49er & 49erFX North America

Good morning from Sail Newport.

We are proud to announce that registration is now open for this year’s Newport Regatta, July 12 – 14.  We are looking forward to an exciting event with over 20 classes participating on five different racing circles between Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound.  With nearly one-thousand sailors expected on nearly three-hundred boats, this event continues to be New England’s largest annual one-design regatta.  We are happy to once again have the support of Bacardi, enabling the Newport Regatta to be the signature event of the 2013 Bacardi Newport Sailing Week.  The Notice of Race, Registration, and more event related information can be found here and we would encourage you to please pass this link along to your respective fleets.

Thank you very much and we look forward to seeing everyone in just two short months!

Best,

Anderson Reggio, Sail Newport

Also be sure to register EARLY. Register by July 5th and avoid the $50 late fee fee!

Registration is open for 29er PCCs/I14 Nationals and the annual Skiff Regatta.
Please forward to any of your fleets so people can sign up.

http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/6610

Last week the US Sailing Team Sperry Topsider hosted a camp at Miami Yacht Club. Here are some shots of the FX girls getting ready:

Here are some video links to the US training:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDd8O9yHPS8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPSpe7FJT4s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL80ykZGQBk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJmW7o67uA4

And here is an article written by FX athlete Helena Scutt about the camp
(originally posted on: http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/News/2012/American_Sailor_Helena_Scutt.htm ):

Thanks to the US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider and US Sailing Development Team’s first training camp of 2013, Miami Yacht Club is oozing high performance as 49ers, 49er FXs, Nacra 17s, F16s, and 470s crowd the beach.

This weekend I crewed for US Sailing Development Team member Paris Henken in the 49er FX. We have each come a long way since we last sailed together – exactly three years ago in a 29er at Miami Yacht Club, in fact. Growing up competing against each other in the 29er (Paris as a skipper and me as a crew), our extensive 29er experience has made for a natural transition into the 49erFX.

Miami Beach dealt very diverse conditions in just the first three days. For example, Saturday started as light as 4 knots with ocean swell but eventually picked up to over 15 knots. The shifty condition lent itself to technique work rather than speed tuning. On Sunday we stayed inside the harbor area and did lots of short course racing (theater-style) in very puffy and shifty conditions with completely flat water. Paris and I had tons of fun as evidenced by our big smiles and laughter all day. With so many starts and mark roundings it was evident that boat-handling was a strength for Paris and I, thanks to our time in the 29er. We were especially motivated to avoid capsizing after we saw a shark below our boat! Paris and Helena in the photo below.

Throughout the camp, I felt extremely fortunate to have such high-level coaches sharing their knowledge and accelerating our development as Olympic class sailors. The camp’s technical focus was clear right away when it began with Technical Director Grant Spanhake teaching aspects of sail shape. The days were packed with information and practice. For example, no time was wasted as we raced on our way out to the ocean. Competitive drive immediately flowed and focused all the teams for the long session that day.

Alongside class-specific debriefs, some talks brought the whole camp together on topics such as downwind tactics or communication by High Performance Director Charlie McKee. One of my major takeaways was the importance of instantly switching mental focus between tactical decisions and boat speed. The focus on boat speed is especially crucial in fast boats such as the 49er FX because a small difference in percentage of maximum boat speed translates quickly to distance around the racecourse.

Another reason why Charlie’s communication talk resonated with me is that I am currently balancing college sailing and 49er FX sailing, two very different types of sailing. Ultimately there are more similarities than differences. Whether you are hiking or trapezing, playing the jib or the spinnaker: communication, teamwork, and focus are keys across classes.

Finally, I’d like to thank Charlie McKee and Senior Olympic Coach Luther Carpenter for giving me the big picture but also pointing out all the small things that I didn’t think they could see or would have noticed from the coach boat. They caught it all! But that is exactly what we need, because as Charlie says, winning medals for the USA is not going to be about doing one big thing better, but rather, about improving on hundreds of little things.

Send it!
- Helena

To follow Helena on her road to Rio 2016, read her blog here: http://scutt49erfx.blogspot.com

Hot off the press! Finally we have our confirmed dates for this summer’s major events. Thank you for your patience, we just had a lot to work out!

