My Sailing Team

Over the last two weeks we’ve been very busy training hard, exercising daily, working weekly, organizing our winter/spring schedule, fundraising for our new boat, and monitoring currency exchange rates. We’ve made a lot of progress in our sailing and it’s not just due to hard work and dedication, it’s because we’ve had some excellent coaching and support from our friends here in Miami. We are having the time of our lives right now sailing every day. And, things are looking good over the next two months with the arrival of our new boat in early January and our first big regatta in late January.

Our schedule has been pretty consistent with sailing five days during the week and coaching junior sailing on the weekends. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we hit the water by 9 am so that Fred has enough time to drive up to Fort Lauderdale in the afternoons to coach a high school sailing team. Fred coaches Lauderdale Yacht Club and I work with the Coral Reef Yacht Club. We enjoy working with the young talent that Southern Florida has to offer.

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We have had a great time here in San Francisco training in the Bay area and staying with some great friends, but it’s time to move to Miami. Our bags our packed, our boat is tied down, and our truck is full. We are leaving at 5:00 AM and driving down California, through the Southwest, along the Gulf, and down into Florida. The goal is to arrive in one piece by Friday in Sarasota, FL for a fundraiser at Venice Yacht Club. Here’s a quick recap of our time training throughout California:

ourroadtorio.com prepped for cross-country exposure on the road

Read more at our team website OurRoadToRio.com…

Fred Strammer and I have our new 49er video up on YouTube! Check out the new video and the new website: OurRoadToRio

We jump started our fall training with a two week camp out of sunny San Diego. We had a great setup with nice wind on Mission Bay, generous friends at MBYC, comfy beds at my parent’s house, and good training partners to learn from. We had lots of success on the water during our sailing and off the water taking care of equipment, fitness, logistics, and fundraising.

The first week of training was ideal with sunny 75 degree weather, better than expected wind peaking around 15 mph, and the presence of our US Virgin Island training partners. My teammate Fred Strammer and I were eager to get sailing on the 49er because we hadn’t been on the boat in a few months since he was busy winning the University Games while I was focused on team racing for the ISAF Worlds. We had plenty of capsizes during the first few days but quickly remembered how to sail the boat. Many friendly and helpful Mission Bay Yacht Club members came by, said hello, and scoped out our fast looking boat. I’m not sure a 49er had ever sailed on Mission Bay before so we had a lot of fun showing off our boat on the lawn and water.

Most of our training consisted of short courses that focused on boat handling and foot work. I’d say we went up and down little Mission Bay over 150 times practicing tacks, gybes, and other maneuvers. I got stronger every day from the intense three to four hour sessions we had. On top of the sailing, we played basketball in a park, went to the gym, and ran wind sprints in the MBYC parking lot. Our US Virgin Island friends Thomas Barrows and Nathan Rosenberg were quite a lot better at basketball than us, but we got good exercise chasing them around the court.

MBYC hosted a fundraiser for us on Saturday and we presented our plan to make it to the Olympics in 2016. We had a great turnout and received some generous support. We couldn’t have asked for anything more. After having sailed five days straight we decided to take off Sunday. We drove up to my brother’s house and surfed off Encinitas Beach. We had a great time in the water and caught a few waves. Following the surfing exercise we grabbed some delicious burritos and visited Stone Brewery in Carlsbad. We enjoyed some superb West-Coast IPAs and called it day.

The second week started with good wind that we used to the fullest. We did speed tuning in the ocean and learned a lot about how to sail the boat fast and how to work together to be good teammates. It takes a lot of communication to sail the boat well and we made excellent progress. Our training partners taught us a thing or two about how to sail the boat faster and it really helped us out.

The rest of the week was dominated by light winds but we made the most of it. It was quite the challenge learning how to keep the boat moving quickly through tacks and gybes. During our time off the water we had all of our sails repaired at a local sail loft, my mom and I broke out the sewing machine and patched up all the holes on our boat cover, and my dad did some fine work making our trailer and dolly industrial strength.

We arrived in San Francisco last night and parked on an enormous hill that reminded me of some car chase scene out of the movie “The Rock.” We are lucky enough to be staying with the Johnsons in a very nice studio apartment in the City. We are going to be training with some top tier 49er teams this week and are looking forward to learning a lot and sailing in some strong wind.

A huge thank you goes out to my parents Greg and Sharon Brown for housing, feeding, and helping us out over the last two weeks. It’s not easy to deal with four 49er sailors taking over the house, but they somehow managed. I would also like to thank Commodore Poltorack and MBYC for hosting us for two weeks. We really enjoyed our stay. Thanks!

