San Diego, Calif.
October 11, 2007

Johnny Lovell and I both share the same birthday. It is today and we won’t soon forget our 40th. We have been tied with Robbie Daniel and Hunter Stunzi, our major opponents at the Tornado Class racing in the U.S. Sailing Olympic Trials for the past eight races here. Today they won both races while we finished 4-3.

That’s us in front at the start and Sarah and Drew on our starboard quarter

Both races had a similar character in what proved to be an extremely light air day. Talk about Qingdao conditions! All we needed was more tide and some jellyfish. We match raced Robbie before the gun in both races and won the starts and we were leading both times at the weather mark. However in today’s very light conditions, Robbie and Hunter had an edge on speed on both runs, leaving us scrambling without success to get back on top.

The forecast for today was for good breeze but it varied from three to six knots and was very streaky. We never flew a hull all day. Our starts were strong, in fact they were probably our best so far in this regatta. We got to the favored side first and got to the weather mark first, only to watch Robbie catch us up. It was frustrating because this was the first time we’d seen him enjoy a bit of a speed edge. Hopefully we’ll see different conditions tomorrow.

We ended up fourth in the first race because he caught us at the leeward gate and then we tried too hard to lock him out got a penalty. By the time we’d completed a turn in those conditions we were last. After that we tried initially for a couple of big moves to get back in the game but finally just worked on gaining places to take fourth.

In the second race, he gained on the run and we rounded the leeward gate almost simultaneously before he pulled ahead on the beat. We took some chances again but that just landed us in third place.

It’s our goal tomorrow to go out and win both races. That way, even if Robbie is second both times we’ll still be in good shape to win the Olympic berth during the remaining four races over the weekend.

Our host club is the San Diego Yacht Club. We are racing out on Coronado Roads every day through October 14. We’ll have a daily update for you here, plus full Tornado Trials Results. Today's photo is courtesy of Jared Wohlgemuth. More excellent photos can be viewed on the SDYC Photo Gallery. Be sure to visit our website at www.t-squaredracing.com. Our sponsor, Advanced Equities, is at www.advancedequities.com.

Sail fast,
Charlie Ogletree - Team Advanced Equities I