Sail for Gold Regatta Day 3 - Consistent results for US Sailing team

by Dana Paxton on 7 Jun 2012 On the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta third day, an ISAF World Cup event, the US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider continued to accrue consistent results. Erik Storck and Trevor Moore advanced to the 49er gold round, while Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl did so in Men’s 470, while Zach Railey counted third overall in the Finn. Racing continues through June 9.

Performance highlights include: Anna Tunnicliffe with her ‘Team Maclaren’ of Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi advanced into the gold round, narrowly capturing the sixth position in the overall round robin rankings. The bottom six teams went straight into the repechage (to determine the final two teams for the gold round).

In the Gold Round, Tunnicliffe, Vandemoer and Capozzi went 1-2, with two matches remaining for Thursday morning. The overall results will determine seeding for the Quarter-Final round.

While waiting for the Gold Round to commence, Vandemoer talked about coming out of the round robin with a 6-6 record. 'It is a sailboat racing, a little bit of this and a little bad call,' she said. 'In match racing you only have to beat one boat and if you make one mistake they’re going to capitalize on it. Six races didn’t go our way and we’re looking forward to the gold round coming up. In any regatta, we take one race as it comes. After the first day we thought ‘race by race.’'



After struggling on the first day of racing, Paige Railey has seen her scores improve dramatically to 13th overall. Today’s strong 4-3 finishes were a step in the right direction to bring up her overall score. She explained how she got this far. 'After the first day, I sat down with Kenneth Andreasen, my brother and Luther, and we did a re-evaluation of my sailing. We changed some things around. I’ve done a 180 and everything seems to be back to normal.

Today 'The way that Luther is having me think is how can I consolidate a finish rather than a risky third or 20th. That’s the difference, honestly, less risky sailing. I’ve been killing myself in the gym and seeing my fitness come through.'




Amanda Clark and Sarah Lihan, who went into today in third overall, slipped slightly to finish the day tied on points with fourth place Brasilians Martine Grael and Isabel Swan. They’ll work to strengthen their score tomorrow.

Jen French and JP Creignou continued their consistent SKUD-18 racing and remain in fourth overall.

Before he went out on the Laser course, Rob Crane talked about his strong finish on day 2, in the top quarter of the fleet. 'It was a really long day,' he said. 'We had a 50 degrees range and three races. It was important to go fast and manage your energy. By the end of the day a lot of people were dragging. I know I was a bit, but less than others. It was hugely important to keep your energy up. Downwinds yesterday I was pretty quick and something I need to improve is I made too many mistakes.' Crane is currently in 29th overall.




US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider athletes competing at Sail for Gold and their results, to date:
Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), Molly Vandemoer (Stanford, Calif.) and Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) – women’s match racing, advanced to Gold Round, current score 1 win, two losses
Amanda Clark (Shelter Island, N.Y.) and Sarah Lihan (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) – Women’s 470, fifth
Bob Willis (Chicago, Ill.) – RS:X (Men’s Windsurfer), 28th
Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif.) – Finn, 20th
Erik Storck (Huntington, N.Y.) and Trevor Moore (Pomfret, Vt./Naples, Fla.) – 49er, 11th
Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md.) -- RS:X (Women’s Windsurfer), 28th
Jen French and JP Creignou (both St. Petersburg, Fla.) – SKUD-18, fourth
Mark LeBlanc (New Orleans, La.) – 2.4mR, ninth
Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih (both Miami, Fla.) – Star, 13th
Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) – Laser Radial, 13th
Paul Callahan (Cape Coral, Fla./Newport R.I.), Tom Brown (Castine, Me.) and Bradley Johnson (Pompano Beach, Fla.) – Sonar, eighth
Rob Crane (Darien, Conn.) – Laser, 29th
Stuart McNay (Boston, Mass.) and Graham Biehl (San Diego, Calif.) -- Men’s 470, 12th
Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) – Finn, third

US Sailing Development Team members competing and results, to date:
Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif.) – Laser, 11th
Carson Crain (Houston, Texas) – RS:X , 58th
Zach Brown (San Diego, Calif.) and Fred Strammer (Nokomis, Fla.) – 49er, 33rd
Gordon Lamphere (Lake Forest, Ill.) – Finn, 41st
Greg Martinez (Houston, Texas) – Laser, 78th
Solvig Sayre (Vineyard Haven, Mass.) – RS:X, US Sailing Team Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta website