Day one in Miami

I'm sorry everyone for being an idiot today and letting myself get pushed over the line early on a black flag start. It is little consolation to know that many others in my fleet were also called over since I made some big mistakes that led to being one of the boats blatantly over the line.

Here the thoughts about starting that are running through my brain this evening:

• Be a bully - on the starting line you are no one's friend. Never be nice and always be selfish, and be vocal boss people around and tell them what to do if they are threatening you
• On a black flag - don't be one of the boats closer to the line than others - stay hidden
• Know your moves to defend your space and if someone comes in to leeward too close to you, head up hard and hit them with your transom corner while you are avoiding them
• If your space to leeward on the line is too big, sail down to the boat next to you to make it smaller and less enticing for someone to go there - this helps you to control your space better

Thats it - I could berate myself all night for starting off the regatta with a black flag, but tomorrow is a new day. I've got the mantra of 'make everything count' for the rest of the regatta. 

Today's events: We were postponed on shore for quite a while waiting for the wind to fill back in from the east. It had started as a light northwesterly breeze in the morning, then died after the boys sailed their first race. We waited on shore and they waited on the water, and by the time they sent us out, it had started to fill from the east, but was still pretty unstable. I watched the start of the boys blue and yellow fleets second race, and the radial blue fleet. There was quite a bit of current going upwind and left. Our starts were pin favored, the first was a general recall on a U flag, and the second was a general recall on a black flag. Almost half our fleet was called over and after sailing by the signal boat and seeing our sail numbers written on the board, everyone who was scored BFD towed home. By this time it was about 5pm. I stayed out to watch the rest of our puny fleet start and sail the first beat. The wind had picked up to maybe 9 or 10 knots, and most of the fleet was hiking. I was very sorry to have missed this race - not getting to compete is the worst!

Pics from today waiting around:

Curry for dinner! - Thanks Michelle

Update - Olympic Trials Begin

I have been in Miami for a few days now, warming up for the start of the Miami World Cup Regatta. Racing begins tomorrow and this is the first of two regattas that combined will make up the Olympic Trials. The weather in Florida for the past two weeks (I was in Ft Lauderdale prior to Miami) has been very stormy and changeable. Each day a different direction, with some big wind and rain storms. I had a short practice yesterday with Lindsey Baab when most sailors weren't sailing due to too much wind. It was good to get out and sail, although we both bent mast sections. It is frustrating to know that you are likely to be bending either top or bottom sections when it is windy! I have already bent two bottoms since I have been here in Florida.
The format for the regatta consists of two races per day for six days. In the first three days our 80 boat fleet is divided into two even fleets, blue and yellow (based on ranking or current standing in the regatta). After three days we are split into the top and bottom halves called gold and silver.

The forecast seems to be steadying out a little bit with medium winds from the east clocking around to the SE over the next few days.

I'll send out updates as the regatta progresses, we have 18 Americans in the Women's Radial fleet. I hoping to be in the top five, but as is always the case, racing involves executing one thing at a time. It starts with the start!

Lauderdale summary

The Lauderdale OCR (a qualifier for Miami World Cup) was one of the weirdest regattas I have ever sailed. I have to give props to the race committee for being determined to run races in all conditions.
The first day was extremely light and unpredictable, with waves of wind and shifts coming from both sides. I determined that getting to an edge was very important, but how to commit to the correct side? In two races I called it wrong on the first beat and right on the second beat and had two top ten finishes. I was very happy with those results. In the second race I guessed that the right side was more reliable than the left and although it didn't pay in the first leg, I stuck to my guns and committed hard to that side all the way through the race. It payed off in the end. It was one of those times where it seemed to make sense to minimize your chances of getting every leg wrong by switching sides each leg.

Day two was one of the windiest days of racing I have had. Twenty plus knots of westerly offshore wind with gusts to 30. The shifts were very big and the wind was unstable coming off the land. We also had leftover swell from the southeast, which was interesting. Upwind we were surfing on port tack, but on starboard the swell was rolling under you. Downwind there was no wave surfing, although you could turn up to use a swell to get planing if you were in a lull and then turn back down sailing along the troughs of the waves and sometimes jumping over the swell sideways to the next trough.