The ISAF Team Race Worlds came to a close one day earlier than anticipated due to a forecasted weather system for Sunday that called for 30 plus knots of wind. We were expecting to get in some extra sleep and have ourselves a leisurely morning while the Youth portion of the regatta completed their semifinals and finals, but the regatta organizers pushed forward the regatta and racing began at 9:30. Instead of the standard quarterfinals knock out format, we raced a single round robin against the top 5 Open teams and the top 3 Youth teams to determine the final four for the semifinals.

Just like the two previous days, we raced against GBR 1 first thing. With light and fluky winds in the early morning, we trumped them off the line and rounded in a 1, 3, 4 at the first mark but failed to convert into a more stable team combination. After getting picked apart downwind, we rounded the final mark heading to the finish in a losing combination of 1, 5, 6, but we managed to break them apart and win with a 1, 2.

After winning our hardest race of the quarterfinals round robin we ended up losing two races due to poor starting which would plague us later in the finals. The losses to GBR 2 and USA 2 seeded us third for the semifinals, which meant we raced USA 2 in a best of 5 series while GBR 1 and GBR 2 matched up. At this point the clouds opened up, the breeze increased, and wind became streaky and shifty. It felt like racing on the Charles River with 8-15 knots of wind. We won our first two races against USA 2 and broke up their 1, 2, 5 combination in the third race to sweep our way to the finals. Team GBR 1 also swept their countrymen GBR 2 to face us in the finals.

The course was incredibly short which placed a large emphasis on the start of the race. We lost the first race as GBR 1 took control off the line and never looked back. Race 2 we smoked them off the start but had trouble holding our 1, 2, 5 combination downwind. We were able to piece together our winning 1, 2, 5 combination by the finish line and settle the score 1 to 1. The final two races GBR 1 took with superior starting and smart first beat shifts. We created some opportunities to win the final races but GBR 1 battled hard and closed the gaps to prevent us from breaking the race open in our favor.

We came off the water disappointed with our performance in the finals, but respectful that GBR 1 had bested us 3 wins to 1 to take the World Championship title. We were able to appreciate our competitor’s successful sailing and congratulate them with firm handshakes and smiles. After racing we enjoyed some Irish barbecue, socialized at the regatta site with local Irish brew, and had a fun evening with the all the sailors.

Today we got a late start, checked out the local farmer’s market, grabbed some food in town, participated in a discussion on the future of team racing, and went to the awards ceremony. We were joined by our fellow Americans USA 2 on the podium as they placed third by winning the petit finals.

We had a great time here in Schull and wouldn’t trade it for anything. None of this would have been possible without the support of a group of New York Yacht Club members. We would like to thank NYYC, the NYYC Team Race Committee, the NYYC Flag Officers, and all the individuals who contributed to our effort. We are proud to have been able to represent the New York Yacht Club and the USA. Thank you for the opportunity.

With 33 races under our belt and 30 wins, we have cleanly sailed our way into the top 8 elimination series. We’ve had plenty of close races and nail bitter finishes, but we are ready to turn on the jets and leave the competition in the dust on the final two days of sailing at the ISAF Team Race Worlds.

Day 1 race conditions were a nice 8-12 knots which made the TR 3.6s easier to sail, but Day 2 and Day 3 were much more difficult with light and variable wind. We have been consistent each day with 10 wins and 1 loss, but so has our competition GBR 1 who maintains the same over-all record as us. We are looking forward to stepping up our game in the round of eight tomorrow which guarantee us a spot for the semi-finals and finals on Sunday.

Day 2 began with a battle between us and GBR 1 which we ended up winning due to some heroics by our teammates Pete Levesque and Marla Menninger at mark 3. We solidly won the rest of our races except for a race against GBR 3 who edged us off the line and narrowly held the lead for the remainder of the day. With four of the six of us jetlagged from Hurricane Irene’s flight delays, we were exhausted and early to bed after a nice Irish pub dinner with our friends on team USA 2.

Going into Day 3 we remained on top of the leader board with the tie break in our favor over GBR 1. The designer of the TR 3.6 was definitely a skipper with a vendetta against crews because Emmet Smith, Marla Menninger, and Mike Hession were all gently walking down the stairs in the morning due to aching body parts such as the shins and butts. We pressed the boats hard on Day 3 to get the most out of boat handling in an attempt to gain a boat speed advantage for the final two days. After some video work that Pete took on Tuesday in between races, and plenty of analysis, we are all very comfortable and confident.

The beginning of Day 3 began with us versus GBR 1 in the first race of the day. With 2 out of 3 pairs firmly controlled at the start we thought we were going to have ourselves an easy race but somehow the race committee officials decided that all 3 of our boats prematurely started and we played a losing game of catch up on the short course. Frustrated by the over-zealous race committee call that seemed to be inaccurate we collected ourselves and won the remainder of the races.

