team haeger provancha

ISAF Worlds Recap

teamhp470 — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 20:56:39 +0000

We came away with a seventh place finish at our third 470 Worlds. There was a lot on our plate in Santander and some rough patches made it difficult to execute our goal. Although we are disappointed with our finish, it doesn’t take away from all that we accomplished this year! We have a lot of time before our next event, the ISAF World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi this November and we are ready to get back to work.

We began the event with a rough race, hitting the first windward mark with the strong downwind current. Looking back, those lost points would have made a major impact in our final results. The event was plagued with a lot of waiting due to the lack of breeze as well as numerous fleets racing on a limited number of race courses. Day three, we got back in the swing of things, climbing consistently through the ranks on the second day of the final series. We found ourselves in third wearing the red pinnies after a puffy and shifty day four of racing. The last day of the final series was not how we wanted to end. After a great start in the first race, looking like we would be in the top five around the windward mark, we tacked into a big lift and flipped over.

During the capsize, Annie cut her leg on the autobailer causing us to have to bring the boat up slowly and putting major distance between us and the rest of the fleet. After we righted our boat and realized that our spinnaker pole sank, we weighed our options. In order for the race to count, we would have had to catch up to fourteenth to avoid using our throw-out. Unfortunately we had to drop out of the race to get Annie treatment so we were able to compete in the final race. The medics poured WoundSeal on the gash to minimize the bleeding and we were off. The last race began with a great start, but we struggled with our speed and finished in fourteenth, entering into the medal race day in fifth. Briana singlehanded the boat for the tow in while Annie was put on a motor boat, sent to the hospital, and given eight stiches.

Entering into the medal race, we had a slight chance to grab bronze being fourteen points back. The stands were crazy! There were more people in the crowd than we had ever seen before spectating our medal race. With a good start and first third of the first upwind, we played too conservative tactics and became stuck in the middle. Fighting back, we ended the race in eighth causing us to drop to seventh overall.

There were many lessons learned and as we said in all of our post-race interviews, we cannot wait to get back out on the water.

Golden Spinnaker Regatta

teamhp470 — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 19:26:06 +0000

This Saturday, US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider will be hosting a fundraiser at the New York Yacht Club for the 2016 Olympic Games. Guests participating will enjoy a Cocktail Reception Dinner and will be paired with athletes from the US Sailing Team for a day of fabulous racing on Sonars. Ken Read will be in attendance, a two-time US Rolex Yachtsman of the year, two-time skipper of the Volvo Ocean race and winner of over 40 World, North American and National Championship. Make sure to check out pictures from the event and if you are in town, come say hi to Briana and Annie!!

Click to watch more from Ken Read about the event!!

Team Harken Dinner

teamhp470 — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 18:45:25 +0000

Team Harken was in full force during our stay in Santander, Spain. They extended themselves above and beyond to have the entire US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider over to dinner. We felt very humble to be surrounded by and interacting with major members of the company, including Peter Harken. Santanders’ best real-estate belonged to the longtime supporter of US Sailing as every sailor who was exiting the harbor out to the race course was able to see the “Casa Harken” banner draped over the beautiful seawall. Harken reached out to us for an interview called “On Board with the Best”, checking in with many 470 teams about alternations they have made with their boats. We tried not to give them all our secrets, but let them know a couple customization we have made to our boat over the years. Check out our full interview here!

ISAF Worlds Day 5

teamhp470 — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 20:39:33 +0000

Today we got to sail in the 20-30 knots that we missed out on yesterday. With three races scheduled, we knew it would be a long day in big breeze. We sailed very well in the puffy and shifty offshore conditions and we felt good racing the boat in that much wind which is honestly the first time we are able to say that since the start of our campaign. We had some moments of brilliance and some not so great moments that we recovered with our downwind speed. We are pleased with our performance today moving us up to third overall. Two races scheduled for tomorrow to finish out the final series.

We would like to thank the sponsors and supporters of the US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider especially our title sponsor Sperry Top-Sider.

ISAF Worlds Day 4

teamhp470 — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 20:14:57 +0000

We woke up to 25 knots which was such a nice change of pace from the past three days, well week rather. However, our start time wasn’t until 3pm so the breeze slowly started fading as it approached our start time. We actually ended up being postponed for a while on shore because the race committee couldn’t anchor their boats on the outside courses. Apparently they didn’t have chains for the anchors or something. Since another fleet was scheduled to race on our course before us, it inevitably put us into a holding pattern. We ended up getting moved to a different course area and got one race in around 5pm. It was kind of a crazy race for us. We had a terrible start and had to duck the fleet, but got on the lifted tack right away which helped us get into the top group. We actually rounded the bottom gate in fourth and after a rough second beat rounding in 14th or something, we had a killer downwind to finish seventh. Points are extremely close with just one race into the final series. We are looking forward to what Santander has in store for us tomorrow! Three races scheduled at a noon start time.

We would like to thank the sponsors and supporters of the US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider especially our title sponsor Sperry Top-Sider.

ISAF Worlds Day 3

teamhp470 — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 20:27:59 +0000

No racing on Day 2 of the World Championships with over 5 hours of waiting on the water for wind. Today, we had an earlier start time of 11 am. We waited on land for about an hour and then a nice breeze filled in. We raced in offshore conditions right under a cliff. It was tricky racing, but we sailed well scoring a 2 and a 3. Our downwind speed was again very helpful. We had some challenging moments today, but when some of the little things started going wrong, we made good decisions. It was the first time this season, we felt that we were able to sail maturely even when things didn’t appear to be going our way. That was a big turning point for us! Two races scheduled for Gold fleet at 3pm tomorrow.

