U.S. report from Weymouth and Portland International Regatta day 9

by Dana Paxton on 11 Aug 2011 At the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta, the Olympic Test event, winds howled and gusted up to twenty five knots. Meanwhile, athletes from the United States turned in a variety of impressive results including two wins in the Laser Radial class by Paige Railey.

As the London 2012 Olympic Test Event reaches its final stretch over the next three days, US athletes who have already advanced to a medal race include Railey, plus Zach Railey (Finn), and Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar (Women’s 470). Racing in the Star class was abandoned today and Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih will resume their series on Thursday.

With two race wins added to her overall Laser Radial series score Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) continued to close the gap on the second place sailor, Evi van Acker (BEL) and guaranteed her spot in the medal race, scheduled for Friday, Aug. 12. 'I’m so excited right now I can’t even speak,' said Railey moments after arriving at the venue’s slipway.

'Weymouth is a really difficult place to sail. If I take what I learned here before and put it together. Luther and I are really pumped right now.' Tomorrow is a rest day for the Radial fleet and she said that she would be spending the day supporting her brother Zach in the Finn racing.

'I was just keeping it simple and focusing on one leg at a time, and focused on keeping points on me and the other girls. I don’t think the left was extremely favored. I tried to play the shifts up the left. I was going with my gut instinct. I learned these past days I should not to do the fleet percentages and go with what I think is tactically correct. I took all the lessons I learned this week and put it into practice today and it all worked out.'

Exclusive audio interview with Paige before racing: On the course: 'I think I know what’s going on over there. Hopefully I can take what I have learned and use it. I have to be conservative and not get any more DSQs. I have to watch FIN, IRL and BEL and make sure they don’t get too far away from me.'



Erin Maxwell (Wilton, Con.) and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar (New York/Fishers Island, N.Y.) were pleased to add an eleventh and eighth to their scoreline, secure the ninth overall, and book a spot in the Women’s 470 medal race, also scheduled for Friday, Aug. 12.

Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) may have had a challenging day with two races sailed on two separate courses and 25 knots of wind, but his 16th and 11th secured his ninth overall and a spot in the Finn medal race, scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 13.

'It wasn’t a good day, results-wise. It’s disappointing to have this big a breeze come in during a regatta. Given the lack of speed I had in the upwinds, it is clear I don’t weigh enough. I made a conscious effort to lose weight properly and take off a lot of body fat. Now, instead of packing on the fat, I am going to put the weight on correctly for the Games.'

The conditions challenged Men’s 470 team Stuart McNay (Boston, Mass.) and Graham Biehl (San Diego, Calif.) and they could not maintain their top ten spot despite a very good try. They finished the regatta in 12th overall.

Brad Funk (Plantation, Fla.), who explained that his performance really came together in the details this week, turned in a 12th and 20th to end his Laser series in 14th overall. 'I’m happy about what I’ve accomplished,' he said.

US 49er team Erik Storck (Huntington, N.Y.) and Trevor Moore (North Pomfret, Vt./Naples, Fla.) have decided not to continue the regatta after Storck sustained an injury earlier in the week. 'We’ve made the difficult decision to end our Test Event with three days racing to go,' said Storck in a Team blog post. 'I am healing extraordinarily well, and our primary goal is to be ready to train stateside in less than a month with our sights on Perth for the ISAF Worlds in December. Of course, we would have preferred a different outcome to this event, but we will not dwell on this misfortune.' Read more here.

The U.S. Team members in the Women’s RS:X and Men’s RS:X completed their regatta on August 9.

Sally Barkow reflects on the bronze medal racing here. 'Today we woke up thinking ‘cool, we walked away with a medal.’ Yesterday was a neutral day for us. We had a tough morning and a better afternoon.'

On the defeat by Finland: 'It was really shifty conditions we haven’t seen before. We made a few mistakes s and caught a few unlucky breaks. She came in with some good solid momentum and once she was 2-0 it was tough to come back from. We didn’t feel confident in our decision making. She sailed really well and was really fast. The chances where we were ahead, we sailed back to her and when she was ahead she did a great job extending and not giving us a chance to get back.'

Weymouth and Portland International Regatta website