Takapuna, Auckland, NZ
March 20, 2008

From the bottom to the top – well almost the top. That was the story of my 2008 Laser Radial Women's World Championship regatta here in Takapuna where I placed sixth overall. Tricky wind and wave conditions all week long confounded the best in the Radial Class and continually mixed up the results. Given that, and my OCS on the opening day, I’m pleased with final result here.

Working on the boat with Brad

It was calm and overcast when we started today and we had a couple of tries at starting before the committee took us further offshore. The wind was building as we started and I didn’t get a very good start but I made a good comeback to work my way up to 18th at the finish.

In the next race, my start was better and I managed to tack away on the first shift, working out to the right-hand side until we got big left-hand pressure that I was able to tack into. At the weather mark I was in the top ten. There were nine of us who jumped out ahead of the fleet and up the second beat I was in fourth at one point until I got shift-happy and tacked too many times instead of attempting to get leverage on the fleet. At one point I dropped back to ninth but I recovered to finish seventh.

It was a long, stressful week but I got a lot out of it. I learned plenty and got to work on my performance goals. The conditions were mostly light and very, very difficult. Things you knew you were doing correctly would not work out. Sometimes you got lucky, sometimes you didn’t. But I really enjoyed Takapuna and our hosts, the Takapuna Boating Club, although dragging our boats up the grassy hill after racing got to be pretty old, pretty fast.

Waiting for wind on the hill at Takapuna Boating Club

I’m flying back to the States tomorrow and then, on April 6 I’m flying to Santander, Spain, hopefully to practice with Tania Calles Elias from Mexico who is still recovering from a leg injury. Conditions there are supposed to be light, with a lot of current. Sounds like Qingdao without the pollution, doesn’t it? After Santander I move on to Hyères, France for the 40th Semaine Olympique Française de Voile, starting April 19. I’m coming home after that for my wedding to Brad. We’ll have a short honeymoon break before I head to Medemblik, Holland to prepare for the Holland Regatta in late May. From then until the Olympics, I’ll be spending much of my time training in Qingdao, with a short break in Germany in late June to race at Kieler Woche in Kiel.