First Day of Racing

Today was the first day of sailing competitions. It's fairly late here so I will keep it short. The Finn, Star and Women's Match Racing all had their starts today. The Finn is the heavyweight single dingy. Our athlete, Zach Railey, won a silver medal in Beijing and is hoping to podium again. His main competition is 3 time Gold medalist GB Sailor Ben Ainslie. The Star is a keel boat for the big boys (2 men). Everyone tells me this tends to be the most competitive class because sailors from the other classes move into this class as they age but bring their experience and knowledge. The women's match racing is one on one racing (match racing) as opposed to fleet racing (all the boats racing at once). Our women's team of Anna Tunnicliffe, Molly Vandermoer and Deb Capozzi are one of the favorites for gold. Anna won a gold in Beijing in the Radial. Day one was o.k. Not stellar but fortunately in sailing there are 2 races per day over 5 days with a 6th day for a medal race. It scores like a cross country race so 1 pt for a first place, 2 pts for second place and so one and so forth. The match racing is more of an elimination and not scored. The 49er is the only class that sails 3 races per day and then a medal race day because these boats are high performance and FAST. I sometimes have to cover my eyes when I watch because they look like they will crash into one another. Pretty amazing and fun to watch. The 49ers start tomorrow.