practice!

The Student Yachting World Cup officially opened today with registration and practice. The process of checking in, registering, weighing in and paying fees took up most of the morning and dragged on a bit longer than the team had wished it would. Following registration thier was a detailed skippers meeting, going over the necessary information regarding the boats, courses and the expecations of the race committee. Once the skippers meeting was over, thier were several delays implemented to allow the winds to settle a bit before the teams took to the water.

When the time did come to leave the dock, Team USA was first out with a single reef and a small jib. The team spent some time refining tacks and hiking the boat to it's maximum speed. The winds continued to be strong and the team was forced to battle against the short steep chop that the Med is known for.

With it being a practice day, we were able to carry both our coach and alternate onboard, allowing everyone to get a good idea of the boat, it's performance and where improvements could be made.

In all, there were only a few minor improvements to be made only building confidence for the team as they progress into tomorrow's first day of racing.

GO RHODY!

Picture 1: Downwind sailing in breeze with a reefed main and the small jib.

Picture 2: A close duck for the swiss at mark 1.

Picture 3: Lauren getting doused pre tack.

Picture 4: Surfing waves back towards Marseille.

(Sorry no video posts today. Slow internet at the hotel and large HD video files are making it tough to post. All pictures are low quality screen captures of video taken by the team, showing how great the action really was!)