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.”

Nick and I have a pretty significant advantage, being that we’re the only SKUD team to have raced in Olympic Trials previously. You could see the pressure on the faces of most of the sailors. We felt it too, but having done this before made it a lot easier. It was also easier because we know we’re prepared… the boat is ready, the sails are ready, and we’re ready. We arrived at the dock feeling confident.

The three Paralympic classes have staggered start times each day, to allow each class to get a race off before the next class arrives in the racing area. Today the SKUDs were the last start, so we had lots of time to kill before leaving the dock for our 1:00 starting signal. Racing started on time and after a decent, but not great. start, we led out to the left side to the shore of Goat Island, forcing 2 boats to tack off. The boat to our left tacked and ducked us, then we went too. Our upwind boatspeed was again decent, but not great and we rounded the first windward mark first, with Karen Mitchell/J.P. Creignou hot on our heels and Scott Whitman/Julie Dorsett hot on their heels and Sarah Everhart-Skeels/Bob Jones hot on THEIR heels! Four of the five boats racing rounded within seconds.

We all gybed, but Karen & J.P. did a few seconds sooner than us, and were able to get on our breeze and pass us. Our downwind speed was a bit off the pace and we rounded the first leeward mark 4th. The other teams hadn’t been willing to let us line up with them to compare boatspeed in the days leading up to the racing (we like to think it just proved that they feared us!) and we did suffer as a result. The next two legs were much the same, pass a couple of boats upwind, lose them downwind. It was a bit frustrating. We finally finished the 3 lap race in 3rd.

As soon as we crossed the finish line Mike Pinkney and Dan Tucker jumped aboard to help solve our downwind speed problem. No water in the hull, check. A couple of tweaks to rig tune and such and we were off to see how the boat felt before the start of the next race. It seemed better, but the proof would be on the racecourse!

The second start we were again able to punch out to the left side in less adverse current, forcing Karen/J.P & Sarah/Bob to the right while Scott/Julia came with us and ducked us again at the first crossing. We were fairly well launched (ahead) the next time we crossed the fleet. We again rounded first, and this time our downwind speed was much better and we maintained our lead as we sailed to the leeward mark. By this time fog was rolling in pretty thick, so the Race Committee shortened the course as we headed for the 2nd windward mark, with us in the lead.

So after 2 of 16 scheduled races, we’re tied on points with Scott & Julia but winning the tie-breaker, with Karen/J.P. one point behind. It feels good to be winning after the first day, but there’s a lot of racing yet to go! Please keep your positive thoughts and supportive emails headed our way!