Key schedule dates that are now 100% FIRM:
9er Canadians
July 26 – 28
Kingston YC, Kingston, ON

CORK OCR
August 17 – 21
Portsmouth OH, Kingston, ON

US Nationals
August 24 – 26
Oakcliff SC, Oyster Bay, NY

Also, the 49er.ca GP has changed slightly, so make sure you take note:

This article first appeared at 48 North Sailing Magazine at: http://digital.turn-page.com/i/106669/48
Written by: David Schmidt
Pretty cool article about 49er class alumni Charlie McKee and his new role at USSA and some info about his early 49er days…

49erNA:

Well, we have just come off a pretty successful winter I’d say! The two latest events in Miami were a success (NA’s followed by ISAF World Cup Miami), and had some pretty good racing! Unfortunately, the midwinters were cancelled due to lack of participation but no worries there. At NA’s and IWCM we had some pretty cool racing formats which used lane ropes for theatre racing. I think the end product was pretty good. See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0qme8rhNJgcUrDg2rZ1c7nc1UxqZdRwn . While also down in Miami we had a class meeting to discuss some of the issues at hand:

New US President

No, not Obama! Trevor Burd! TBurd was officially elected US class president during our class meeting. Now you have 2 Trevor’s running the show!

2013 Summer Schedule
The total summer schedule is not quite yet nailed down. However, we have a pretty good picture of what it will be. Activity will take place in various areas around the continent:
NORTHEAST
Toronto Icebreaker Regatta: May 18-19

Ottawa Skiff Grand Prix: June 1-2

Sail Newport: July 13-14

Canadians: July TBD

CORK OCR: August 17-21

US Nationals: August TBD

ACCs: October 12-13

WEST COAST

Kitten Cup

Waves
Gorge Skiff Regatta: July 19-21

Other events to be added shortly…

Americas Cup

This is still a work in progress, however, the ACEA has asked the 49er class to participate in the AC events. Still trying to work out the details, but this will likely coincide with a US sailing team camp in San Francisco. Basically, they will guarantee launching/storage space near GGYC, we go out and race for 1 or 2 hours along City Front, and can then go and do some training elsewhere on the bay. If you are interested in being part of this, please contact me. From what I am told, Canadians are also welcome to participate in the training and racing (as long as you can keep it upright).

2013 US Nationals
We are still trying to figure out the details, but here’s where we are. Given that Oakcliff just bought 8 49er’s and 8 FX’s, we will be hosting the US Nationals in that area (NY, CT, MA or RI). The event will happen just after CORK OCR to give the West Coast teams the chance to do 2 events and some quality training with top US and Cdn teams. The weekends we are looking at are Aug 23 – 25 or Aug 30 – Sep 1. They both have their positives and negatives. The first weekend is very close to CORK OCR while the 2^nd weekend gives a bit more time for a training camp in between and/or some time off. If you have feed back on which weekend you prefer for the US Nats, please let me know asap since we are trying to finalize this before the end of the month.

2013 Canadians
Our Canadian championship is also up in the air due to some exogenous scheduling conflicts. So we are still up in the air. Basically, however, we are most probably going to have the Canadians July 26-28 in either Montreal, Kingston or Toronto. We are still waiting to hear back from KYC if they can host us. We will most likely know by the end of the week.
Then CST coach Steve Mitchell plans to do a training camp just after, from July 30^th on.

2014 North Americans
The rotation is for Canada in 2014 which would make it during CORK OCR in August. But that’s quite close to 2014 Santander Worlds. If you have ideas on venues and timing please speak up! We want all the top guys to participate. This, along with MOCR may be a qualifying event for another large event which will likely be announced later this week (or so I am told)…

2014 Winter Series
I think we had a decent series this winter. We’d like to build on this for the future so that there are always at least 3 events down in FL in Dec/Jan/Feb time line. Next year we’ll likely do the same format with NA’s or US Nats at CGSC just before MOCR, then possibly be part of the Lauderdale OCR after MOCR. This will also help build momentum toward 2016 Worlds (which may be held down in FL, USA).

2014 Summer Events
At the class meeting Ryan Pesce brought up the idea of having an event on Martha’s Vineyard – an idea I love and will support. If you guys have any ideas for events to help fill the calendar, please let me know and we can throw them on.

2016 Worlds
We are working on trying to find a suitable venue in Southern USA to host the 2016 Worlds in during the winter months. The 2016 worlds will coincide with MOCR and another event (likely NA’s or US Nats) to help draw European competitors. When you’re in Europe, please talk up our winter series and get the Euros to come! Additionally, if you know of any venues that can potentially host the worlds, please let us know!!!

Please keep in touch. See you all soon!

Trevor P – CAN 123

Credit: Walter Cooper

Originally posted on Sailing Anarchy, Feb 5th, 2013

National and International Sailing authorities typically make easy targets and Sailing Anarchy, as well as my own personal opinions have targeted US Sailing often enough in past years for its failings and shortcomings. Typically the authority takes all the blame for poor organization and performance while success is attributed to the athletes themselves. I wanted to contact SA in light of an experience I had at the ISAF World Cup over the past two weeks (formerly Rolex Miami OCR).