We would like to thank the sponsors and supporters of the US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider especially our title sponsor Sperry Top-Sider.

ISAF Worlds Day 1

teamhp470 — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 20:08:34 +0000

A lot of waiting this morning and two very light air races pretty much sums up the day. We made quite a large mistake in the first race which cost us a lot. Not anticipating the current on the layline, we ended up hitting the first windward mark. With the fleet so close, it made for a tough comeback. The second race, we sailed so so and managed to get a top eight finish, which was our goal. We have been working hard on our starting line awareness and confidence and today we did a nice job with that part of the race. Looking forward to two more qualifying races tomorrow!!

We would like to thank the sponsors and supporters of the US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider especially our title sponsor Sperry Top-Sider.

Test Event Recap

teamhp470 — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:26:06 +0000

It is always hard to look back at an event where you thought you sailed very well, which ended on a low note. Especially when that low note is an aspect of racing seen as a strength on your team. The Test Event was held out of the Marina del Gloria, which was just amazing in itself. The first time Team HP drove the motor boat across Guanabara Bay and entered into the future Olympic venue, goosebumps were had by all.

During our practice days we only trained one time on the “outside” race courses. Much to our surprise the wave pattern out there was not only extremely difficult with no clear pattern, but were also MASSIVE. We are talking only being able to see another 470’s mast when you were right next to them on the water! The first and second racing days of the event, we were out in the thick of these challenging conditions and rose to the challenge. Our speed made racing easy (fast and stupid as our college coach always said!) being able to stay close to the fleet with conservative tactics.The top group was quite far ahead of the rest of the fleet for most of the regatta, consisting of the 2012 Olympic Gold medalists, the 2012 Olympic Silver medalists and ourselves. We did not find ourselves out of the top three during the entire opening series, either fighting back from rough starts or sparing with the top group from the get-go during races.

The day before the medal race was quite tricky wind, and was our first time sailing inside the bay on the Ponte Course. There was a postponement for three and a half hours on the water which consisted in Team HP coming up with quite creative games to play. When we finally got going, the breeze had stabled out quite a bit changing our tactical plan from playing the breeze to playing the current. After the start, we were executing our game plan of extending to a current line when we began going very slowly. We had the exact position on the fleet that we wanted, but could not get the boat going for the life of us. Rounding the top mark in a disappointing 3rd to last, we checked our rudder on the reach and found lots of garbage: Great lesson for events in the future! We fought back hard, but eventually sailed our drop race heading into the medal round the following day.

With some wind delays and a little bit of a stressful morning, the medal race turned out to be a big learning block for our team. We were wearing the yellow bibs out to the race course and were in the exact position we wanted. After struggling with line awareness for most of the previous regatta, we found ourselves in the back of the fleet… in the middle… in light air. From there, it seemed like mistakes kept compounding such as reading current lines incorrectly and missing pressure. We ended up finishing 4th overall in the event due to our last race mistake which was unfortunate since we felt like we sailed well for most of the event. Back to the drawing board for the upcoming ISAF Worlds in Santander, Spain!

The “Rio Experience”

teamhp470 — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:11:06 +0000

Coconuts on the beach, motorboat rides and ferry trips across Guanabara Bay, current on current talks, team dinner at Clube Naval, trip to the Christ of Redeemer, jaw dropping sunset, some sailboat races, a tough medal race and caparinas pretty much sums up our trip to the Olympic venue! Oh and have to mention dinners at Paludo, the US Sailing Team restaurant pick of the week! This local restaurant in Niteroi is a buffet style where the weight of your plate is what you pay (typical in Brazilian culture). We also got a taste of a traditional Brazilian steakhouse with the green and red cards signaling “yes please” or “no thank you” to the waiters. They would walk around with different meats and cut it straight onto your plate. From delicious sirloin to chewy chicken hearts, the restaurant had it all and of course we had to try it. The blue cheese crusted filet was a team hp favorite, yes we are that classy. Make sure to check out our team Facebook Page for all the pictures, especially those sunsets!

When we first arrived, it took a few days for the sun to come out and for us to get acclimated into our routine there. It was a very different experience for sure, and in the beginning there was quite a bit of stress just with being in Rio: the safety, avoiding stomach bugs, water quality, etc. I’m sure you get the idea. Once we started sailing and got an idea for ourselves what all the hype was all about, our stresses subsided dramatically. The organizing authority did a fantastic job and Brazil is clearly on track for hosting a wonderful Olympics. We couldn’t be more excited!!

Rio Test Event Day 5

teamhp470 — Sat, 09 Aug 2014 02:50:14 +0000

It has been such a wonderful experience in Rio and to end the final series today at the first Olympic Test Event means that 2016 is closer than ever!! We spent four hours waiting on the water before the wind stabilized enough to get a race off. We were inside on the Ponte course and, wow is that a challenging one. We had an ebb current so there was more stuff in the water than usual and unfortunately the first beat, which we were leading, we ran over a bag and it took us a while to get it off our rudder. We rounded the top mark in second to last and had to fight our way back to eighth after a couple awesome downwind runs. We are excited to race in tomorrow’s medal race leading a three-way tie for first. Should be exiting with lots to fight for! Start time is 2pm!

We would like to thank the sponsors and supporters of the US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider especially our title sponsor Sperry Top-Sider.