Madrid, Spain - September 29, 2008 - I just wrapped up the Snipe Women’s World 2008 Championship in Roquetas de Mar, Spain, where my crew, Kathleen Tocke and I finished a very close second  overall.  The event was four days long, with three days of sailing.  We had at least one race in every condition. However the majority were in about 14-16 knots of breeze.  There were nine races total with two drop races. Twentythree teams competed from Spain, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Uruguay, Poland and USA.  The racing in the front of the fleet was very close and made for an exciting end to the regatta.

Our American team at the opening ceremony

The first day of racing was the day with the most variable conditions. The first race started in about 5-7kts of breeze.  Our start wasn’t very good but we sailed smart and pulled back to 7th.  The next race the wind built a bit. After an excellent start we rounded the first mark in first, put our Laser downwind skills to work and extended on the fleet to finish with a comfortable win. The breeze was up into the high teens for the third start and we started well. Then about two minutes after the start, I fell out of the boat on a tack. The boat practically capsized, but we got it up again quite fast and went on to finish 3rd in the race. At the end of the day, we were in third overall.  It was quite a shock to be doing so well given that this was just my sixth day in the boat.  

The second day of racing was cancelled due to lack of wind but of course just as the organizers canceled for the day the breeze picked up and kept building all through the night.  We were greeted the next morning with breeze in the high teens but it died down to the low to mid-teens for the beginning of racing.  We sailed a great first race and won. We were over the line early in the next start but worked very hard to fight back a long way to finish in 5th.  The last race was the most fun of the entire event.  The Spanish team, the Uruguay team and we extended on the fleet and at different points in the race, each of us had the lead.  Unfortunately for us, our time to lead was the middle and not the end and we lost both boats on a shift up the last leg of the race. Our finishes however had moved us up to second overall with one drop in affect.  Facing the prospect of two drop races (assuming we were going to get three races in the last day) we knew we had to pretty much win all three races.  With two drops after day two, the points were 6, 7, 8 with the Spanish in first, Uruguay in second, and us in third.  

Windward teamwork - - - Photo: Luis Chiapparro

We started the last day in style, winning the first two races quite convincingly. That locked us into first or second overall and we actually had the lead by one point.  However, the way ties were broken at this event was in favor of the boat with the lower drop race and, unfortunately for us, the Spanish boat had the lower drop, which meant that although we held the advantage going into the final race, we still had to beat them to win the title.  We got into a bit of match racing before the start but we both got off to great starts at the favored end of the line.  We were inside of the Spanish on a big right hand shift and things looked very good for us until the wind went back the other way and evened out our advantage.  

We came into the windward mark on port and attempted to lee bow the Spanish to lead them in, but both Kathleen and I managed to tangle ourselves in our sheets and we couldn’t keep our opponents behind us. We weren’t too worried. Our speed on the reaches had been very good all regatta long so we knew we could probably catch them on the reach. However after the Spanish women rounded in front of us they caught some nice waves while we had to fight off the Italian boat right on our transom. That gave the Spanish the lead they needed to prevent us from overtaking.  We did catch up to them by the leeward mark, but they covered us well on the upwind leg.  On the second triangle, we again caught the Spanish boat and engaged our opponents in a tacking dual. It didn’t work and they went on to win. During the tacking dual, the Brazilian boat slipped in between us at the finish so we took third in the race and silver overall in the event.

Light air run teamwork - - - Photo: Luis Chiapparro

I was quite sad when we finished because we worked so hard and we wanted to win, but the Spanish sailed a very good event and got the better of us when it counted.  But now I’ve had a night to sleep on it, I’m still disappointed that we didn’t win. However, given that I had only sailed the boat for nine days, including the regatta, and Kathleen and I had never sailed together before, we did pretty good.  Sailing in after the finish, we agreed if the regatta were to start the next day, it would probably have been a different story. We were both figuring out how to sail together, and I was figuring out how to make the boat go fast.  

On a positive note, I learned so much about sailing this past week and half.  In the Laser, it’s easy to get focused on fitness and tactics, but elements like sail shape and mast bend are not much of a consideration. It was a great experience, and I’m really thankful to Kathleen for getting me to come over and sail. I must also thank the Uruguayan team, Mariana and Andrea Foglia, and their coach Luis Chiapparro for all their help in getting us up to speed and for carrying our extra gear on the water. A big thank you must go to Augie Diaz for letting us use his beautiful new Snipe.  It was nice to be able to get into a boat and know that everything would work, and assuming we set it up correctly, it would go fast. We have to thank the Italian team for driving our boat over for us.  And the biggest thanks must go to Kathleen for putting up with me for the event as a rookie.  It must have been really hard for her, given that she crews for Snipe superstar Augie, to have me in the back of the boat, but she was very patient with me and I really want to thank her for it. 

So now I get to have a couple of weeks off from sailing.  I am continuing my training for a triathlon coming up at the end of October, and I will be doing a couple of trips here an there, but I will get a bit of time to rest now and I’m looking forward to it.  My next event is the Nations Cup Regional Finals in Charleston on November 6-9. 

Finally I want to thank my sponsors Carmeuse and K-Swiss for their support in helping me achieve my goal of winning the Olympic Gold in China.

Sail hard,
Anna