Silver Sails reports from Chicago

by Silver Sails Media on 20 Apr 2010
One of the New Zealand Women’s Match-Racing crews skippered by Samantha Osborne with Jenna Hansen and Raynor Smeal report:

Hi all,

Well, we are back on the road......

The itinerary is rather exciting for this trip:
Training camp - Chicago, USA
ISAF World Cup - Hyere, France
Women's International Criterion - Calpe, Spain

Here is what has been going on.....

We've finished a four day training clinic (E6m) with three American female teams at the Chicago Match Race Centre.
We were able to train each of the four days. The locals told us that we couldn't be luckier with the weather however, we thought that if it got any colder the snow would definitely fall. Wetsuits were only one of the many layers which were worn.

The training was wonderful and it was awesome to be able to tune up against these girls.

We were hosted by the generous Teborek household, who shared the week with us as if we were family.

We couldn't thank them enough for their home and kindness.

We were welcomed by the Centre and were even able to join in on the Tom 28 club nights. We were scattered around different club teams and matched raced till dusk. This was invaluable since we are racing on these boats earlier next month.

So here we are in LA.......

So we've hit the side walk and joining in with the 'buffs' and 'hotties' in Santa Monica. We're keeping an eye out for some celebrities, and we've had a few sightings...... sometimes we don't know who is around us, but all the photographers give it away.

We're scheduled to fly to Europe on Tuesday night. However at the time of writing this email, the Munich airport is still closed. However, back up plans are in place, and we're still confident that we will get to Hyeres on time for the regatta.

We hope to meet up with our coach, Laurie Jury, in the next few days, but this is all dependent with the volcano and airport situation.

Meanwhile, back in NZ the remaining squad members are training for World Cup events in Medemblik and Kiel in the up in coming months.

Keep in touch......


Samantha Osborne, Raynor Smeal and Jenna Hansen