News from Betsy Alison, U.S. Disabled Sailing Team Coach
"Unfortunately for US Team SailLaVie, the past few days have beenfrustrating. After a slow start in the first race, the team came back to a 9th in race 2 - only to have that taken away by the jury in a marathon 2 ½ hour protest. Day 2 did not start much better for Jen, Brad and Brad. A poor start put the team behind from the getgo, and they found themselves behind early on a one sided course with no real clear air lanes to work back from.
The day ended on a high note though, when an aggressive start by Jen at the pin allowed them to get an early jump to the left, and leg out a bit with the Germans and local Aussie, Jamie Dunross. We held onto third for the better part of 3 legs, but let 3 teams get slightly to the left, and finished the race in 6th.
After a lay day on Saturday, where local wind conditions climbed into the high 30 knot range, boats were back on course but this time in ESE breeze in the morning. Though wind velocity was only in the 10-12 knot range with some puffs, the course was set with a strong port side bias with the pin favored.You had to get left, and sail the larger breeze lines on port,taking small tacks back on starboard if you could.
The top mark was under a high hill, which made it shifty and unpredictable at the topin very light winds. The Canadians led at the first mark, but dropped back to 6th over time in those fluky winds at the top. The Americans rounded mid fleet at the first mark, but went low on thefirst run on a three lap course and were never able to recover."
I really hope they do better, it would be a shame to go all the way there and come back empty handed in the Medals.
