4th day of racing, the eagle has landed

Launching my Moth "gimme more"

Sorry to tell you folks this again, but we had another spectacular day of racing here in Switzerland. The sun was out, the Maloya Wind was pumping and the Moths were flying. The US Airforce Team was looking solid. Bora has finally taken the overall lead with another two bullets and a second. His main competition, Nathan Outerridge, had a tough day with another impressive break down (layers of Carbon coming off his main horizontal), but still scored ok results. Tomorrow it will come down to who beats who in the remaining races.
Anthony was also struck by bad luck when his lashing of the shrouds broke and his rig came down. He got towed back to the beach and the shore team had him up and running for the last race.

It seems that as the racing is drawn out we are seeing more and more breakdowns happening. These boats need constant maintenance in order to be in racing shape. Luckily (touch wood or my head) I haven't had anything that held me back so far. It's nice to be racing with a brand new boat....
Those who have been following the racing on-line with the Trak Trak GPS System know by now that I had a pretty nice day. Each race I felt better and better and kept pushing the boat harder. In the first two races I scored a 6th and a 5th, capitalizing on my upwind speed and just staying out of trouble around gates and low pressure zones. For the last race I gave it all I had and came off the starting line with all guns blazing. After some mediocre tacks I still managed to round the top mark in 4th position. The breeze was up and I had told myself I would push it hard downwind. With some well placed gybes I rounded the leeward gate in 3rd! Nothing wrong there. But then my luck ran out and during a mini second laps of concentration I stuffed the bow and the boat went stern up. For the first time this regatta I lost my cool and yelled out some swiss/french/italian/american profanities as I got on the centerboard to right my boat. Bora sailed past me during the whole process and cheered me on to get my act back together again quickly. After getting back in the saddle I managed to get back in 8th place. Tough way to end the day, but still a very good overall performance with the improvement arrow still showing up.

Don't believe the results are up yet so checkout the website later.
Tomorrow morning we have to get out of our apartment and then it's off to the club for the last few races.

Send us your best vibes so we can bring home the bacon!

US Airforce Team out

3rd day of racing, Happy Gilmore has learned how to put!

Start of race 9, I'm in the first row, third boat from the right

Today was classic Maloya Wind conditions with full sunshine on Lake Silvaplana and the Race Committee cranked out another three races.
Bora had another solid day with a 2; 2; and a bullet, but his main competition, Nathan Outerridge had two bullets and a first. They are obviously still very close in the ranking, with only two points separating them.
Anthony looked very strong in the first race, but unfortunately his vang strop broke on the last lap forcing him to sail with a very full sail, dropping him a couple of spots. A quick pitstop on the beach, some help from Dave and he was good to go again for the next race.

Using the analogy from Happy Gilmore: Chris has learned how to put ;-) (non-americans won't understand this joke). I was able to pull off three top ten finishes and I'm obviously super happy to have moved up in the rankings.  I started the day with my raptor sail and a softer rig, anticipating stronger winds. But that never happened so I ended up switching sail and mast for the last race. I just couldn't keep any height with that setup (sail blading out too quickly). A quick pit stop and help from everyone on the beach and my other sail was up and running. It was the right call and I was able to bring a 7th place home in the last race,
I'm now in 11th overall and it would be great to be able to crack in to the top ten. I have the upwind speed, but I'm still holding back downwind (adjusting my ride height gizmo, so I don't ride too high). Bora on the other hand  doesn't touch his adjuster and just sails super smooth (and a bit out of control at times!)
Biggest difference for me was the improvement in my tacks. They weren't great, but none of them were super bad (as in capsizing). I rounded twice in the top four, which shows that I have the starting skills and the upwind speed. My game is slowly coming together and it's fun to be able to play with the big dogs. There is still ways to go, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Our commute on our bikes takes us past a beautiful waterfall and we decided to hike up to the fall on the way home.
Instead of boring you with more sailing pictures here are some more scenic ones.

Our Swedish Hotties that hang around our boat park corner...

Bora, Dave, myself and Anthony on our way to the waterfall

We see this waterfall from the race course

More pictures and results can be found here.

US Airforce Team out!

