Practice Race today in Rio

We sailed the practice race today before the South American Championships starts tomorrow sailed out of the ICRJ (Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro). Brad and I put up the new jib today to make sure it was all set to go. The distance to the race course sails literally in the shadow of Sugar Loaf mountain towering a thousand feet above the bay. Once we get through the massive wind shadows, we turn right out the harbor entrance into six foot ground swell and a funneled 15 knots of breeze. The next 3 miles upwind to the racing area the wind dissipates and steadies to an average 6-10 knots, loading and unloading as the swells pick us up and put us down.

We tuned on the way out to the course to day with Robert Scheidt and Mark Mendelblatt. Brad and I are slowly working the kinks out of the P Star, but were certainly happy with the speed around the course. We started the practice race three boats up from the pin and unfortunately led around the first windward mark and the first leeward before we turned back to the harbor (it is, after all, bad luck to win the practice race). The sail in and out

First race starts tomorrow at 1330. We'll let you know how it goes.

Has Parity Returned to Star Equipment?

Today was a beautiful day of training on Rio off of Copacabana Beach. We had six boats out for speed testing, amongst them, three world champions, four different boat builders, four sail makers, and in the first lineup over 20 minutes, nobody had a major speed edge. There has been concern over the past few years that the star class has become out of reach for all but the top professionals, but in reality the top professionals gravitate towards the star class because they can showcase their talents against the best.

At dinner the discussion turned to the boat market. In the US alone there are at least six Olympic boats, from three builders, for sale for between $30,000-40,000. In terms of sails, Quantum has been using the same Z4/P2 for the last few Olympics, Ian Percy’s Gold Medal combination is available from North, and there are at least three new sail makers in the mix. There are now boats and masts being built in the US, so now is the time to get in to the best racing around.

Andrew and I are training in Rio for the South American Championships, which begin Thursday. Stay tuned for more this week!