Lessons Learned in Palma; On to the Next One

Numerous people unfamiliar with Olympic Sailing have asked us, “now that you’ve qualified for the Games, what are you going to do?” The stock answer is “the same thing we’ve been doing the past four years, namely training and competing in more regattas.” As our High Performance Director of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, Kenneth Andreasen, has told us multiple times, there is only one regatta this year; the Olympics. The Princess Sofia Trophy here in Palma was a success because we got back in the boat and learned some valuable lessons in the process.

We finished the event here in 14^th overall. Of course, that is not where we would like to be. One of the most important things for us to do before the Olympics is to get as much medal race experience as possible. We did not accomplish that here. We still have three good regattas before the Opening Ceremonies, and we will make the most of each one.

French Olympic Sailing Week is in two weeks. We’ve taken a short trip home to recharge the batteries before going to Hyeres to compete. From there we will go straight to Zadar, Croatia for our World Championship. It will be a fast spring for sure!

Final results from the Princess Sofia Trophy can be seen here.

Thanks to all of our supporters and sponsors. Thanks to the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics especially our title sponsor AlphaGraphics and Gold Partners Atlantis and Rolex. Thanks also to Sperry Top-Sider for their sponsorship and support.

Erik