2nd day of racing at the Moth Europeans

The American Eagle rules the alps!

US Airforce team, chilling out in between races

Bora turned in a stellar day with two bullets and a 2nd. THAT is why the US Airforce rules the sky baby!
Breeze was up in 20 knot zone when we launched and and on the way down to race course I swear I hit at least 28 knots of boatspeed! Needlessly to say the conditions were a bit too challenging for guys like me (not enough time in the boat). But on the other hand Bora just couldn't stop smiling every time another gust came through. He knew it was his time to shine, and man, he did shine!
Anthony I looked pretty good at times, we both actually led the 2nd race until the windward mark, when I decided to check out the water temperature (also known as capsizing). Anthony kept charging until his downhaul broke, which made the boat really difficult to sail. At least we were both able to play with the big boys for a change...

In the third race i unfortunately missed the start by a couple of minutes after again checking the water temperature, so I just had to keep working myself through the pack. On the bright side it's worth mentioning that I had blistering upwind speed, which was really nice! Now i just have to stop being such a chicken downwind and freaking send it!

Anthony in second place at the windward mark

Since we only completed 6 instead of 8 races so far, we will be racing again tomorrow (which was supposed to be our day off).
Results can be found here!
Our team is off to the official dinner which is held on top of a mountain somewhere.

US Airforce Team out!

First day of racing at the Moth Europeans, No rain today!!!

Please no 4th race, please no 4th race, please no 4th race... Was going through my mind up the second beat of the third race. My legs were getting seriously tired and my arms were cramping up after the first two races. Temperatures were a bit more moderate today and we didn't have ANY rain!!! Soooo nice!!!

Lets backtrack a bit to get everyone up to speed...
We have three USA Moths here at the European Championships in Silvaplana, with Bora Gulari leading the charge. In addition we have Anthony Kotoun (US Virgin Islands) who has been training hard in Newport for this event. Myself I haven't exactly had a decent build up for this event. After the Coronado Event in the beginning of February I haven't gotten any serious practice in. Fortunately I got some good sailing in Harbor Springs before coming here. On the bright side I have stepped up my equipment program, chartering a Mach2 Moth for this event. Its amazing how much easier it is to get up to speed compared to the Blade Rider. I had a huge smile on my face the first time I took it for a spin :-))))
The last couple of days have been cold and rainy and the mountains around have been getting whiter and whiter with new shades of snow.
There were a couple of highlights from today's racing (did I mention it didn't rain already?)
First imagine 85 moths taking off on the same starting line with the odd port tack starters swerving through the pack. The amount of adrenaline pumping is ridiculous!

I hooked into a monster lefty and made it to the windward mark in about 6th place. Hmmmm, lots of good company around me. Needlessly to say, after a couple more gybes and tacks I found myself around 18th place. Wow! things happen fast in the moth class...
Bora sailed through the fleet and finished 4th and Anthony had his first top ten! Yoohoo!!! Not a bad way to start the day.
At the start of the second race it was Anthony and Bora who blasted through on port. Anthony made it through, but Bora provided some spectator action, having to avoid one too many starboard tackers and almost capsizing! Again the left was strong and finding a good left shift was key. On the other the top right of the course was getting known quickly as the the "Coffin Corner". So over-standing on port was much better than getting stuck in the coffin corner...
Again Bora kept plugging away, showing good speed and great boat handling around the course, ending up with a 6th. This time I kept the pressure on and was able to squeeze into the top ten. I was pretty sighted with my performance. I headed into the shore to put on another layer as the temperatures were dropping and the chill factor increasing. Lucky enough the finishing line is basically 50 meters next to the beach, so it was a quick in and out.

I met up with the rest of the US Airforce team in the starting area and I felt that my arms and legs only had one more race in them. After a mediocre start I kept working the left side of the beat and kept away from the coffin corner. Everybody on  the race course was looking pretty tired and hiking form wasn't exactly spectacular. Bora was duking it out with Nathan Outerridge at the front but couldn't quite bring the bacon home. Nevertheless, with a 2nd in the last race his probably in third overall now.
Anthony and I put in another o.k. race but nothing spectacular.
Results aren't up yet, so you'll have to check later.
All of us are pretty pumped up that racing has finally begun and we're looking forward  to kicking some more Euro butt tomorrow.
US Airforce team out.