Day three was just tricky and unpredictable. medium to light NW wind at an oblique angle to the beach meant that sometimes heading to the beach for pressure was good, but sometimes not. It seemed like the kind of day where you wanted to be sailing to pressure and staying on the lifted tack, which seems like an easy formula. It always seemed like nothing worked. I found myself confused and didn't know where to go most of the time. In talking to other sailors about this day, I have learned that it was just so weird I should ignore it, no one knew what to do. I think that is a condition I will file away in my head and continue to try to figure out over the years. Perhaps I needed to understand better what was happening with the weather? Or maybe it was the kind of random day where you sail the lifted tack even if it seems to be taking you away from pressure since the pressure won't be there when you get there.

All in all I finished 7th and was the top american woman. Mostly I was happy with my ability to sail well on the first and second days, feeling like my speed and decision making was pretty good compared to some top international sailors in those conditions.

Ft Lauderdale

It's great to be in Florida so I can focus full time on sailing! I just arrived today from Rhode island. It takes 24 hrs of driving, so I stopped to sleep twice, and arrived today in time to unload, put together my boat and go for a sail.

If you have never sailed from Lauderdale Yacht Club you are missing out. The ocean venue can produce every type of condition. Today we had a kind of variable NE wind 5-15 knots I guess? Although I was not out for too long since I had to catch a ride in with some other sailors. The sail from the club to the ocean and back is long! You do not want to be left out there when the wind is dying and the tide is going out because you might not make it back for a long time.


The Lauderdale Olympic Classes Regatta begins on Saturday, and we have 3 days of racing - Saturday-Monday. Technically it is a qualifier for the Americans for Miami World Cup Regatta. There are enough slots at the MWCR for americans that most of us trying to get a slot at this event will get one, but completely blowing the regatta is not an option. The forecast is for a front to move through in the next couple days, followed by light wind on Saturday. We will see what happens!

Newport's One-of-a-kind Christine Neville

Winter Issue of The Laser Sailor, By Joe Berkeley

Campaigning for the Olympic games in the Laser at the age of 35 is not a common choice. But Christine Neville is an uncommon woman.

Her mother Susan Neville said, “I could count on Christine to push the limits as a child. She was the kid who made her teachers nervous and her coaches proud. She’s not one to follow others. She is always finding a new path to explore.”

Christine stands just shy of six feet tall. She is a lean, rangy athlete with piercing blue eyes, a quick smile, a blonde ponytail and a wingspan of 5’ 11” from fingertip to fingertip. But it’s her hands that set her apart.

Christine has strong, quick hands and she has used them to learn how to build sails, weld metal, do finish carpentry, craft a long board, repair boats and rig yachts. And that’s just for starters.

Bill Fastiggi of Vermont Sailing Partners noted that Christine is the only woman he has ever met who owned a Saab for her primary car as well as a Saab parts car to keep it running. When her red Saab 900 broke down, and it broke down frequently, she took it apart and put it back together herself.

When Christine moved out west, Fastiggi watched as she built a trailer from spare parts to transport all of her possessions across the country. Identifying a problem and improvising a solution is something Christine has been doing all her life. Fastiggi recalled that when Christine had a 20-mile commute and limited resources, she economized by outfitting a bicycle she found with a 32 cc, one-piston motor kit she purchased for less than $100 on eBay. The motorbike was supremely dodgy, unsafe at any speed, especially its 30-mile-per-hour maximum velocity, but it propelled Christine to and from work for a summer.

Her personal engine may well be more powerful than the motorized contraption. Many cyclists train for a year before attempting to ride 100 miles, which in cycling terms is known as a “century.” Christine thought that sounded like a cool idea, riding 100 miles, so she did it without any training on a bike she borrowed from Lindy Kelly that was two sizes too small.

Her best friend Rois Langner says Christine has a “no-big-deal – I got this” attitude that makes her capable of many things, if not anything: fixing old cars, sewing ski-packs, making canvas covers for her Laser, backpacking in the wilderness, traveling around the world, sailing Lasers, and now being a strong contender for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

As a teenager, she spent hours rigging and re-rigging a chartered C-scow so that she could race it with her friend Mary Chamberlin. Mary recalled, “We dumped the boat repeatedly, even sunk it once or twice, but Christine always stayed calm and handled the situation. She would come back after racing and dissect the race; did we have our heads out of the boat? Could the rigging be tweaked? Why did that board get stuck? How was our start?”

For Christine, sailing fast has always been more important than living comfortably. Mary noted, “Christine moved between house sitting gigs, the lodge of Cochran's ski area, and a van while wind surfing at Hood River.” For Christine, sailing is a necessity. Electricity and running water are luxuries.

