Day 4?!? Really? Is that all we have done? 4 days of racing and 8 races completed in the 2013 North American Speed Sailing Championships.  
Once again I came up slightly short of my expectations but I am constantly learning and slowly improving both my boards and myself.
Race Director had given instructions for a possible start at 1100 hrs if the wind was averaging 15 knots. Well at 1000 hrs when I was the first one to arrive on station at Cape Poge the wind was averaging 16 knots but unfortunately Race Committee decided to wait until 1230 to start the first race. At that point the wind had been shifting through 20 degrees but the race course did have very good water texture. So with an average around 17 knots we kicked it off. I decided to rig big with my 17 Meter and my Port Tack SpeedBoard. This proved relatively fast for me with some VMax's over 39 Knots but with a right shift some of my runs pushed me to leeward of the finish line. In fact I think one of my fastest runs ended up not counting since I wasn't close enough to the finish buoy. I did have one altercation with good friend and timekeeper Chris as I entered the starting area. He blew a whistle on me claiming I had cutoff Brian Kender. This resulted in a very heated discussion between the two of us as I had been positioned in the lineup well before Brian but he had only seen me enter the starting area a split second after. What was frustrating was that we had discussed this exact scenario in the a Skippers meeting and it had been determined by the Race Director that the Racer in the lineup first had priority over the Racer who entered the starting area first. To me the person who entered the starting area first should have priority as that was very easy to rule on but the RD wanted it the other way. Needless to say I found it very ironic to be whistled on the ruling which I had argued for. Luckily Chris and I were able to work it out with the help and rational thinking from Mike Gebhardt. 
Overall I felt pretty good with the first two heats. I scored an 8th and 9th which as I previously stated were a bit below where I wanted but I had a great time. Unfortunately halfway through the second heat I blew up the Harken block on my trim system and had to drop my 17 Meter in favor of my 15 Meter. Then in the final seconds of the heat I came smoking down to the finish only to be face to face with Rob Douglas who had just finished a run and was starting to come back up wind. I skidded out in an attempt to keep from hitting him and in doing so my kite ended up going slack and then reloaded aggressively causing one of my center lines to break. It took about 12 minutes for the boat to retrieve me. Huge thanks to Gebi for helping get my kite wrapped up and tangled lines in the boat. We then were very quick to start a final heat. Unfortunately with two bars with long lines out of commission I opted for my 12 Meter on short lines. This proved a very poor decision as it was late in the day and the wind quickly faded from 17 knots to 13 knots. I struggled throughout the heat even on my symmetric board and I posted a very disappointing 11th place in the final heat. Results
It looks like the last few days of the event will bring some excellent conditions with winds from the SW pushing over 40 knots. 

Huge Thanks to my Partners:
The Dancing Turtle Coffee Shop
BEST KiteBoarding
Jamestown Distributors
Gorilla Rigging
Atlantis WeatherGear
Velocitek



 

Wild, wooly and overall insane...Day 3 was every bit of that and more. Course location was Katama but unfortunately the wind wasn't quite cooperating. There was plenty of pressure but the direction was more west creating a very deep almost dead downwind course. As we pushed back the start time from 12 to 1 to 2 and finally 2:30 the breeze slowly shifted  to the SW enough that allowed us a course to the east end of Katama Bay. The only problem with the course was that it had calf high chop at the beginning of the run and then a nice smooth section in the  followed by an exit into a flooding tide which created some very impressive and very treacherous corduroy chop. 
Given the absurdly deep angle the course had to be set up I decided to go with my 12 Meter Kite. I later came to realize this was the biggest kite on the course but after a few practice runs it felt surprisingly good even with the wind clocking in at 32 to 38 Knots. 
At the start of the heat I waited back to watch the first few riders take runs to try and get an idea of the best line down the course. With the deep angle and the chop it was imperative to get a good line that allowed you to be in flat water at the top and then still have enough angle to not hit the protruding point but still be very close. 
My first run was really good, I picked a good line and felt confident so on my second run I pushed it really hard and felt the board really light up. But as I finished and exited out into the wind vs. current chop my nose nipped a wave and I went from being on my feet doing 44 knots to being on my head doing 44 knots and then I began tumbling...and tumbling. I felt either my board or my other leg crank into my right calf/ankle and when I finally gathered myself I saw my board 50 meters upwind through the stars. Definitely my hardest fall so far. But after a relatively quick body drag back upwind to my board I was able to compose myself and get back on the board and start making it back upwind through the hip high chop that was outside the race course. 
From there the heat went relatively well but my entries were slow and I was finding myself inside on the protruding point. So much so that I actually ended up on the beach in one run. You can see the photo sequence below.
Unfortunately my results were once again less than stellar and despite riding hard I wasn't able to get the speeds out of the boards that I wanted. The guys on the top end of the scorecard were able to push their Vmax over 50 Knots with Rob Douglas doing an average over 50 knots with a VMax of 53!!! 
I am excited for another day out there today and am ready to push it. 
Huge thanks to Jana Halirova for taking the photos.

