Oakcliff Triple Crown 2021

Oyster Bay, NY - September 2021

After racing on beautiful Torch Lake, MI, we moved quickly back to the north side of Long Island to join the Triple Crown series at Oakcliff Sailing. We spent three weeks training in Oyster Bay, with six days of racing and 7 days of training with U.S Olympian Dave Hughes. This was a great cap to the summer where had opportunities to get time on a racecourse. We finished 4th of 8 in the two Triple Crown events in a mix of puffy breeze on days and very light wind.

This was our second opportunity of the summer to compete with a larger group. Stage 1 of the event brought good wind and several great races to practice shifting gears. Each upwind leg gave us oscillating wind shifts with large pressure changes, forcing us to maintain a steady heel on the boat and constantly look forward for changing wind. Our starts were very strong, however a capsize after missing a bail clip prevented us from finishing in the top three in the first event of the triple crown. The two days of good breeze put us in 4th overall.

Stage two brought much less breeze, though no less good practice. The first day showed us how important it was to keep the boat moving quickly through light wind, and after a hard day of racing we were sitting in second place. The second day brought even lighter wind and we dropped to fourth after stumbling on a few starts at the beginning of the day. Despite this, we were happy with our decision making and knew we could stay ahead of the fleet when we kept our composure.

Despite not finishing in the top three as we hoped to, we felt we had gained a lot of practice in shifty and puffy conditions which can be unforgiving in the 49er in particular. We created ways to constantly communicate about the upcoming wind and the necessary body movement to keep the boat flat.

We ended the Triple Crown in early October, ready to move south to our Miami training block starting mid October.