Worlds RECAP and Moving Forward

After a couple weeks to regroup after an eventful and draining World Championship (18 races over 6 days), we are keen to get back in the 49er. We did manage to squeeze a few nice days in Rome (easily saturating our history thirst!) with our parents, before heading home. Jesse also pit-stopped at his old college, St Mary’s, to help their team prepare for ICSA Team Race Nationals. On Monday, we continue our push for London as we head to Weymouth for a month of training, which includes the Sail for Gold Regatta and the ‘Coaches Regatta’.

But back to the Worlds! It was a tremendous event for us seeing us stamp our ticket to the Games with a 9th place finish (BER 9!). We were pleased we could continue improving after an incredibly productive month in Palma in March/April that saw its fruition in our 13th place. It was a confidence booster knowing that we have the pace to hang with the Worlds’ elite in <15knots. Also, the Worlds saw us gain our first experience into the Medal Race, which hopefully will benefit us down the road… All in all, we are ecstatic about the Worlds’ finish, but the mission is not over. The goal remains London. There are certain facets of our sailing we can improve upon, and all qualifying did was give us more time. There is no room for contentment or complacency with our current level and we will be hungry to get better. We need to clock some more time in windy conditions between the facts that Weymouth can effortlessly RIP, and that we have been breeze starved most of our time in the Mediterranean this spring. We can also say, that Mark Asquith, ex-49er British Skandia team member has joined Team Bermuda as our coach. We are excited to get him on board with the island nation from Sail for Gold thru the Games! The dream remains alive thanks to all our supporters. Keep posted as we continue our final push for London!

9th at Worlds!

The 18 race World Championship (17 races and 1 Medal race) is in the books after 6 days of tricky sailing in the light to moderate winds off Zadar, Croatia. The 74 boat fleet had sailors from 32 countries. We finished 7th country. It was a huge event for us! - First Gold Fleet qualification at a 49er World Championship (this is our 3rd Worlds) - First Bermuda team in the 49er Class at the Olympics!!!! May this continue - First Medal Race appearance in a 49er event - First Gold Fleet Bullet The other countries that qualified with us here were: Italy, Japan, Canada and Greece. We will reflect more when this has sunk in, but for now we will recharge after a draining, stressful week of sailing. We still have 2 more months before the Games and look to continue the learning as we head into the Olympics. We would like to thank our dedicated friends (both who were here and elsewhere), who have helped make this seemingly giant task a reality for us. We couldn't have done it without you...THANK YOU! Stay tuned and Go BERMUDA!! -Zander

Gold Fleet at Worlds and Olympic Qualification!

more news to follow, but we made it into GOld fleet and have qualifief Bermuda in the 49er class! 3 days of Gold Fleet racing now Thanks for all your support! Couldn't have done it without you! best, Zan and Jess

Just Another Regatta

Everything is ready to go for the upcoming World Championship, our Olympic Qualifier for London. We arrived here in Zadar, Croatia a week early to acquaint ourselves with the local conditions and to make sure our boat and us are primed for the event. After some productive days on the water in different breezes, we feel good about our speed and maneuvers around the course. Ramon joined us a few days into our training, and will remain with us through the event. His insights and thoughts for the week will no doubt be invaluable. So, as this important regatta approaches, our mentality will be to treat it like any other. There is no pedestal for this event. We will not lionize the qualifying side of it unless it is necessary. Our objective here is to sail a good World Championships. To do that, we must stick to the fundamentals that we always apply when racing…sail high percentage moves, good starting, lane management, observe wind patterns etc. We are really excited to get out there and start racing. It begins Monday, so stay tuned for results! You can check our facebook page for updates. Thanks again for all your support that has gotten us to where we are today, with a chance to represent Bermuda at the Olympics in London!

PALMA RECAP

We are making our way back to North America (California then Bermuda) after 1 month of sailing in Mallorca. It was an exciting month for us, between putting our new boat together, to working with Ramon for a week, and to qualifying for Gold Fleet at the Princess Sofia Trophy - ISAF World Cup Event (Grade 1). We sailed 21 days (9 race days and 12 training days) over there and that concentrated sailing, a month before the World Champs, is a great preparation for our Olympic Qualifier. We are looking forward to a few weeks break before we head to Croatia to qualify for London 2012!

