This trip was definitely an awesome experience. Julie, Joe, and I worked well as a team which helped to make the trip fun. We joked around a lot and allowed ourselves to laugh at one another, which took the tension off our anxienties. Experiencing the culture both on the water (how competitive it was, how other boats were rigged differently) and off the water (tasting a little of each culture during their happy hours) gave me a great outlook into the yngling sailing class as a whole. We had the opportunity to sail against the top sailers in the world and were lucky enough to get tips from them. Being able to spend time and joke around with new and old friends made this trip a wonderful experience and I am looking forward to the possible chance of going again next year.

A few words

Looking back on the trip, I have to say that first and foremost I had a great time. Sailing against the world's best, experiencing the culture, and spending time with new and old friends made for a great trip. I enjoyed the dinners every night, the sailing parties, seeing the Kalmar castle, and finishing in 10th! We gained a great deal of experience and learned many new things from our time on the water, good coaching, and a discussion with former world champion John Ingalls. We did well, and are happy with our final position at 21st. We did well despite coming into the regatta sailing in difficult conditions. We learned from our first few races and improved as the races continued and finished strong. I already miss being in Sweden and look forward to a possible trip next year!

Heading Home

The AYRT completed a very successful regatta on Saturday. with winds up to 8-12 knots they sailed well and could definitely see an improvement over the beginning of the week. Finishes dropped a bit to 23rd & 24th but they held on to a 21st for the regatta. This is the highest an Alpena boat has ever finished!
They received many compliments from opposing teams, coaches and the race committee who feel they show great promise. The International Yngling Class is eager for them to participate in the future. We should all be very proud and the way they handled themselves throughout both regattas.
Final results at: http://www.kalmarraceweek.se/Upload/ynglingWC.htm

Best Day Yet!

The AYRT continues to improve. As Joe said, "I wish we knew last week what we know now." In light 5-8 knot air they had 2 good starts (John says their starts have been "Awesome") and excellent boat speed. They rounded in the first mark in 9th place each race, and managed to hold on for a 14th in the first race but missed a wind shift in the second race and dropped to a 22nd. What would be a minor mistake in Alpena loses 10 boat in the worlds. In this the last day they are excited to sail and eager to try some new ideas given to them at the Danish and Swedish Team pig roast last night.

Worlds Day 3

AYRT still hanging tight, though not in hobbles. For the first time in 6 days of racing no one suited up in hobbles and the layers were peeled down to shorts and t shirts. The sun came out but the wind died with the 2nd race shortened. The AYRT held tight close to the top 10, lost a few in the home stretch , but should be happy with a 16th. Dock side it was pandamonium as everyone was being thrown in the water.
Kalmar is approaching its major festival and there is live music in every resteraunt and in 2 of the towns squares (both featuring dance floors), the populace is decked in their summer best and dozens of antique (American) cars cruise the streets with 50's music blaring from their radios. Klamar has been a super venue with lots of town activity, great sailing and beautiful views of castles and old buildings as we enter and leave the harbor. The Ericsonn Round-the-World yacht is perched in dry dock overlooking it all.

Results

The AYRT has been sailling on a race by race basis, starting afresh every race. However some have asked about overall results. They can be found, with additional pictures and news, at the event website: http://www.kalmarraceweek.se/index.php

Lay Day

Lay day took us to the Royal Castle at Borgholm on the island of Oland. It was one of the most important strongholds in the the middle ages owing to the abundant limestone and the recent discovery of a method of burning limestone to make mortar which was shipped throughout Scandanavia and Europe. Despite the abundant history spanning 1000 years the AYRT still managed to have fun exploring the walls and shopping in the local village.

ALPENA HISTORY MADE!

The Alpena Youth Racing Team made history today by having Alpena's first top ten finish at a Yngling World Championship. After a week of frustration with high winds, equipment failures, etc they finally clicked. Though finishing 30th in the 1st race of the day they had an awesome 3rd windward leg and were finally going fast, pointing and calling the shifts. In the 2nd race they had a beautiful start, kept their lane in clear air and went fast in the lifts and tacked in the headers. They rounded the windward mark in 9th and battled the boats around them for 3 laps holding on to 10th place at the fiish. Although it is not history, it is worth noting that John Ingalls (also team USA) won the race and currently is in first place for the series.
Germany hosted the country party on the dock afterward and there were many kudus and much back slapping with 3 world champions congratulating them. I am very proud of their perseverence and positive attitude. Now they have reordered their goals to include more top 10 finishes. It will not be easy or preordained but I know they will not flag in their efforts.
Tonight is the annual dinner and they will attend as victors.