Many dream of living in a mansion. At one point, Christine’s dream home was a yurt, a semi-permanent but movable structure because it would enable her to do what she loved most.
All of that sailing, clean living and outdoor activity has given Christine exceptional fitness and when she suits up at Laser radial regattas, 17-year-old boys stop and stare slack jawed at her jacked biceps and think, “Whoa, I gotta hit the gym.”

Her fitness is not for show. In the boat, there is a fast-twitch-muscle pop to all of her motions. Christine trims the vang with a sharp snap, roll tacks with controlled violence, and hikes the boat flat with bursts of power. Before she was a dedicated Laser sailor, Christine crewed in the 49erFX class, a skiff. Her skipper, Kristen Lane said, “She physically attacks sailing. She's been blessed with an extremely athletic body. But she is one of the hardest working people I know. There was never ever a day when Christine didn't want to go rip it up in the skiff. Even days when I thought it was too much, Christine was dressed, ready, looking at me like - get your ass on this boat!”

At the European 49erFX Championship, there was a contest on land to see which crew could hoist a spinnaker fastest. Christine blew away the competition with a time of 2.9 seconds. Her skipper thought about removing the video from Facebook because she feared a Volvo Ocean Race team would recruit her.
Optimism and forward thinking are part of Christine’s DNA and she has very few regrets. One of them is not trying out for the Volvo Ocean Race all-female boat, Team SCA. With her quick hands, high power to weight ratio, sunny disposition and sail maker’s background, she could have been a strong addition to the team.
But her independent streak made the Laser a better choice for her. After a seminar with the Irish coach Alan Ruigrok, Christine made it her business to sit further forward downwind and she now assumes a supremely uncomfortable yoga pose such that she is ahead of the centerboard trunk. With a loose vang and frequent course changes, she makes great gains.

When you see Christine sitting in a position that is as fast as it is unstable, it is difficult to imagine that just five short years ago, she was in the middle of the Laser fleet. But she set her mind to improving and started practicing. And practice she did.

She has built a graveyard of broken masts in her backyard, burned through 10 wetsuits, 10 mainsheets and approximately 30 pairs of sailing gloves. Her dedication has propelled her up the rankings in the local standings to be a regular in the top five and she was named to the US Olympic Development Team in 2014.

Today, when she arrives at a Newport Fleet 413 regatta with Annie her dog, she is greeted by competitors of all ages. Christine has a reputation for sailing hard, sailing fast, and sailing fair. Parents of youth sailors enjoy having her in their midst and in an age of shallow reality-TV role models, Christine is a striking counter point, a woman of substance and character.

Sure, she is fast on the racecourse but she is even quicker to offer a competitor a top tip on how to improve. As a coach, she is one of those rare sailors who has excellent skills but still has a sharp memory of what it was like to be mediocre, so it’s easier for strugglers to relate to her.

Along with her boyfriend Peter Shope, Christine practices in the big waves off Third Beach, just a five-minute drive from the home she and Peter are renovating themselves. Beneath the St. George’s School chapel, Christine puts her faith in hard work and practice and sails until sunset then de-rigs in the dark.

On land, Peter is Christine’s life partner but on the water he becomes her sparring partner. A former Olympic campaigner in the Finn class, Peter, who recently won the Laser Grand Master World Championship, is an unapologetic perfectionist. The exchanges during starting drills, practice races, and boat handling exercises are intense. At one session, this reporter hails Shope, “tack or cross?” With the devil in his eye, Shope replies, “I’ll let you cross…but I won’t let Christine.”

All the practice in the world does not guarantee Olympic glory. In other countries like the United Kingdom, Olympic sailing is funded by a national lottery. In the USA, many athletes including Christine are on their own to train, raise funds, and somehow make both ends meet in the middle. To support her campaign, Christine works as a rigger at Brewer Wickford Cove Marina where she is equally comfortable working at the top of a mast or painting the bottom of a keel.

The General Manager of Brewer Wickford Cove Marina, Larry Colantuono is impressed with Christine’s problem solving abilities. Recently, he asked Christine to install electric winches on a Little Harbor 50 and she took care of the assignment with no fuss or drama. Larry said, “Christine raises the bar on guys who think they can slack off.”

That said there was a Friday before a regatta Christine asked to be released early so she could practice in her Laser. Larry, who was also sailing in the regatta the next day, replied, “Fine, but you’re going to feel really silly if I kick your ass tomorrow.” Christine smiled and said, “That’s not gonna happen.”

