Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
October 26, 2007

Right after the Olympic Trials, after two days of driving down from Newport, RI, I met up with my match racing team in St. Petersburg, Florida. We were in St. Pete for the Rolex Osprey Cup, hosted by the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, October 17-21. Our results were mixed. We sailed better than we ever have before but we ended the week with a sixth on our score card.

Racing against Betsy Alison - - - Photo: Char Doyle

This year I was racing with regular team members Ali Sharp and Liz Bower, plus a new addition, Molly Vandemoer, who flew into town fresh from the 470 Olympic Trials on the west coast where she and her skipper placed third overall. On our team, Liz handles the bow. She is currently Assistant Coach at Old Dominion University, from where she graduated as a multiple All-American and Women’s Dinghy Champion. Ali is our tactician. She is currently Assistant Coach at the US Naval Academy. She graduated from St Mary’s College where she was a multiple All-American. Molly joined us as trimmer. She was a multiple All-American while at the University of Hawaii and won a Women’s Dinghy Championship.

 My birthday was on Wednesday during the regatta, so we went out early on Tuesday for a birthday celebration before the weigh-in and practice session on Wednesday. The breeze was only four to five knots and died to one to two knots but we made the most of it and had a great practice session with our friends on Team Seven Sailing – Sally Barkow, Debbie Capozzi, Annie Lush and Lindsay Bartel.

Racing started at 9:30 on Thursday morning and thereafter at 9:00 AM every morning. In what must be a rarity for Tampa Bay, we were met with wind every day. The race committee did a great job of getting off races. Overall over the whole series, they ran 113 races, in which we raced 21. We sailed two round robins and our consolation round knockouts for 5th place. We had missed the quarterfinals by a couple of places so we met Katy Lovell and team in the 5th place consolation round. After dropping the first race to Katy, we came back to win the next race, only to loose the last in the best-of-three series to finish 6th overall.

In the finals, the American teams skippered by Liz Baylis and Sally Barkow each lost their semi-finals rounds and had to race each other in the petit finals for third and fourth places. The 2005 Champion Giulia Conti, from Italy, and #3 World-ranked Katie Spithill from Australia advanced to the finals. Sally won the petit finals with a 3-1 record to finish third overall. Look here for full results.

On Sunday morning, when all other racing was finished, Katie defeated Giulia in three straight matches to win the Osprey Cup. Our team was privileged to ride along with the umpires to watch the finals racing and to listen to their commentary during races. This was a very valuable experience for our team learning. Overall we gained a lot in these four days of racing – so much more than in past events. We know we’ll take this experience forward into future events.

Our next regatta will be the Rolex International Women’s Keelboat Championship at the Houston Yacht Club in La Porte, Texas, November 12-17.

Before closing I want to thank everyone who sent emails after the Olympic Trials. I read every one of them and they all meant so much to me. I also would like to thank my sponsors Carmeuse and K-Swiss for their continued support in my campaign.

Sail hard,
Anna