My crew and best friend Eric and I began sailing the 49er last year. With little time on our hands and even less money we didn’t manage to acquire the most recent 49er equipment until just before the ISAF World Cup Miami. The idea of hiring a coach was simply out of the question and we left for Miami on Jan 16th content to spend the next three weeks training like crazy and learning from the typically very helpful sailors in the 9er fleet. With only one regatta under our belt it would be a serious challenge especially having never sailed with the new style rig or sails.

As we were leaving for Miami I received a group email from US Sailing’s new head coach Charlie McKee. We were informed that ALL US crews attending the Miami ISAF World Cup would be receiving complementary coaching. This made sense to Eric and I as we assumed that everyone else attending the event would be competing for spots on the US Development team. We did not expect that the team would be paying much attention to us as we would spending most of our time trying to keep the stick up and the foils down and certainly not hanging with the pack. Boy were we wrong.

Charlie assigned long time US Coach Luther Carpenter to work with the US skiff teams. Charlie was joined shortly before the event began by Trevor Moore recently of the US Sailing Team and an Olympian in the 49er. Over the course of 4 practice days and 5 days of sailing at the event Eric and I received daily attention and coaching from Trevor and Luther, and several times, Charlie himself came out to the course to deal out tips and advise. The coaches were low key and easy to work with. They took the time to learn our names and actually watch us sailing regardless of how poorly we were acquitting ourselves of the event. Over the 8 days of practice and sailing, that Eric and I were able to attend, their help and assistance easily helped us to make strides towards competitiveness  By the end of the event we were consistently mixing it up with the main body of the fleet (an accomplishment considering the age of our boat and our lack of time in the boat).

In the wake of the US National Team’s poor performance at the London Olympics, it is truly fantastic to see a group of experienced coaches and enthusiastic sailors not pointing fingers or naming blame, but getting to work and making changes. Charlie McKee has made it clear that he believes that long term Olympic success for the USA is not just about the next 4 years and is certainly not just about one crew. His commitment to building a true base of sailors in the Olympic classes was on show this past week in Miami. It can also be seen in key programs that US Sailing is already beginning such as the new High Performance Training Center at Oak Cliff announced a few weeks ago. My crew and I left this event feeling included and excited to continue our own training and racing. While the USNT may not be made of gold, simple gestures like offering coaching to all attending US athletes helps to build an atmosphere of friendly collaboration among US sailors and builds larger training groups for each class rather than the small elite group of the past. In a world where it is often easy to point fingers at our national authorities, it is a pleasure to see US Sailing taking a leading role in the conversation and working to build a team that all American sailors can be proud of.

- Campbell Woods, USA 019

It looks like we’ll have some excellent racing and training opportunities in the Northeast for the spring and summer 2013 with this addition:

Portsmouth, R.I. (January 9, 2013) – US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider announced a partnership with Oakcliff Sailing of Oyster Bay, N.Y, naming Oakcliff an official training center of the team. Through the generous support of Oakcliff founder Hunt and Betsy Lawrence, Oakcliff will acquire 24 Olympic class boats – eight each of the Nacra 17, 49er and 49er FX skiffs – that the US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider will have full access to for Team-level training and youth development throughout the year.

“We are thrilled to have Oakcliff as a partner and grateful for the support of Hunt and Betsy Lawrence in the U.S. effort to create winning national teams at all levels of Olympic class sailing,” said Josh Adams, Managing Director of U.S. Olympic Sailing. “Oakcliff’s fleet-building effort in the Nacra 17, 49er and 49er FX is a tremendous asset for the U.S. Olympic Sailing Program, providing a training platform for US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider that is designed to help generate a performance edge in these classes.”

In addition to US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider training, the center will host US Sailing Development Team training camps, and focus on regional and national youth development in multihulls and skiffs through Oakcliff’s sailing programs. The center will display the new logo, shown at right.

“Oakcliff is excited to be working with US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider,” said Dawn Riley, Executive Director at Oakcliff. “We welcome the opportunity to help train the best in the world and in conjunction with our Acorn and Sapling programs led by Jay Kehoe, identify and coach the next generation of Olympic champions.”

By owning and operating fleets of multihulls and skiffs, the center will focus on four primary goals: provide a training ground for US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider; power development of three Olympic classes in which the U.S. lacks fleet size; create an avenue of training and development for young sailors on the rise; and expand Oakcliff’s sailing programs to feature Olympic class boats.

Source: http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/News/2012/Olympic_Sailing_Partners_with_Oakcliff.htm

Stay tuned for more!!

Get ready!!!

Hell yeah…!

Details…