US Windsurfing Nationals - Worthington,MN

The Imperfect World of Windsurf Racing

Ok, maybe it's just MY imperfect world.

I see other sailors at races, they always seem to have things figured out. They know which sail to have rigged, exactly how much downhual to have for the wind, how high the boom should be and the exact placement of their harness lines. I, on the other hand, am often a wreck. I have not yet figured out what race sails I should have, or even if I am going to be racing enough to justify getting new race sails. I show up to race with gear I've hardly used, no idea how to get it dialed in and in the frantic rush to get ready I forget the simplest things.

At Nationals for instance, it took me until the last day of racing to have a sail properly rigged, boom at an appropriate height and harness lines adjusted on the first try. The first day of racing it was windy and gusty and got quite a bit windier between rigging and the start of the first race. I did not make it out to the course even in time to get across the start line in time, much less early enough to sail around and see what could be adjusted to improve my performance. The penalty was getting my a** kicked around the course, falling in a lot and wearing out my forearms in record time. By the end of the day though - I almost had it all together, my gear felt good, stuff in the right place, I got to the start line in time to set my watch, I felt like I was actually trying to race instead of trying to survive! De-rigging at the end of the day I was feeling pretty good - until I realized that I spent all day on waaayy to big of a fin and it never even occured to me to do anything about it.

On the second day of racing it was mellow conditions and I was happy to be on a 9.8m (that I've actually sailed on before and already had my sail number on it -woohoo!). Half way through the first race, as my boom slipped down to around my navel, I realized that I had never used that boom with that mast and clearly things were not adjusted correctly. I used a big lull at the upwind mark as an opportunity to raise my boom after carefully weighing the potential gains I might make by having my boom at the right height vs. the potential of missing getting planing in the next puff because I was adjusting my boom. I think I made the right call - I passed a person or two before the finish!

Day three of racing was another windy one - but I was feeling confident. I had worked out all my rigging and tuning issues on the 8.5m sail on the first day, I remembered to use my smaller fin and I was ready to race. I was about as powered up downwind as I've ever been on formula gear, once it was all lit up, flying downwind...confidence disapeared in a flash - I was terrified. Instead of agressively going into a jibe and trying to pass other sailors, I was using jibes as an opportunity to rest, breathe and summon my courage to sheet in again. I was feeling like a total pansy until I saw some of the big, tough, fast guys doing the same thing. Trying to push past my fear of crashing at that speed, I kept reminding myself that the worst thing that happens is falling in the water. As it turns out, I should have been focusing on keeping the board on the water, an over-the-handlebars explosion broke my boom front end and I was done for the day.

The last two days of racing were light wind, 11.0m sail days. There were a few more gear issues to iron out (because, of course, I'd never even rigged the 11.0m before), like hitting the water without popping the bottom cam on the mast and getting the harness lines on yet another boom in the right spot. But it turns out that my biggest issue was just not being physically prepared for the 11.0m sail. It's a super light rig and feels great - but it's still an 11.0m and I was tired.

In the end I has some good races and some bad, I was mostly solidly in the middle of the fleet and of course, had a blast. If I can just remember all the gear lessons I learned and be a little more prepared next time....there's no telling how well I might do! And for all of you who are putting off racing until you really have it all figured out...come join my imperfect world of racing!

Olympic Trials - Finally a Conclusion

 

"Sometimes there are no winners at all.  And sometimes nobody needs to lose"  John LeCarre

 

By now almost all of you are familiar with the controversy surrounding the women’s rs:x Olympic Trials.  There have been accusations of excessive lawyering (heartily disputed by lawyers), lots of taking sides and a small amount (thankfully) of blaming.  You all know the story, Nancy was winning, but got run into and her sail was torn, keeping her from her rightful finish that would win the trials….or wait, is it that Farrah made an amazing come back, the wind picked up just like it needed to, and she won the trials – only to have the prize snatched from her at the last minute from a US Sailing Jury that wanted Nancy to win from the get-go.

 

The truth – good luck figuring that out.  But here’s my version of the truth, for what ever it’s worth.

