Medemblik, Holland
May 25, 2008

We wrapped up our Tornado competition in the Delta Lloyd Regatta 2008 today after a gusty, blustery Medal Race in washing machine waves to finish eighth in the race and tenth overall for the regatta.

Medal Race action - - - Photo: © 2008 Thom Touw

Today, the short course, three-lap Medal Race was set hard up against the sea wall but the cold gusty Easterly left it almost bare of spectators as boats in all the classes fought to stay upright. The wind was around 18-22 knots with rain squalls. Not at all pleasant. Waves reflecting off the wall added to the confusion and made things even more tricky. Capsizes, a dismasting or two and out-of-control boats provided plenty of action for those who did venture out to watch.

We figured we had a shot at seventh place overall if we played our cards right but it didn’t turn out that way. We pulled off an awesome start and coming into the weather mark for the first time we were in the top three with a chance to round first or second until we slightly misjudged the layline, were forced into a rough tack and found ourselves buried in the pack. Mistakes are expensive in this company and those conditions. We finished eighth with only one boat behind us. The Brits didn’t even finish after a spectacular capsize just before the line.

There were some bright spots in this regatta. Our Dutch training partners Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis were second overall and during the week, Andy Hagara who coaches both teams was named coach of the day. The light air days were good practise for China and we kept moving forward, working on tactics, boat handling and communication. We’re close to making a decision on which of our boats we’ll be taking to China. We’ve been sailing in Europe with a new boat but it’s not proving to be as special as we hoped so it’s looking likely that we’ll rely on our tried and trusted number one boat. For sure we’re checking some more boxes off as we move into the last phases of our Olympic campaign and narrow down our equipment choices.

After a two week break at home with our families we’re headed back to Spain for another two-week session where we’ll continue sail testing and training for China and working on some special ideas we’ve been keeping for the end of the campaign.

You can find full Tornado results at Delta Lloyd Results. We want to acknowledge all the support from our sponsor, Advanced Equities.

Sail fast,
Johnny Lovell and Charlie Ogletree - Team Advanced Equities I