Kingston, Ready to Go

By Doug

Pam and I arrived late Saturday and I've been practicing with Mark Bethwaite (AUS), defending Great Grand Master champion. Mark has been touring the east coast in his yacht. Pam had not seen it and I did not want her to be disappointed, so we sat and waited for Mark in this...

...before we joined him in this....

We're sailing out of the Kingston Portsmouth Harbor where the 1976 Olympics were held. Mark represented Australia in FD's, and his father Frank was the team meteorologist. Many of Kingston's conditions are documented in Frank's book High Performance Sailing.

We watched the open guys sail last week. My money was on Philipp Buhl (GER) who came second. To give you an idea of how tricky the conditions are, his finishes on the final day were 13, 48, and 1. Even a fellow who finished 50th won a race. With everyone gearing up for the Olympics, it was pretty amazing to watch.

One sailor we watched was Pavlos Kontides (CYP) who won silver at the last Olympics. He was great at starting at the favored pin but like others he had to count some bad races and finished 9th.

We're sailing at the northeast end of Lake Ontario and the breeze usually comes from the southwest, so there are good waves with the sea breeze (very unusual for a lake).

Pam again designed the Team USA shirts. Some people ordered this... 

...while most ordered this...

After 22 hours of on-the-water practice with Mark, the competition starts today. Two in our fleet have won this before, three have been runner up, and several others have had a top five result. Should be a blast.