US Sailing Team at 2020 ILCA Women's Laser Radial World Championships

US Sailing Team at 2020 ILCA Women's Laser Radial World Championships - Day 3

by Brittney Manning 25 Feb 2020 06:51 PST

Charlotte Rose at the 2020 ILCA Women's Laser Radial World Championships, day 3 © Jon West Photography

Slow and steady seems to be the pace of the 2020 ILCA Women's Laser Radial World Championships. Thanks to conflicting breezes in the morning and some brief thunderstorms in the afternoon, the athletes hit the water just before 6:00 p.m. to finish one race for the third day in a row.

Thankfully, the mild cold front delivered strong breeze once the storms rolled through, and the race committee was able to promptly run one race for each fleet in about 20 knots from the south with significant, three-foot chop.

US Sailing Team athlete Charlotte Rose (Houston, Texas) thrived in the late breeze and welcomed it with open arms. "I was so excited to hike and not sit in the boat for once," she said. "I told Leandro [Spina, US Sailing's Olympic Development Director and coach] that I was just going to get off the line and hike my butt off. It was pretty much a drag race all the way to the lay line, so it was pretty simple."

Focusing on clean starts and good boat speed seemed to work for Rose. She hiked hard upwind to round the top mark eighth, then caught up to third place by the bottom mark. After maintaining her position in the top five through the second lap, she finished the race in fourth.

Based on her result today, one wouldn't guess that Rose spits her time between campaigning and pursuing a degree at Jacksonville University. "It's been hard," she said on juggling the two. "I've been doing a lot of college sailing and did a couple of training camps in Miami and Fort Lauderdale over the span of the past four months. I also have been putting in a lot of time in the gym when I'm not on the water. It's important to stay in shape and keep getting fitter during my time off the water and at school."

One of the benefits of pursuing the Olympics while being enrolled in school is the support she gets from the Jacksonville University Sailing Team. "It means so much to me that I have such a huge amount of support and I love my team a lot for it. I know that whatever happens this week, they're still going to be proud of me."

US Sailing Team athletes Erika Reineke (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) finished today's race in 13th and 23rd, respectively. "They both got good starts. This breeze is the kind of the condition where size makes a reasonable difference, so they were both working hard and rounded top 15-20 around the first windward mark," said their coach Steve Mitchell (GBR).

Both athletes demonstrated their ability to hike around the course to hold their position, though Railey unfortunately caught the wrong side of a shift and dropped back a couple of positions. Still, Mitchell is pleased with how the day went, "They're sailing well, they started well and their speed was pretty good today."

Since the Radial athletes haven't reached the threshold of four qualifying races, tomorrow will feature three more, before the final series begins on Thursday. For the remainder of the week, the competitors will likely see packed schedules with three races on each day in order to make up for the weather delays.

"We're three races into a 12 race regatta," continued Mitchell. "So there's a lot to happen yet. Tomorrow, we've got similar conditions to this evening and three races on the schedule so will be a bit of a hike off, hopefully, their time in the gym will translate into speed and scores tomorrow."

With a full schedule tomorrow, the Race Committee and competitors are optimistic that the breezy forecast will deliver the opportunity for more races.

U.S. Laser Radial Results