Posted by Mark on 22nd October 2006

Team Eagle Wins Pre-Trials

We spent the second week of October in Newport, RI training and then competing in the US Sailing Pre-Trials held October 13 – 15, where we took 1st place overall. Team Eagle started out strong with three first-place finishes and managed to hold the lead as mechanical issues arose towards the end of the regatta.

The US Sailing Pre-Trials is an event held for the benefit of both competitors and organizers. Consider it as a dress rehearsal for the US Paralympic Trials which will be held in October 2007.

Sailing in Newport in October is challenging and impressive. The first day of races were delayed several hours due to a light and shifty northerly breeze. Three hours later, the wind had shifted around to the South blowing around 12 to 15 knots with gusts in the upper teens. Our class got two races in for the day and we finished first both races.

On the second day races were postponed before the competitors left the dock. The winds were expected to behave in a similar fashion as the previous day. A strong breeze prevailed in the afternoon with gusts in the mid-20s. The downwind legs were a hoot! Many of the coaches from the other classes were getting distracted by the SKUDs going downwind because of our blazing speeds.

We had an interesting mechanical problem during the second day. At the start of our last race for the day, our mainsheet got tangled. Without the ability to let the mainsheet out, the boat will only steer towards the wind. As a result, at the gun we found ourselves above the start line by several boat lengths. At this point, our goal was just to finish the race. This meant that we had to sail downwind to the start line, restart, and sail the course. We couldn't get to the start line until a big wind shift allowed me to turn the boat downwind. We still had a tangled mainsheet but we managed to dip start the line and proceed to the windward mark. On our upwind beat, Maureen got the mainsheet untangled after a considerable amount of force.

The third day saw much of the same, both high winds and mechanical issues abound. Maureen and the spinnaker halyard were not on good terms and the line kept getting tangled and knotted like we had never seen before. And let me not forget that I earned the class "Captain Crunch" hat back after giving Karen Michel a love tap.

Now we find ourselves preparing the boat for its trip south and learning from our mistakes using the video and photos Dan took.

Lastly, during our practice sailing downwind, we hit 12.2 knots!