Top 10 Finish!!

With perfect winds for our boat, Anniversary took the first Alpena top 10 finish in today's second race!! :)

From the end of the youth to starting the worlds

Although the first race of our final day racing in the youth championship was our worst start and, consequently, our worst race, we managed to learn a very important insight into the wind shifts! The wind was consistently shifting right, so at the start of the next race Anniversary immediately tacked to port and went way out to the right side, tacked to starboard, and were lifted high above the majority of the fleet (the Netherlands girls' team and our friends -- the other Netherlands team who were very friendly -- also went out right). We kept our lead and finished the regatta on a high note with a third!

Following the racing, we had a quick bite to eat before the awards ceremony and couldn't help but notice the outrageous number of police ('polis' in Swedish!) on the streets! We didn't want to seem like tourists or get ourselves in any trouble, but asked what was going on. Apparently there was a soccer game going on and they were out to prevent any trouble! After walking to our hotel and back, we realized that the stadium was less than two blocks away and we were right in the center of all the mayhem, what a surprise!

Anniversary was in a three way tie for 6th place, and after the tiebreaker was in 7th. Of course, at the awards ceremony prizes were given out through sixth place and USA was told to 'come back next year for prize!' Overall, we were happy with what we learned throughout the regatta and even being able to keep up with the boats who hired professional coaches and have been practicing together in similar wind and water conditions for years.

The first day of the Open World Championships we were confident in our sailing ability and speed after being critiqued by our coach on the last day of the youths! After working our way up the youth fleet, we were ready to take on all ages. We had been told by DEN 211 (the #1 youth team) that we had "killer starts" and those pulled through for us in a fleet of 34 boats, as well! Our first race we worked our way into a decent position, pulling out a 27th. We had another great start on the second race, but waited to tack to the right side of the course too long and got buried in the fleet during the first upwind leg; we were lucky to make our way back up for another 27th in the big fleet for an overall placing of 27th.

After a day of racing in the worlds, it is tradition for each country to host a party with hor'devours (however you spell that!) and drinks of their local venue. The Swiss and Aussies hosted the party on Monday and we were able to meet more of the international sailors. We talked to the people we already knew, but also met some new ones! Some very friendly people from Denmark and Holland who encouraged us to come back and offered to charter boats for us in 2010 when the regatta is in the Netherlands. I had also been looking forward to speaking with the Danish youth coach, who began the European Youth Championship regatta, regarding his youth team and I finally got the chance to meet him at the party!

Following the party, we walked out by the boat harbor to see the Swedish line dancers! Who would have guessed? Karen and I tried to pick up on their steps, but they were pretty complex! We had dinner with Bruce (the former United States Yngling Association President), who gave us his insight and answered lots of questions we had about sailing in a big fleet. After dinner, we went out to another restaurant where a hedgehog walked out from under a plastic tarp right by my feet! Talk about startling!

Day 1 World Championship

The Yngling Wrold Championships present a new and different challenge for the AYRT. Not only do they have to sail against the best youth in Europe, who have been training under professional coaches, but, added to the fleet, will be an additional 26 of the world's best adult Yngling sailors. Many have been sailing Ynglings for 40 years. So the sailors will be more experienced, the fleet much bigger and now Val has to sail against....DAD! Mark will be filling in on Denmark 18, a Danish youth boat that lost one of it's crew at the last minute due to "bad behavior". Being an expert at that, Mark immediately signed on.
The first race had everyone, except Mark, in hobbles playing the shifts in tricky Baltic winds. The AYRT had a terrific start and did some fine sailing ,finishing 27th, well ahed of DAD. The winds let up a bit for the second race and the shifts proved even more challanging. Again another good start but with marginally slower boatspeed the AYRT gradually fell back and ended with another 27th. The team was pleased and eager to get to the "Aussie" party scheduled for the evening.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony took place in a 900 year old castle. The highlight of the cermony was the Mayor explaining the the reason the cannonballs (still embedded the wall shown below) are on the land side was the presence of rock offshore that kept the Danish ships a safe distance offshore. "Even Yngling sailors should be wary", a reference to the 2 boats that had already needed emergency epoxy repairs to their keels.