Just a little something to get you fired up on a Saturday Morning. Thomas Coville is currently on Standby for setting a new Solo Round the World Record...57 Days. 
Meanwhile back here on Martha's Vineyard I am setting up for Race 4 of the North American Speed Sailing Championships. Forecast looks great with a building SW Breeze that may touch 30 knots. Race Course will be a Starboard Tack 250 Meter in Katama Bay. More updates later this evening.

Day 2 of the North American Speed Sailing Championships was a long and weird day out at Cape Poge, albeit beautiful. The forecast was for a WNW Wind back to the WSW as the low in the Canadian Maritimes fueled the gusty gradient of 15-20 Knots. In theory this was all good but when you have cool air from up north mixing down it always wreaks havoc on consistency. So needless to say we saw a lot of big shifts in velocity and direction. 
The Race Director attempted to set a starboard tack course right in the elbow but by the time it was set the wind had backed from 300 degrees to 270 degrees making the race course exceptionally square. So then we waited, then we waited some more and finally we ran a long port tack just to the north of the windmill house. Now if the winds were already weird and shifty lets add a 15' sand dune with the occasional cutout for vehicles and see what things look like. The course was very deep at probably 140-160 True Wind angle depending on the puff but the water texture was very good. 
Having struggled to dial in the first two heats of the event on my small symmetric board aka TEAM DT Bullet I was looking to make some changes in my setup. I had modified my slightly larger symmetric board with a slightly lower aspect fin setup and moved the straps and found that I was significantly more steady in my line down the run. The wider board combined with the 22 cm Tectonics Fins allowed me the ability to extend my body a bit more and push the board harder. Unfortunately I am still working on this technique compared to the likes of Damo and Brian Kender but I finally felt little snippets of what I was looking for. Mind you I did say snippets because that is all I would get before a series of heinous crashes. For the first 15 minutes of the heat I crashed more times then I completed runs. It was actually pretty humorous but also very encouraging because for the first time since I finished these boards I felt the ability to push them hard, sometimes too hard. But I increased my top speed on the boards and had a few runs where my Vmax was just shy of 40 Knots. This is a 4 knot increase from the other day. Unfortunately the guys I am racing against are freakin awesome and some are averaging 44 knots, and that is in less than 20 knots of wind. Very impressive, especially when you see them ripping down the line fully extended, fully committed. I feel lucky to be involved with this group of sailors.
I am making some further alterations to the boards today so hopefully I can find a few more knots. I am currently sitting in 9th place so I am definitely moving in the right direction...just maybe not as quickly as I would like. HA! 
Huge thanks to my amazing wife Sheylah for keeping me well fed and hydrated. Also want to thank Tim and Jenny Klein for coming out to watch and help out and of course I have my very supportive list of partners:
Dancing Turtle Coffee Shop
Jamestown Distributors
BEST Kiteboarding
Gorilla Rigging
Atlantis Weathergear
Velocitek 

Click here for Results 

Want to get geeky on Foils? Sailing Anarchy along with Alan Block and Pete Crwaford just did this great interview on Moth World Champion Bora Gulari. 

Damn I love this sport! So much fun yesterday. Arrived at the Chappy Ferry at 0620 to be the first person in line for the 0700 Ferry. Had a gorgeous drive out East Beach to Cape Poge with the sun rising and the moon still high in the sky. Rigged up my 17, 15 and 12 Meter TS Kites from BEST along with my smaller Team DT Board and Starboard Tack Speed Board. 
Unfortunately it was a tough first day on the water for me. Huge tip of the cap to Captain Morgan Douglas who came out charging and is now sitting in first place after two heats. I showed up ready to roll but unfortunately my setup wasn't quite right for the 14-21 Knots of wind and I am sitting in 10th Place. Definitely not the start I wanted to have but I am confident that it's a long event and I can make some moves in the coming days. 
Coming into the NASSI I knew that the light air would be where I had to work hard and evolve throughout the event and my suspicions were correct, I have put together my worklist for the day and am looking to make a few changes to the boards and get ready to find myself a few more knots.
Results can be found here: http://www.rip-it.de/nassi13day1.html 
Unfortunately they don't have all those who helped get me here listed, going to have to get that updated...

Partners:
Thank you first and foremost to my Family!
Board Development: Dancing Turtle Coffee Shop
Kites: BEST Kiteboarding
Materials: Jamestown Distributors
Bars and Lines: Gorilla Rigging
GPS: Velocitek
Outerwear: Atlantis WeatherGear 

Great to see an all female crew back in the Volvo Ocean Race and even better to see they are already out testing the