In the Swing of Things

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 12 Jul 2010 Heat waves are nobody's best friend, and the States has been gripped with numerous walls of hot weather, from Seattle clear across to New York.

And while the east coast is still looking at some hot, sticky weather for the next day or so, sailors out in my hometown area of Seattle have been loving the 'post-heat-wave weather' (if you can even call one 90-degree day a heat wave). The astonishment? There was even some breeze this weekend, allowing local sailors to finally enjoy some long, sun-soaked days of summer sailing after months of sodden starting lines.

On the bigger sailing stage, much Olympic-level attention this weekend was devoted to the US Sailing Center of Sheboygan, in Sheboygan, WI, where the U.S. Women's Match Racing Championship took place. The racing action lasted a full five days, with Genny Tulloch, a member of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) the defending U.S. Women's Match Racing Champion (USWMRC), successfully defending her title against former USSTAG member and 2005 USWMR champion Sally Barkow.

The Vic-Maui fleet is not far from their Mai Tai's and in the Pacific Cup, all divisions have now started in this pursuit-style race, with the leaders now hundreds of miles into the fun. Depending on when they started, some of this year's Pac Cup boats have dealt with some really light air, but now the fleet is more or less sailing the rhumb line. We'll check back with them soon; in the meantime, there are some great starting-line images from the various days' starts courtesy of Erik Simonson.

And finally, after a personally tough regatta in the Laser Radial World Championships, USSTAG sailor Anna Tunnicliffe continues to share her mental debriefing each day.

Be sure to check this out, as many racers (myself at the front of the list) can certainly benefit from the type of methodical, post-race analysis that Tunnicliffe has shared.

Fair winds and following seas,