4 day training camp. We overcame some travel delays and equipment kinks to have a very productive weekend.
The wind was cooperative, unlike during the regatta two weeks ago! During this training camp we worked a lot on starts. Specifically, we practiced sighting/judging the line, maneuvers on the line (sliding to windward, double tacking, rotating the bow down using battens vs. using sail trim and heel), and accelerations. This was a major weakness of ours that Sailing World Cup Miami revealed, and we are pleased to have broken some ground before we head to Palma for our next event. Our communication improved significantly throughout the weekend and we will work to continue to solidify that aspect of our teamwork.
We found a fast downwind mode that we’re really excited about. Because we’re trapping harder and sailing flatter it is a bit harder to see the oncoming wind, but we will be able to get better at that with practice. We have lots of video footage to review as well.

Paris next to our tiny rental car! “The smallest car in America”!

Thanks to Luther Carpenter for coaching us, as well as our training partners: Genny/Kathleen, Kristen/Maggie, and Debbie/Molly. Training with other boats makes all the difference.

Thank you very much to the Kohrman family for welcoming us for the weekend, and a delicious dinner on Friday night that prepared us for a long weekend on the water! Thank you to Nacra sailor David Hein for retrieving our sails before the camp and to John Vandemoer for rides to and from the airport. We’d like to thank the St. Francis Sailing Foundation again for their support of us at the Sailing World Cup Miami regatta. So many people are a part of this campaign and we are very grateful!

Stacked 3 high (and one on the car’s roof!)

On that note, the trailer that my father designed and built himself (literally welding aluminum in our driveway, in the Seattle rain and snow!) made it back to the west coast safely! On this trip it went 5000 miles from Miami to Vancouver, BC. The trailer towed really well, even with three boats on it. My father is so incredibly supportive of my sailing but I am also really grateful to him for giving me my love of engineering… I think it’s pretty clear where that came from! Thank you to Mum and Dad for driving it from Seattle to Miami in December – what a long haul! A huge thank you goes to Rob and Ian for driving all the way back across the country. What a feat. Also thanks to Are and Lisa Freisecke for providing a place to store the trailer temporarily.

Ian and Rob at the Stanford boathouse, happy to unload 3 out of 4 boats!

Next up: We leave for Palma de Mallorca, Spain, in four weeks. We will have 9 days of training before the regatta starts, which is a welcome change from recent events. The event is Sailing World Cup Mallorca and it will last for 6 days. We can expect the world’s best to be there, and for it to be a larger event than Miami was because more European teams will attend.