Day Three Youth Championship

After a tough and challenging series the weather finally looked favorable for the AYRT. Their only bad start of the series was a disaster they were unable to recover from. In the last race they took the start (Denmark's coach said they had the most "awesome" starts of the regatta) and held on for a 3rd with smiling faces returning to the dock. The worlds are next with a new set of challenges they are eager to confront!

Day 2 Racing

Since there are two races per day, and we started at 11:00 am today, we're already done racing and have plenty of time to relax and see the town during the weekend hours! I forgot to mention that on the regatta website is a blog of the race committee's perspective of the races and also a tracking device so you can watch the races during or after they happen! (however, we couldn't get the boats to show up on our computer.) Best of luck if you'd like to try -- http://www.kalmarraceweek.se/. They also have the standings posted after every day of racing.

Today's races started off as windy as yesterday's lowest winds and tapered off from there. Both Joe and I got the hobble experience and came in wet, but not cold -- we were prepared this time! During the first race, we just didn't seem to point as high as the other boats despite a great start and slowly fell behind for a seventh. The second race had lighter winds and we kept up with the fleet -- until our jib sheets came unattached! We luffed the jib and feathered off while Joe wrestled in the jib and re-rigged a sheet... losing a minute or two on the fleet. We didn't let it bother us as we rounded the windward and leeward marks last, but watched the wind shifts and passed two boats on the second upwind for a sixth place finish! We kept pace with the rest of the fleet, as well, so we were confident and disappointed there wasn't a third race to really put Anniversary to the test!

The wind is forecasted to continue to get lighter tomorrow, so the Alpena team should do well! We're currently in 5th place but the rankings are very close, so it's anybody's game based on tomorrow's results! Following tomorrow's race we have the Worlds Opening Ceremony in the Castle we toured on Wednesday, and we're also looking forward to that!

At the conclusion of day 1

The wind was forecasted to be 11 - 15 knots on day one racing. The actual conditions? Well, we had steady 25 knot winds with up to 33 knot gusts, lots of chop, and huge swells! Joe had his first experience in the hobbles in big seas, coming back to the docks completely drenched from head to toe. At one point, he looked up and asked Val and I if it was raining... to which we felt around and realized it was... not that it really mattered when we had water crashing over the side of our boat on every wave!

For the light Alpena crew, used to practicing in the sheltered shores of Thunder Bay, it was a practice in survival! We also were amazed at how long the course was -- you couldn't see the upwind mark from the starts and had to sail and make strategy solely by the compass and other boats. Unfortunately, we chose the wrong side of the course for too long in the first race's first upwind leg and had a poor standing around the windward mark. We passed a Danish boat on the downwind, however, which was quite an accomplishment for us! By the end of the race, the fleet spread an incredible distance from first to last place. Coming into the finish, we watched as some boats jibed AWAY from the finish... we couldn't understand why they finished on the wrong side of the committee boat and checked our sailing instructions quickly in the boat to make sure we were still going the correct way. Good thing we knew our rules -- we gained 3 places because of boats not finishing the race and receiving "DNF" scores!

For the second race, we tried a different technique of staying with the fleet and in the middle of the course, but still struggled to keep the boat flat and pointing high. The wind shifts here aren't as abrupt as in Alpena -- the jib doesn't luff and you decide to tack, it's more of an oscillation of back and forth lifts and headers that only last for a couple minutes each. Since it's impossible to tack on these, strategy and where you are on the course are a big part of racing. We're still working on that, though, and ended up finishing 7th. We were pretty close to the Netherlands all female team but never let them pass us, so that was comforting that we still have boat speed in high winds!

At the end of day 1 racing, we were happy with our finish, being able to hang in with the windy weather, and are looking forward to the future weather forecasts of decreasing wind conditions!