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FIFTH PLACE - 2022 49ERFX WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
We are proud to report our fifth-place finish at the 49erFX World Championship earlier this month. The six-day, 17-race regatta had a variety of conditions from windy & choppy, shifty & light offshore, and steady sea breeze.
We started the week off with three double-digit scores, ultimately putting us in 22nd overall after the first day of racing -- definitely not how we expected to open up the World Championship! But we mentally rallied and were determined to see what kind of comeback we could manage. Over the next five days, we slowly chipped away at the fleet by focusing on our upwind speed, course strategy, and average racing score each day. A race win on day three helped us gather some nice momentum. We climbed the rankings from 22nd > 15th > 10th > 9th > 6th place before the medal race.
Given where we started, we were very happy to make the medal race (top 10 overall, worth double points), and the points were tight between fourth through seventh places. Our goal for the medal race was to balance our desire to 'race to win' in hopes of advancing to fifth overall, while managing risk on the racecourse in order to stay ahead of the teams closest to us in the standings, Brazil and Spain.
We had a great start, killer upwind speed, and, with critical input from the USST's meteorologist, Chelsea Carlson Freas, we sailed to the favored side of the racecourse. We held the lead all the way around the course, finished the regatta in fifth overall, and ended the week on an absolute high! Thank you to the US Sailing Team and our coach Giulia Conti for all your hard work behind the scenes to make a successful week!
Full Results Here | Replay of the Live Coverage | US Sailing Team Press Release
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SIXTH PLACE - EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP | July, 2022
After six windy days of racing in Aarhus, Denmark, we finished sixth place overall in the fleet of 70 boats. We were fast and decisive during the first three days of qualifying racing, during which time we sat in the top three overall. But unfortunately, we struggled to find our stride while racing the gold fleet, and our scores showed it — we fell to fourth during Gold Fleet racing, then sixth place overall after being over-early at the start of the medal race.
Unfortunately, due to Maggie’s (most recent) knee injury, we had only sailed one week, instead of the five we planned, since racing previously in Hyeres, France. Getting old is no fun! Jumping straight into a regatta after seven weeks off the water was mentally and physically challenging. Nonetheless, we fought for every inch and learned a lot! We made progress in areas we've been working on since Palma. We have enormous respect for how well our competitors sailed. The teams that passed us in the final two days of the regatta simply out-sailed us. The unforgiving competitiveness of the Gold Fleet illuminated some weaknesses in our game and made us hungry to make gains.
We started the medal race in 4th place, but we made the unforced error of being called OCS (over the line early) in the medal race, which dropped us to sixth place overall. The medal race is the only race where you can clear your OCS by sailing back under the starting line, which we did almost immediately after the starting gun went off. In all other races, being over the starting line early results in a disqualification/UFD. Unfortunately though, on a short racecourse with only the top-ten boats, there was not enough time to claw back the distance and points we needed to maintain our position.
Throughout the spring season, we’ve been working on our “trigger time” at the starts, and our goal is to commit fully to the trigger time once we decide we’re racing. In other words, “send it!” at the starting gun. When we execute that well, we start the race at full-speed and jockey for position in the front line of boats. In order to find the limit of pushing the line, we generally aim for an OCS (or failure rate) of one out of every twelve starts. In hindsight, if there was ever a race that we didn’t need to push the edge, it was this medal race. Next time we will recalibrate our risk-reward assessment for the medal race, and leave a little more buffer room.
Full Results Here | Replay of the Live Coverage
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Marseille Training | August, 2022
After the European Championship, we spent three weeks training in Marseille, France, the Paris 2024 Olympic sailing venue. We learned a lot about the area on and off the water during this period which coincided with the timing of the Games in 2024.
Throughout our three weeks there, we had a mix of light air days and spectacular breeze from the mighty “mistral,” which is the windy and wavy, Northwesterly geographic breeze. We learned that in 2024 we can expect mainly a westerly breeze varying in strength and some challenging, choppy sea state.
The US Sailing Team put a lot of effort into setting up an amazing home base at the Yachting Club Point Rouge and supporting the athletes onsite. We especially loved working with meteorologist Chelsea Carlson of SeaTactics to learn more about the weather on a daily basis. With two air conditioned containers and an astro-turf covered boat park area we were able to be extremely productive on and off the water. It was a beautiful place to sail and we are excited to go back!
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Photo Credit: @christiansouchetphotography and @ycprmarseille
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The US Sailing Team released the US Olympic Trials Selection procedures. For the 49erFX, there are two selection opportunities:
1. If an eligible team both wins the qualification series for selection to the 2023 Olympic Test Event and finishes in the top three at the 2023 Olympic Test Event, they shall be nominated to represent USA at the 2024 Olympic Games.
2. If no athlete/team achieves Early Selection, the International Selection Committee intends to use regatta results from a combination of events in 2024, which will be confirmed by March 1, 2023.
In order for the U.S. to compete in the 49erFX class in the Olympics, we need to qualify the country for one of the nineteen 49erFX country berths at the 2024 Olympics. Any American 49erFX team can qualify the country, and it will have no impact on the US Trials selection process. The 2023 World Championship in the Hague, Netherlands (August 10-20, 2023) will be the first opportunity to qualify for the first ten country spots. Then the North American continental spot will be up for grabs at the PanAmerican Games (October 20-November 5, 2023) in Santiago, Chile. Full country qualification information can be found here for the 2024 Olympic Games. Read more about the athlete selection procedures for other Olympic classes here and the nitty-gritty details in the official documents here.
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Support our team and help us get one step closer to our goal of bringing home a Gold Medal for Team USA. We can't do it alone, and we are so grateful for all of the generous supporters behind us. Go USA!
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