Celebrating the win as we cross the line.

It’s the end of the beginning! In 297 days we will be at the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Paralympics - How cool is THAT??? Nick and I clinched the win in the Paralympic Trials by the 14th race on Saturday and needed to not race the last day. The Race Committee gave us an extra long toot of the horn as we crossed the finish line first, to clinch the win.

Yes, that means that Nick and I are now members of the US Paralympic Team representing the SKUD 18 class, we’re going to Beijing! And, in the Sonar class I am so relieved and happy to report that my former teammates are also going to the Games - Rick, Timmy and Bill. It went to the wire for them and I had the pleasure of watching them win it Sunday. Also on the Paralympic Team is John Ruf of Wisconsin in the 2.4 Metre class. Read the rest of this entry »

PARALYMPIANS!

We won. Details to follow tomorrow.

Well, as the old saying goes…. the opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings… she’s not onstage yet, but we sure can hear her warming up!

Two more races, two more bullets. Today we really had to work extra hard for our second win. The first race we led the race mark by mark, extending on every leg to the finish. The second race though was a fight… Read the rest of this entry »

Today began a bit raw with drizzling rain and kept that way throughout the day. We suited and layered up and sailed out to Potters Cove for Day 5 of racing.

The breeze was much like the end of our last race so we kept the rig tuned the same. There was a gradient breeze of 6-10 knots was from the east north east and the temp was in the high 50’s. The race committee gave us a new course with upwind finishes, this probably meant that race committee was going to do more than two races to catch up. We were right we had 3 races.

We won the first race with Scott & Julia 2nd, Karen & J.P third. The second race was a bit of a nail biter where we found the seaweed again and after a slow downwind, rounded the leeward mark, went a few boatlengths and did a maneuver called a “backdown”. In a backdown, you not only stop the boat from racing, but you push the boom AT the wind and make the boat go backwards. As you might imagine, it’s not fast! We felt the boat was going better again, but one boat passed us. We needed to catch up. We realized we may ruin our first place record but that wasn’t as important as finishing ahead of our major competitor, and we did we finished second. Julia and Scott of NJ stayed out of the adverse current on the way upwind, while we battled it out to pass Karen and J.P. which we did. Scott & Julia passed us both at the top of the beat to finish first and were so happy, it was great to see.

Our last race, race three, we also won, with Scott and Julia behind us and Karen & J.P. again in third. The day was 1-2-1 and we have now 10 pts with a throw-out score and are also 10 points ahead of second place. There’s a great battle developing for second and third, with only one point between them.

There was an article in Thursday’s Salem News Sports section on the racing. Look it up if you can!

Just one race today and still in first by 6 points now after another win - it’s still close though! With 7 of 16 races completed, we’re still not quite halfway done. It already seems like we’ve been racing forever. Boy, is this a long regatta!

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Long way to go yet….but still in first place and maybe on ESPN!

The day began drizzly and overcast, and all the competitors were bundled up for a day’s skiing. We had less wind on the course for our third day of races. On the first race, the wind was gusting to 12 knots and we kept extending ahead of the fleet both upwind and downwind and won the race. Nearly two minutes expired before the next competitor crossed the finish.

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BANG! BANG! Two races, two bullets today!

Dan’s fond of saying that sailboat racing is simple - start in front, stay in front. If only it were as easy as that sounds. But today that’s more or less what Nick and I did. In race two, the other SKUDs did get close. We’re cleanly in 1st place, but there are 12 races yet to go.
Maureen McKinnon-Tucker

It was overcast, chilly in the low 60’s, with the breeze from the northeast at 14-16 knots, dropping down a bit as the day went on. Nick and I had two good starts, good boatspeed upwind and down. We rounded the first weather mark in first both races and never looked back, extending our lead on most legs.

The race committee had us racing over near Jamestown today in Potters Cove north of the Newport Bridge. It was cool to see people on land watching the event. Speaking of spectating, ESPN will be putting a camera on our boat tomorrow…we will find out when it may air later. Now, how cool is THAT???

Coaches Mike and Dan took some photos, they’re posted on flickr. Not as good as national television, but take a look!

Our good friends and former teammates; Rick Doerr and Tim Angle had another good day as well and are also in first place in the Sonar class.

Game on! Lots of serious faces around the docks this morning as all the sailors prepared for the first day of racing. Years of training and preparation, thousands of miles of travel and thousands of dollars spent for what began today. Finally it was time to race! In eight days we’ll know which team goes to China to represent the USA. US Sailing describes it like this, “the nation’s top Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls will sail to starting lines on the U.S. East and West coasts to compete in the one regatta that will have the most dramatic impact on their sailing careers so far in this quadrennium: the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team Trials - Sailing.”

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Tick, Tick, Tick, the countdown to the US Trials is nearly over. Nick ad I have arrived in Newport and racing starts on Saturday and will go for 9 days. Opening ceremonies will be Thursday night at the prestigious New York Yacht Club. Most all the SKUD teams have been cramming in practices and clinics since early last week here.

In 13 days, the winner will go to China. And, in 13 days there will be 4 other USA teams who will go home very dissapointed. Our speed was so good in Rochester two weeks ago, we are hopeful to be that one winning team, the team US Sailing will call The Paralympic Team.

Only one thing is sure - whichever SKUD team finishes first, will send the first American woman ever to sail the Paralympic Games, as will most countries. Sailing the SKUD has been a great experience and one which has brought more women and more severely disabled folks to docks all around the world that I have ever seen in the past 6 years in disabled sailing.

I hope to be able to update you on our progress throughout the Trials. This is the winner take all regatta we’ve been preparing for!

THANK YOU…
Viper 640 Fleet for your generous support!

Thank you for your ongoing support, and thanks for reading!