To keep her expenses as low as possible, Christine searches craigslist for gently used Lasers. Her most recent find is a boat named “Damselfly” that one competitor refers to as “Damn Selfie.” She car camps whenever possible, which works well for local regattas. But when it’s time to compete in international events, there is no getting around the plane fares, charter boat fees, and entry fees.

The United States Olympic representative in the Laser Radial class will be selected based on the results of two regattas, the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Miami in January of 2016, and the Laser Radial Europeans in Las Palmas Gran Canaria, Spain in February of 2016.

To follow Christine’s adventures, visit christinenevillesailing.blogspot.com To make a donation, visit gofundme.com/santander

Joe Berkeley sails in Newport Laser Fleet 413 and has written for the likes of Coca-Cola, AT&T, Fidelity, Nike, Liberty Mutual and Sailing World. His portfolio is at joeberkeley.com Reach him at berkeley.joseph@gmail.com

Day 5

Another beautiful day with nice wind - about 14 knots - and beautiful waves for surfing on the down winds.

I am mostly happy with my performance today except for a few key things. I got a little more conservative with my starts after our first black flag general recall, so I never had a perfect lane off the start. I capsized on the first downwind. I got my mainsheet wrapped around the end of my boom on the second downwind, which is extremely hard to undo, and you go really slow while trying to undo it. My method is to keep sailing down wind, grab the aft part of the mainsheet that goes to the knot, pull the boom in from here and flick the slack part of the mainsheet over the end of the boom. It took me a lot of tries to finally unhook it.

I struggled to find a good rhythm with the waves downwind, but by the second downwind, I think I got it. Starboard gybe with lots of upturns and downturns, rarely going straight, surfing most of the time - super fun!

2 more races tomorrow, and that is the end of the regatta and I get to fly home to leftover turkey!

Day 4

Finally, a day with wind, and a day with pretty good execution on my part all around! I am really excited about my starting. I feel like I have figured out how to do it well, and I just keep doing it. This is now the 3rd day of confident starting on my part, and I am doing the same thing repeatedly. I am starting just to the left of the dense pack of boats near the committee boat in every start. Typically we have one start that is a recall, and I am in or just to the left of the bulge causing the recall. Then they put up the black flag for the next start, and everyone holds back. I sail down wind from above the line through the middle of the line with about 2 or 3 minutes to go and sit on port below the middle of the line so I can watch the majority of the the fleet approach the line from the boat end. Once a lot of people have set up on the line, (about 1:30 left in the sequence) I set up in a low density place and begin to work my hole. I am paying close attention to seeing the pin and the boat - which means I am looking over my shoulder at the fleet to the right of me a lot - a lot more than I used to. I am relying on the line sag developing just to the right of me. (I now understand why it starts there, the first few boats are on the line because they are close to the boat, then, the rest of them start lining up bow even with each other, thinking 'I'll be protected by the boat next to me'. It is this line of bow-even boats that sags away from the starting line. I am trying not to push forward too soon, and drag boats with me. I think letting them think they are on the line and pulling the trigger early is better. Anyway, it is working, so I will just keep doing it until something changes and I will try to apply the same arm-sighting technique to pin end starts.

Racing today involved sailing fast in the 16-19 knot breeze with pretty big choppy swell, not tacking too much, and picking the right side. I definitely had room for improvement on a few areas of todays races. First, I lost a couple boats on the reaches, partly because my setup was not perfect, and partly because I chose to surf down a wave or two that actually caused me to slow down, when I would have stayed faster to keep planing at a high angle. Downwind, I found my speed was pretty good, but there were people who were faster, and I think that I was missing opportunities to make fast upturns while surfing a wave. That meant that I often ended up to the left of the gate marks and had to reach over, losing a little. My biggest loss today was going right on the second upwind of the second race. During this time I sailed through some lulls (16 knots maybe?) where I didn't power up my sail. I think this was really slow. With the waves that we had, my flat 19 knot sail setup was really slow in 16 knots. So - bad choice on the side of the course to sail, and slow boat speed for part of that upwind netted a loss of maybe 5 boats.

All in all a good day, with some really awesome downwind sailing. Looking forward to almost as much wind tomorrow - hopefully full hiking and some waves again.

 I wish we had Dynamic Dollies here, the heavy Euro dollies are hard to pull up this long ramp!