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ON OUR WAY TO QINGDAO!

 
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Miami, Florida
January 28, 2008

Team 7 Sailing turned in a good performance on the water today on the first of six days of top-level competition in the Yngling Class at US Sailing’s Rolex Olympic Classes Regatta sailed on Biscayne Bay.

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Photo: Walter Cooper/US Sailing

We logged third and tenth places in the two races sailed in a fickle seven to nine-knot northerly to place third overall, just one point out of second place. Highlighting today’s difficult, fluky conditions, only four boats finished in the top ten places in both races sailed.

Chinese skipper Song Xia Qun, from Qingdao where the Olympics will be sailed. topped today’s standings with 2-8 finishes for ten points. The British Olympic team skippered by Sarah Ayton were second with 6-6 for 12 points. Our 3-10 finishes gave us an overall score of 13.

We’ve been training down here in Miami for the past couple of months so it was good to get back to racing against this very strong international fleet of 28 boats. Some teams are still seeking to qualify themselves, or their countries for the right to race in Qingdao. And we are all preparing for the Yngling Women’s World Championship that will be sailed here February 8-15.

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Photo: Walter Cooper/US Sailing

The day started out breezy and beautiful but the wind continued slowly dying and trending right. However we were confident of our boat speed and setup, thanks to all the work we’ve been doing with our coaches, Mark Ivey and James Lyne.

We managed to make two really tough starts right in the middle of the line but we did a great job working our way back through the fleet. Both times we were back from the line and didn’t get a punch forward. Both times for the first third of the beat we found ourselves stuck in traffic, tacking and weaving and looking for good lanes. Things got better after the first thirds and we were able to get in phase with the shifts, but still, we were deep in the fleet both times for our first top mark roundings. Both times we made strong gains to get back into contention.

Carrie Howe

for Team Seven Sailing -
- Sally Barkow, Debbie Capozzi, Carrie Howe