Bacio finishes 6th place out of 37 boats at the Melges 20 Gold Cup in Malcesine, Lake Garda

Together with the owner, Michael Kiss from Holland Michigan, Alain Stettler and I represented the USA at the unofficial World Championships of the Melges 20 class.

A brand new Melges 20 (Hull #190) was waiting on us in Malcesine on Monday morning and my good friend Alain Stettler and I spent most of the day putting our sweet little new toy together. (Kudos go out to Federico and his team at Melges Europe for excellent service and always lending a hand if something wasn’t quite as it should.) After some more boat work and two days of practice we started racing on Thursday.
At Charleston Race Week this year we won the Melges 20 event, so the expectations from owner Michael Kiss were understandably high! But looking at the line-up at this event I knew it was going to be WAY harder. First of all we had all of the top Italian teams and they have been sailing these boats hard, REALLY hard and are way ahead of everyone else in terms of boat handling and tuning. Secondly, the tacticians and crews were more or less the crema de la crema in Italy and internationally. Names like Gabrio Zandono, Roberto Benematti, Matteo Ivaldi, Flavio Favini, Nathan Wilmot, Juan de la Fuente, Branko Brzkin, Chicco Fonda were starring down at me… Hmmm, this was going to be interesting and challenging to say the least.
A 6th place in the first race put us on the right track but our hopes for a top finish evaporated when our bow sprit unexpectedly broke in the second race and we limped into the finish in 23rd. To make things worse the fleet sailed another race and we’d have to score a DNC. Arrghhh....

Again Federico and his Melges Europe team pulled through and the next morning we magically had another bowsprit installed when we arrived at the boat. Which other class provides that kind of service, hellloooo!!!
For the rest of the regatta we now had to play it safe as we were already counting a 23rd and were using the DNC as our discard. We sailed a good series of single digit finishes which put us in 6th place overall in the end. Full results can be found here.
Oh and did I mention that almost all races were sailed in 15 - 20 knots and sunshine?

For our team this was mainly a good event to learn more about the tuning and for Michael to get more comfortable in boat-on-boat situations and managing tight lanes. We did a lot of spy work on the top Italian teams and were on par with them at the end of the regatta. So overall this has been an excellent opportunity for us to improve our skills and hopefully get a little jump on the US Fleet at the up coming Nationals in Holland, MI in about a months time.

What were the highlights of this regatta?

• Excellent service
• Spectacular regatta venue and race management
• Great food
• Outstanding crew (Alain)
• Very focused and trusting driver (Michael)
• A few good tactical calls
• Improvements in upwind speed
• Solid downwind speed
• Morning and evening bike rides along Lake Garda

What were the down sides of this regatta?

• Broken bow sprit
• It actually rained once
• Traffic through Torbole

Here some more pics by Carlo Borlenghi, Renato Tebaldi, Meredith Block and Fabrizio Prandini

Bacio at leeward gate, Alain fighting with the kite

Bacio blasting downwind

All Ladies team "Troublemakers" showing how it is done!

Alain and Michael taming the beast, where's Chris?

Michael getting us around the leeward mark safely

For more pics and video by Mr Clean visit the Melges Europe Facebook page.

So far sailing in this class has been a blast and I can't wait to get back on the Melges 20!

Chris out

Melges 24 Volvo Cup in Torbole, Lake Garda

Last week I had the great opportunity to sail Melges 24 with my "old" Match Racing Team and the addition of Felix Kaiser on one of the most beautiful sailing venues in the World, Lake Garda. We were going to sail the Swiss EFG Bank Melges 24, Hull nr 336. Lake Garda didn't disappoint and we had 12 races sailed in 12-20 knots of "Ora" and sunshine, every day.
My team included Alain Stettler (an old high school buddy of mine) our trimmer, Patrick Zaugg our tactician, Pascal Alder our bow man and Felix Kaiser doing Middle.
Before the race even started we had a bit of drama. The racing was going to start on Thursday and somehow we thought it started on Friday! As Pascal and Felix were only arriving on Thursday evening we needed to find some replacement crew. Lucky enough for us, Dave Hudson (a good friend of our family) from Capetown was in town practicing for the Laser SB3 Worlds and we "borrowed" Marlon and Roscoe from his team for the first day.
Sailing in Torbole in the Melges 24 is really intense as usually you have to work the left side of the course, up the cliffs and then find the right moment to exit on port.