 

Going into the last day, Nancy was winning the Olympic Trials by a slim margin.  I went into the last race knowing that Nancy either had to beat Farrah in the last race or finish no more than two points behind her to win the regatta.  I don’t imagine this was a mystery to either of them.  Race 16 (infamous race 16) was started in marginal wind, similar to race 15.  Nancy and Farrah both had decent starts near the boat on starboard while USA 71 started at the pin on port.  Why did that sailor start on port at the pin?  Good question – but the wind was oscillating and fairly gusty.  A port start could have been the call – in a fleet of only six sailors how much can go wrong?  However it happened, the port tack sailor managed to collide with Nancy (and Farrah, if my memory serves) and cause the now infamous gash/tear/slit in her sail.

 

Pretty quickly after the start the wind was building, I was thrilled to be fully powered up and making my around the course rapidly catching up to and passing the girls ahead of me.  Farrah was way out in front, I pulled into second place by the second up wind mark with Lisa Kremer behind me and Nancy and the rest of the fleet behind her.  As I crossed the finish line I was totally stoked to have another second place finish for the regatta and I felt awful for Nancy. 

 

When we hit land, Nancy was understandably distraught and Farrah (when she realized what the scores meant) was elated.  My heart broke for Nancy – I’ve been lucky enough to get to know her over the last couple years, and there aren’t words to describe how much I admire her tenacity and spirit.  I’ve even been lucky enough to call her a friend.  As a friend, I wanted her to win more than anything (except of course, a miracle come back of my own).  But when Nancy got redress from the jury and Farrah ended up second, my heart broke for her.  She sailed a hell of a regatta, and one amazing last race.  To watch her have her Olympic berth snatched away from her, moments before the awards ceremony, after seeing how much she had improved over the last few months before the trials- well, you watch that up close and in person and tell me how you feel about it.

 

I drove back home to Denver from southern California counting my lucky stars that I sailed a rotten regatta and wasn’t involved and that I had a job and life waiting for me at home.

 

Fast forward six months, and I’m being asked to appear in person, at a law office in Rhode Island for the re-hearing of Nancy’s redress and the possible hearing for Farrah’s redress.  I could have said no – I could have stayed totally uninvolved.  So what was I doing in Providence?  I felt is was important that the issue be resolved in the best possible way – and that way kind of needed to include all of us who were there and as much information as could be given to the folks who were going to make the decisions.  I also felt like it was important to be there for both Farrah and Nancy.  We’re all pretty close for competitors – and if I were in their shoes I wouldn’t want to go through that without friends around.

 

The first set of hearings was essentially a do-over of Nancy’s redress from the Trials and then an opportunity for Farrah to get a redress hearing of her own.  At the end of two long days (during which a few of us witnesses felt like we were being a little unnecessarily harassed by a US Sailing lawyer) the US Sailing jury stood by their original decision –which gave Nancy Rios the win. 

 

Farrah took the case to the final step, which was an arbitration hearing that was held in Rhode Island about a month and a half after the first round of hearings.  As witnesses, Lisa Kremer and I were not super excited to have a repeat of our first experience where we were so out of our element and feeling so harassed by the process and the lawyering that we wanted to hide in the corner and cry.  Luckily, the process with the arbitrator was much more civilized and brief.  Unfortunately for Lisa – she had appendicitis and got to spend a lovely day at a Providence hospital having her appendix removed. 

 

I was only directly involved in a very brief portion of the arbitration when I was questioned.  So my overall impressions should be taken as purely my opinion, based on only a very secondary hearing of partial facts.  But at the end of the day – the arbitrator dismissed the case because there was not enough reason for him to overturn the decision, but he did feel as though Farrah did get a bit of the short end of the stick at the trials.  So… there you go – I am so proud of Nancy and happy for her to be going to the Olympics. I know she is going to be training and working so hard to be the best she can possibly be at the Olympics – both as a windsurfing competitor and an American.  And I am so proud of Farrah for fighting for what she thinks is right and for the amazing strides she has made in her windsurfing and racing in a short amount of time with limited funds.  I’m not sure you can call either one of them a clear winner – but certainly neither is a loser.