Jeff fair point I agree there is value in college sailing from a tactics and racing rules standpoint, we all know getting young blood into performance boats ASAP is key to the U.S's performance on the world stage.
Very interesting on the W helm stats but not too surprising, sail plan is powered up despite the current aluminum rigs!
I've been following the twitter feed and results very closely the last couple days. One thing that is striking, and present across most of our sailors (Bolger/Lihan might be an exception), is that we underperform in big breeze and do very well in light/shifty conditions. Just look at the results for today (light) compared to the last two days and it is very obvious.
There could be a couple reasons for this:
1. Our primary Olympic training site (Miami) is very light
2. Most college sailing venues are light and flat
3. Junior programs are shying away from sailing in big breeze (maybe, not sure)
4. We need to suck it up and just freakin' send it when it's big out there
I noticed the same trend at the F18 Worlds- our crews did substantially better in the lighter breeze compared to the Europeans who walked away in the breeze.
Good news is that we have a good foundation for the light air skills, and developing heavy air skills comes down to seeking out the conditions and not being afraid to go for it. Maybe we should all train in Hawaii!