Our two most notable races of the day were against USA 2 and GBR 3. We had one heck of a battle on the first beat against USA 2 which involved lots of penalty turns, dramatic maneuvers, and collisions. We came out on top against our fellow Americans which fueled their fire and powered them to a great victory later in the day over GBR 1.

Our second to last race of the day was against the young British team GBR 3. We dominated the start and had control of all three opponents during the beginning of the race. An umpire call went against Stu, putting us in close lead with a 1, 2, 5 position. Everything that could’ve gone against us did on the downwind and we rounded mark 3 in a 1, 5, 6. Pete pulled some moves in the 1 while Stu and I split the competition and managed to round mark 4 in a 2, 3, 6 for the final beat. After Pete got flagged around the mark rounding, it looked like we would lose the race but Stu picked off one boat and we smothered another to cross the finish line in a winning combination of 2, 3, 4.

The local media has been all over the event because it’s a big deal for this small and beautiful seaside village. Check out the front page of the Irish Examiner! Also there is an intense video on the regatta site.

We are grabbing an early dinner at another local Irish pub and looking forward to tomorrow’s racing. The forecast is for lots of rain which is locally referred to as “Irish Mist.”

Thank you to New York Yacht Club and its members for their support! Look for an update tomorrow.

Written by teammate Stu McNay

The first day of the 2011 ISAF TeamRacing World Championships brought great sailing conditions and a good chancefor us to warm up as a team. Our first race was the 17th race of theday so we had a bit of a wait, but no time to spare, as the sequence beganwhile we were jumping into our boats. The regatta has a fairly efficient methodfor swapping boats each rotation. We were shuttled from shore by RIB upto thestarting line where we wait for our boats to meet us. This eliminated any timewasted sailing to the dock. In fact, theannouncer told us that today the record was set for the number of races sailedon day 1 of the ISAF Team Racing World Championships. They completed 94 races.

The boats have been interesting tolearn. They were designed and built especially for this venue in Schull and forthis regatta. Given that the boats are new to everyone, we have been puttingextra focus on learning the mechanics of boat handling and speed, and lookingat how this might change tactics (pinning is easy, but burning through on apass back is very hard as we found in our race against GBR 1!). Unlike V15’s,which can plane and travel laterally very quickly, these boats are indisplacement mode all the time. It makes racing close, but passing difficult.It will be fun to continue adjusting our style to fit the boats.

Today, we finished a full round robin with 10 wins and1 loss putting us in first or second place overall (depending on a sail off).We are happy with our team chemistry and know we will be getting stronger asthe regatta goes on. Our starting has been one of our strong points and we willcontinue to perfect and leverage it going forward.

Tomorrow, our first race is against GBR 1, the West Kirby Hawks. There will be two more days of round robin racing before the elimination series starting Saturday.

Our accommodations are comfortable.We are staying with most of the competitors in a vacation condominium complexright next to the host yacht club. Look at us posing in front of our condo withour awesome new Atlantis NYYC Team Jackets. Thanks Atlantis and Steve Wolff!

The regattahospitality has been excellent. They have snacks during the day and some localrestaurant deals for dinner. Tonight we decided to pay homage to our New Havenroots and eat at a French place auspiciously called: The New Haven. We includeda photo of Emmet there.

Thanksto all of our supporters. We couldn’t do this without you and are proud torepresent NYYC and USA!

After finally arriving in Ireland, we did some sailing, participated in the opening ceremonies, and got a fine Irish supper. It was a relief to finally make it to Ireland for the four of us – Marla, Emmet, Pete, and Zach – who suffered from Irene’s wrath through flight cancellations and delays. We are mixed with the joy of having the whole team together and the exhaustion of over 24 hours of travel. Eager to begin the first round robin of racing tomorrow at 9am, we are getting an earlier night.

Marla, Emmet, and I (Zach) arrived at the Cork airport, jumped aboard a two hour regatta shuttle to Schull, and hit the water for some interesting TR 3.6 sailing. Because Pete was stuck on a long bus ride from Dublin to Schull, we only took out two boats and did some sparring with our teammates Stu and Mike. We quickly learned how different the TR 3.6s are from Fireflies. They look similar, but are much slower and harder to crew. It will take us a few days to figure the boats out and gain an edge on our competition. Stu and Mike are already a step ahead because they got here earlier and seem to have mastered the boat handling.

After putting in two hours on the water we participated in a fun opening ceremonies that consisted of a precession, flag raising, Irish music, a little dancing, and a competitors briefing. We had a great time at the ceremonies with our fellow US teammates on USA Team 2. An Irish folk-rock star played some great music and rallied up the crowd into some fun dancing. Our very own Mike Hession got pulled into the scene and performed a gig with the Irish dancer. He really held his own!