Having a fleet of 60 boats tacking up the shore provides for some interesting crossing situations and often some boats end up having to be taken out of the water at the end of the day. Not having practiced together at all we started a bit shaky and after two days were laying in eight place, knowing why the Italians are dominating this class. It's impressive how professional this guys run their campaigns! But in the mean time we had also managed to snitch a bullet from them and were drawing first blood....

The third day saw us sailing a consistent series with all top 8 finishes which solidified our position in the top eight, laying only ten points out of third. With three races to go, a podium finish was definitely still in reach. In the first race on the last day another mid-line start with a good transit line gave us a great lane to the cliffs and we were able to squeeze around the windward mark in 2nd. A couple of well placed gybes saw us take the lead and eventually the bullet. Nice way to start the last day of racing!

Things were looking good with 2 minutes to go before the start of the next race, but I was a bit trigger happy and jumped the gun. "OCS Bow number 99" came over the radio and we had to turn back to restart. After having some serious issues with connecting the dots on the first upwind, we eventually rallied back to 16th. Unfortunately the race was started under the Z-flag rule which meant that 20% of the fleet was added to our score (becoming our throw-out). The race committee signaled the warning signal to the last race 2 minutes before 14h00, the last possible time to do so and we were off to another race. We actually played the middle this time and rounded the mark in 4th. Ricardo Simoneschi on "Audi" and our team went back and forth for third place. We eventually got him on the last gybe to the finish, when "simo-gybed" with him and then rolled him. Needlessly to say the whole team was pleased with this last maneuver! Our finishes were: 7, 23, 4, 11, 1, 18, 6, 8, 5, 1, (16) and 3, putting us in 6th overall.
It was really nice to be sailing with some friends, bombing around lake Garda during the day, eating great food in the evening and closing the "Wind's Bar" at night. I guess this qualifies as a true active holiday in my book!
My thanks go out to all my team mates and to EFG Bank for providing us with a fine Melges 24 for this regatta.
More pictures to the regatta can be found here and the results can be found here.
Photo credits by Pierrick Contin

The Attitude of Winning: Embracing the Challenge

"You gotta be out of your freaking mind!" was the response I got from one of my best sailing buddies when I explained to him in early 2006 that Tim and I were considering campaigning in the 49er for the 2008 Olympic Games. "Morgan and Pete (one of the other US 49er teams) are currently almost dominating the class and you guys want to go up against them? You haven't even ever crewed in the 49er!"
I understood his reasoning but at the same time also realized that with that kind of an attitude you were never going to win a Gold Medal.

In today's short article I would like to dig into the most important factor when it comes to winning or losing: The Attitude of Winning. There are many parts that make up this attitude and one of them is the way we embrace challenges. It's something we are faced with every day, sometimes just on a small scale and sometimes it can be life changing challenges that must be conquered.

Some people think of challenges as mountains that have to be climbed. They see only the small crevices and steep walls, the difficulty of making it on to the next ledge.

I prefer thinking about the view we will enjoy when we make it to the top. The only way to truly master a challenge starts off by embracing it. You must be grateful to have been put into a position of facing the challenge.
That brings me back to the beginning of the article. Yes, campaigning for the Olympic Games is one of the biggest challenges you can commit to. Doing it whilst having to beat other great teams in order to actually go there makes your life even more difficult! And that is the point. The view from the top of that mountain is only as good as the challenges you must overcome in order to get there.

So the next time you're faced with steep competition at your next major regatta, embrace the challenge. Be grateful of having so many great competitors to sail against. As you're coming into that leeward gate with ten other boats at the same time, enjoy having the opportunity to show what you're made of.
Instead of being afraid of getting you're ass kicked, be grateful for the opening that lets you improve your skills.

Chris out