Regatta Wrap Up - Radial Worlds in Santander, Spain

I am back home and have had some time to reflect on the Laser Radial Worlds - Here are my thoughts:

Thank You! - First of all I want to say thank you so much to all of you who have supported my campaign. This regatta was a bust - I am disappointed with my performance, and I was upset with the poor regatta management. That being said, I did my best to learn what I could from the event and I have some important things to work on as a result.

The Bad:

• My starts were poor and I was playing catch up - not really racing.
• Poor regatta management made for a frustrating event.
• I only sailed 4 races.
• Didn't make Gold fleet.
• Had to spend 4 days sitting on shore watching beautiful sailing conditions but not being allowed to race!

The Good:

• I had the opportunity to sail with some top competition for practice before the regatta started.
• I got some excellent advice from good coaches.
• I watched the Men's and Women's Laser Medal races.
• Santander was beautiful and I got to practice some Spanish.

Lessons Learned:

• Right away I learned that I have a major weakness when it comes to starting in light air without good line sights. I talked to a number of excellent coaches and sailors about their perspective on light air starts and I have a bunch of ideas that I will write in my next blog post outlining what I learned from them. These things will be the focus of my training for the next couple months
• My speed relative to other boats in light air was variable. Sometimes good, sometimes not good. I learned that being in tune with load and flow on the blades is important - but also paying attention to twist in the sail. I need to spend some more time experimenting with adjusting vang tension while sailing upwind in light air and looking at my leech. (Ease for twist when slow, tighten when the speed is there?)
• My speed downwind has improved tremendously since the worlds 2 years ago in Boltenhagen. I am really excited about this! I feel like I am on track to improve my downwind technique more now that I have a much better sense for flow/pressure on the sail.

Here's a pic and clip from the Laser and Radial medal races:

After the medal races I hiked out to the point to check out the view of the 470's and Cats racing on the ocean courses: