Practice Race

We led the practice race today for two laps! It was super fun, but we stuffed it hard downwind and spent a while swimming around. We were psyched with our speed though, we were fast and low upwind, and fast and low downwind as well. Altogether a great day and we are looking forward to the first day of racing in some big breeze. It will be interesting to see what happens since the forecast is for 20 kts gusting to 28 during our scheduled racing. Everyone in our fleet is at the beginning of the learning curve for the 49er FX since it is still a new boat, so I expect there will be tons of capsizing tomorrow. Staying upright will pay big! 

Palma

We've had 4 great days of training here in Palma in a variety of wind conditions, but all with big swells. The venue is beautiful, but the launching can be treacherous! So far we have launched and landed safely. We have sailed with three other FX teams from Italy, Spain, and Sweden, with two Spanish coaches. We have learned a lot about tuning and boat handling. Practice race tomorrow, and then racing begins on Monday. Here are some pics:

1st Day of Practice in Palma

The waves here are big! We spent the day practicing the basics of sailing the boat and that was very hard. We were stumbling a lot when crossing the boat in tacks and gybes. Once we capsized when we stuffed the bow into a wave going upwind. 10-15 kts today - windier tomorrow.

On our way to Palma de Mallorca to sail the 49er

We got to Barcelona today, and take the ferry tomorrow night to Palma. We arrive in Palma Monday morning. Racing starts the next Monday. Regatta website: http://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/