What’s so frustrating for us is that we know we can do better. It’s all about putting together a coherent, complete race. Right now we have moments of sheer brilliance interspersed with some pretty idiotic moves. We just have to sail smart for an entire race. It doesn’t show in the results but today in both races we were only 30 seconds away from beating five to eight boats.We’re getting there, although we both wish the process were going faster.

We had a good start and went up the middle of the course in the first leg of the first race, with three long tacks. That dropped us a few places because the boats that banged the corners did better. Basically though, our upwind speed is awesome and when we make the right tactical calls we are passing boats. Our downwind speed is our biggest weakness and that’s what we’re focussing on this week.

We had another good start in the second race and played the right side of the course after watching it pay off in the latter half of the first race, with continued right shifts between races. Of course the left turned into the favored side and after that we were fighting to get back into contention. The racing is so close in this class, and the boat speeds so high, that one small mistake means losing five places. A couple of mistakes later, we were in 34th place where we finished.

John Bertrand, who won a Silver Medal in the Finn Class at the Los Angeles Olympics, is working with our T-Squared Racing Teams and he came over to the house last night. He helped us as we worked on winning strategies and came up with seven areas to focus on. We have coined the phrase "The Lucky Seven" and we’re looking forward to getting out on the course tomorrow to see what we can do.