We are currently training in the future Olympic waters in Marseille, France. There are a series of 4 coach run regattas taking place this month, and so we are taking full advantage of training at the Olympic venue while we have it. Here's a recap of our most recent event:
Europeans Recap
The Europeans took place in San Remo, Italy from May 12-20, 2023.
After our last event, the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma, Spain, we sat down as a team and reconfigured our goals and aims based off of the event. Our biggest areas for improvement were starts. We felt that it was this the key element we were missing in Palma that kept us from racing at the front. We set into training with these goals in mind and worked heavily on our starts and downwind pumping technique. We were really happy with the progress we made as a team and felt like we made some leaps with our starting maneuvers and time and distance to the line.
We arrived in San Remo and got straight into training. Each venue we race at is different in regards to the breeze, wave patterns, and currents and so its always advantageous to get to a venue early and become familiar with it before heading into an event. We had several days to get used to the unique conditions and of course carbo-load with some fresh Italian pasta!
Cycling through the tunnels along the Mediterranean shoreline on our rest day. Cafe stop in Imperia. The entrance of our accommodation. Favorite pasta dish from the best Italian restaurant in Italy!
We were feeling really happy with our boat speed and starting improvements going into the event. Our training days were mostly light wind, up to around 12 kts. There were thunderstorms practically every day which didn't make for the most stable wind conditions.
Going into day 1 the forecast was looking marginal. The breeze filled late in the day, and after a brief delay we had some time waiting on the water before starting the first race. Good start off the middle of the line and we were off, marginal O-flag conditions (wind was +10kts average which means we can use unlimited kinetics), and Trevor was full force into pumping upwind. We had a nice start next to the Italians and Swedes and held with them for the whole upwind, rounding the top mark in 3rd. Full pumping downwind, we reeled them in and made a small gain on the downwind from nailing a wind shift. Approaching the bottom gate mark we jibed on the Swedes and they split from us at bottom gate. It was all very close. Next upwind, Trevor went to work again pumping upwind to propel the boat forwards. We kept playing up the right side of the course and managed to keep the lead on the Swedes going into the top mark, but the Portuguese were close behind. On the final downwind we got caught up with the Portuguese while the Swedes got free. They managed to pass us on the inside, but we finished the race close behind in 2nd. The next race we didn't manage to get free and ended up on the wrong side of a 50 degree lefty. A near first and a near last place finish.
The conditions the next few days were heavily influenced by some unique weather patterns. There were two wind systems on either side of San Remo, and we were caught in a vortex between the competing winds. It made for a lot of waiting, and a lot of interesting conditions. Day 2 we were out on the water for hours on end, started and abandoned several races, but ultimately didn't finish any. We managed to break our tiller in the massive swell, and so it turned into a very long day for us.
Day 3 we got some great conditions. 12-18kts from a skewed offshore direction. Shifty and puffy. We had some good races and were happy with our tiller repair. The velocity in race 3 of the day picked up, and while sailing downwind our mast snapped in half at the spreaders. This was our first time having a break of this kind happen to us during a race, especially frustrating since we had been doing well and didn't do anything "wrong" for the break to occur that we could notice.
We still managed to scrape into gold fleet despite the mast break. This was our only mast, and so luckily we were able to borrow a mast from our teammates Stu McNay and Lara Dallman-Weis, but as we had never used it before, our settings were pretty out of whack on Day 4 of the event.
Gold fleet racing was challenging. When we managed to get good starts, we were typically able to come to the top of the course well. Unfortunately we were BFD in race 1 of gold fleet, and afterwards entered a more conservative starting mode that did not work. Paired with our settings being completely thrown off from switching to a new mast, we weren't feeling confident ultimately. Training in big waves and breeze was something we have been lacking, as it's tough to find those conditions in Miami on a consistent basis. The end of the Europeans highlighted an area of training we desperately need to work on to become more well rounded competitors in the 470 fleet.
I am proud we managed to hold our heads high. We were put in some tough situations
throughout the event. I recall as Romain Bonnaud was towing us in with our mast bent in half hanging over the boat, he turned around to take a photo and Trevor gave him a happy thumbs up. While it was a terrible situation, we didn't react too negatively, and just went with the punches, doing what we could to best improve the situation at all times. Controlling what we can control and not getting too worked up about things out of our control. I'm very grateful to my teammate, Trevor, for bringing such a great attitude to what was a very challenging event for us. It's easy to crumble, get agitated, and react with anger in such high stress situations, but Trevor ended every day with a smile on his face.
A massive thank you to our friends, family, supporters, as well as St. Francis Sailing Foundation and the Sailing Foundation of New York for providing us the support to get to the Europeans! We couldn't do it without you.
What's next? New Boat for the Worlds!
The biggest thing on our minds after completing the Europeans is that we need newer equipment. Upon our arrival in Marseille we had about 4 days of continuous boat work and epoxy repairs to get the boat back into practice condition after racing it hard at the Europeans.
A mentor to us put things nicely, "you should be spending all of our time and energy training hard on the water and in the gym, not doing epoxy repairs and making phone calls." It is one of the challenges with Olympic campaigning, especially in the United States. It becomes difficult to set your priorities. Ultimately right now, fundraising is becoming the most important thing for us. Being able to afford new equipment is our biggest priority. We do not want to lose more races due to equipment failures.
We are only 6 months out from our Olympic trials. The World Championships taking place in the Hague, Netherlands on August 11-17 will be the first chance to qualify the nation for the Olympics... and currently the only boat we have is sinking. The best chance to perform well and qualify the country will be to have newer equipment. The boat we have been using is a 2014 Ziegelmayer, which while functional is not capable of delivering top results. We used it at the Europeans and had several major breakdowns throughout the event, which cost us many points and even led to a DNF in one race. This is incredibly frustrating given the amount of time, energy, and resources we have put into this campaign and being able to give it our best shot; it’s disheartening to have your equipment fail you. When looking at the boats racing in the gold fleet, everyone is using a 2020 boat or newer. To be competitive in the gold fleet, we need a newer boat. We need to be able to put all of our time and energy into performing well and making the boat go fast, not keeping it in one piece. That is why we are reaching out now to anyone and everyone who would be willing to make a contribution.
How to help:
To make a quick donation online we have a GoFundMe page set up:
We are partnered with the Sailing Foundation of New York, and so we can accept tax deductible donations via check:
Tax deductible donations can be mailed to:
Sailing Foundation of New York, PO Box 124 Rye, NY 10580
Check payable to: Sailing Foundation of New York
Memo: Nordstrom/Bornarth
Click here to be redirected to our team website and learn more.
Marseille Training Update
For now, we continue to practice hard here in Marseille on the future Olympic Waters. We just completed the first two of four coaches regattas, and finished as top American in both. We're excited to be acquiring some new equipment before the Worlds in August! Stay tuned for more updates and be sure to follow us on social media @nb470racing for more frequent updates!
Upcoming events:
- Marseille Coach Regatta 3 - June 21-23
- Marseille Coach Regatta 4 - June 26-28
- Combined World Championship - August 11-17