The event had 76 teams from 28 countries (we were 7th country) and was by far, our best performance in the 49er. We won two races (one in qualifying and one in Gold Fleet) and had numerous top 10’s, which had us in 7th place after day 4. The goal for the event was to sail consistently in the top 15 in the 3-day qualifying series, to make Gold Fleet. We did that, with finishes of 13, 6, 13, 3, 25, 5, 9, 1, 17.

The breeze throughout the qualifying was in the 6-10kt range and our speed in these conditions was good as anybody in the world. We were happy to close out races, where we were doing well and also to scrap back into races, when we were mired in the pack early on. The highlight of the week was winning a race in Gold Fleet, where we had great lane management on the 1st beat and then won the battle of the top 3 pack throughout the next 3 laps.

We still have much to learn in Gold Fleet though as showcased in our final day of sailing in 14-18 kts, where we struggled to find the speed we had earlier in the week. There were large waves and the sea state made for challenging 49er sailing, with the boat consistently jumping into the air (centerboard out of the water) going upwind and downwind. We have a few ideas on the tuning for these conditions for the next time; at this level, the changes are subtle, but they make a big difference when competing against this tight pack (Gold Fleeters). We were happy on the day to have kept our boat handling clean over the 3 races on the intensive 6 leg courses (think 9 spinnaker sets, 9 douses, etc), which kept our scores fairly respectable (17, 19, 17).

We were pleased with our performance here, but the mission is not complete. Qualifying at the Worlds in Croatia next month remains the priority. We have enjoyed the success, but also discussed the improvements to take away from the week. Rather than resting on the laurels of Palma, we hope to build on the success to crescendo towards a great Olympic event this summer!

Thanks again for all your support!
- Zander and Jesse

13th in Palma!!

Gold fleet for the first time!
13th Overall at a Grade 1 in an Olympic year!
7th country (28 countries represented)
Lots of work and plenty more to come!

We will update later with a fully entry.
Time for a rest and then the Olympic Qualifier in Croatia next month.
Thanks to all our faithful supporters who have supported us through these past 2 years!

Training in Palma

The last month has been an exciting and busy one. Prior to our arrival in Palma de Mallorca, we knew that it was going to be a critically important segment of training as we crescendo towards the Olympics Qualifier in early May in Croatia. When we arrived here on March 4th, we were busy for several days rigging our new boat, ‘Cahow’- she’s looking real good! After sailing 1042 for so long, we long forgot how stiff a new boat feels! We are happy to say her and the masts’ performance during our training have been very promising.

Following the preparation of the boat, we had 2 1/2 weeks of probably our most productive tranche of training to date in the beautiful bay of Palma. Almost all of the top European boats were present for at least portions of our sailing, constantly allowing us to weigh our progress. Although the weather has been a little chilly at times, we have had numerous valuable sessions on the water in light, windy, shifty, steady, flat and choppy seas. Since there are constantly world-class boats out practicing, we have been able to consistently assess our quality in both speed and maneuvers up and downwind.

In the middle of our training, we were able to test our progress in a ‘Training Camp Regatta” that fielded many good teams. The conditions through the three day event couldn’t have been more different from one another as we saw light, shifty winds on Day 1, steadier 8knots on Day 2 and concluding with a real wavy 14-18knots! We ended up finishing mid-fleet with a couple good results. A real standout out for us was our starting and speed. But again, we were plagued with some little mistakes that cost us a few top tens, specifically downwind in light winds. With some good critical evaluating of what went wrong, we prepared for Ramon’s training that began 2 days after the event.

Our week of training with Ramon couldn’t have been better timed. After feeling a little exhausted after our first half of training, Ramon’s arrival sparked us into form again. With more practice races with quality teams, we again were able to practice our skills- except this time under the watchful eye of our coach. His keen observations of our maneuvers, tactical decisions and sail trim were incredibly beneficial to us.

After Ramon left on Tuesday, we finally took a few days off to rest and relax. While European teams can just take an easy 2hr flight home to recuperate, Bermuda isn’t so close! However, we were able to escape the confines of the boat park and explore the other, less developed and more beautiful coasts of the island.

Yesterday we did our pre-regatta check of all our equipment, and gave ‘Cahow’ a good polishing prior to the Princess Sofia Regatta beginning on Monday. With a day of training today, following by a day off tomorrow, we are very excited to get racing. Keep posted for daily updates on our Facebook page (Kirkland Brothers Sailing)!
Here are a few shots of the training (Photos courtesy of Ramon)