Team Molly - United States 2008 Olympic Campaign

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1/16/2008 - Sail Melbourne-Day Three

Team Molly has just completed day three of racing at Sail Melbourne.
While we have had lots of things go wrong in this regatta, we are
definitely improving each race and hope to be in top form by the time
the World Championships begin on January 24th. We have seen a variety
of conditions, but most of the races have been in 13-17 with big
waves. The wind has been pretty shifty and hard to predict. There
are 48 boats competing so the racing is very crowded.

The first day was a reminder of the difficulties of sailing in a large
fleet. The last time we sailed in a large fleet was in July at the
last World Championships. The first beat of the first race was our
worst leg and from there on we were passing boats, finishing in 31st.
The second race was going better, we were in about 30th place until
the last mark when we flipped over. After swimming, we finished the
race in 48th.

The second day was an improvement from the first day. Altough we had a
tough first race again, finishing 36th. The second race was going
really well, we were in about 15th or 20th place when we were coming
into the leeward mark on starboard and a Spanish boat hit us. It put
a hole in our boat and caused us to lose 10 or 15 boats. We kept our
heads in the game and we were able to catch back up to 18th place! We
protested the girls who hit us and they were disqualified. Our boat is
okay; we put some tape over the hole and were able to continue racing
today.

Today was our best day of sailing, although not our best results.
After three general recalls, we finally clean start and we won the
boat end of the line! We played the right side of the course well and
came into the windward mark in about 20th place. We struggled on the
second and third beats, not getting far enoguh right, and dropped down
to 30th place. The last race, we did better with the shifts, but still
did not have top of the fleet boat speed. We probably finished the
race about 30th. Unfortunately, we were over early at the start and
disqualified from the race.

We are looking forward to continue improving over the next two days of
racing. We want to feel more comfortable in a large fleet and the
conditions in Melbourne. We are focusing on executing our game plan
in each race and not focusing on the results of this event. We are
currently in 39th place overall. For complete results, please visit:
http://www.yachting.org.au/site/yachting/event/6997/overall_3_1.html.

Thank you for your continued support!

Team Molly

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4/28/2009 - New Team Molly Gear!

4/24/2009 - Semaines Olympique Francaise- Final

4/21/2009 - Semaines Olympique Francaise- DayTwo and Three