Following the ceremonies and competitors briefing we grabbed a meal and a Guinness with USA Team 2. After a long bus ride and 2 hour cab ride, Pete made just in time for dinner. We had a great time eating real Irish food, recounting our travel horror stories, and discussing the tricks we learned about the TR 3.6s. It was pretty cool to sit down at a restaraunt with menus designed specifically from the Team Race Worlds.

We are struggling with internet access in this small town called Schull, Ireland. I know it sounds tough, but we actually have to go to a local pub to get internet. What a struggle! With sleep on our minds, we are getting an early night. We will update you on Day 1 of racing tomorrow.

This adventure would not be possible without the generous donations from some New York Yacht Club members. Thank you for your support and stay tuned for race results and a recap from Day 1.

Hurricane Irene threw us quite the curve ball over the weekend. She was dangerous, destructive, and full of delays. Despite Irene’s efforts, it appears we will make it to the regatta in time to compete Wednesday. Unfortunately, most of our team will miss the opening ceremonies, the parade of nations, and the practice days. Although we will be slightly disadvantaged by the lack of acclamation to the new boats—TR 3.6s—we have our team race skills and three days of round robins to tune up before the elimination round.

Our teammates Stu McNay and Mike Hession are in Ireland now. They are getting some practice in today, sending us notes on the how the TR 3.6s sail and special handling tips so there won’t be too many surprises when we step in the boat for the first time Wednesday morning, for our first race. The rest of us here in the US have had an interesting past few days.

Emmet Smith, Marla Menninger, and I found out that our flight out of JFK on Saturday was cancelled Friday night, so we stayed up until 5am calling our airline until we found flights out of Logan on Monday August 29th. Once we were booked, we rushed up to Boston to make sure we wouldn’t get stuck in New York or New Haven (due to transportation shut downs and delays from Irene). Our other teammate, Pete Levesque, had similar misfortune due to mechanical failures and has been stuck in Reno, Nevada for over 24 hours. He is flying Reno to Phoenix to Atlanta to Dublin and then taking a bus down to Cork to get a ride to the sailing site. What an adventure!

Despite the many hardships we have faced as a team we’re now on our way, and we feel lucky to have survived the hurricane unscathed. We give our best to those who were less fortunate along the east coast. If everything goes according to plan, I will update you on our status in Schull, Ireland. I also want to give a big shout out of thanks to New York Yacht Club and its generous members, who have made this adventure to the ISAF Team Race Worlds possible. Thanks!

After spending five days tuning up in Boston on the Charles River out of MIT’s sailing center, we feel prepped and ready for the ISAF Team Race World Championships. We focused our efforts on head to head drills with just two boats battling to gain control over each other. The 1 on 1 style of practicing helped us push the envelope on our boat handling maneuvers and obtain a high level of consistency. We took a micro approach to our training sessions by pulling apart each situation in a team race and repeatedly practicing the drill until we were solid. We broke down our skills, analyzed our weaknesses, and rebuilt our approach until we felt comfortable in each situation.

We chose to train in FJs, a two-person fourteen foot boat, because it has a higher degree of difficulty in boat handling maneuvers than the Firefly boat we will be racing in Ireland. I like to think our practice sessions were similar to high gravity or weighted jacket training that runners exercise to build strength and stamina so that the race feels much easier than the training.

After our practicing ended Tuesday afternoon, a few of us stuck around to sail the Tuesday night Tech Dinghy series which helped round out our training with more speed and fleet racing focus. We will practice two days with the Yale Team in New Haven before heading to Ireland on Sunday. A special thanks to Matt Lindblad, Wally Corwin, and staff who gave us full access to MIT’s facilities and boats.

Here’s the updated schedule of events for the Worlds:

Sunday August 28
• 3.30pm Classic/Vintage car display – Main St. Schull
• 5.00pm Parade of Nations – Main St.

Monday August 29
• 9am – 6pm Training Day
• Evening – Live Music in O’Regan’s Bar, Pier Road

Tuesday August 30
• 10am – 4pm Practice Race Day
• 6pm Opening Ceremony
• Evening – Live Music in An Tigin

Wednesday August 31
• From 9.30am World Championship Racing
• Evening – DJ in Hackett’s Bar

Thursday September 1
• From 9.30am World Championship Racing
• Evening – Live Music in Newman’s Bar

Friday September 2
• From 9.30am World Championshp Racing
• Evening – Live Music in The Black Sheep Bar

Saturday September 3
• 10am World Youth Finals
• 2pm World Open Quarter Finals
• Evening – Live Music in The Bunratty Inn

Sunday September 4
• 10am World Open Finals
• 2pm Prizegiving & Closing Cermony