Sailing Update from Hyeres

Dear supporters, Sorry we have been out of contact for so long. We finished the regatta in Palma on a low note, struggling with basically everything. We then travelled to Les Sablettes, France to set up for 470 Spring Cup. We had one day of training in 20 knots before the event started. We had a variety of conditions over five days of competition. The racing for us was a repeat of Palma. We struggled to make smart decisions, made plenty of stupid decisions, and just couldn't seem to pull things together. On Friday after a bad day of racing we were both very demoralized and unhappy. Our motivation and happiness is something we have been struggling with this entire trip. It has felt most of the time like we are working extremely hard at banging our heads against the wall. We have seen very little actual progress in our racing skills, even though we improve in training. Things finally came to a head on Sunday in Les Sablettes. We came in from racing after the first race after a particularily negative conversation with our coach. Hannah and I went for a walk and had a long talk. We decided we could no longer continue working with Bunny, our coach. He is an amazing technical coach but personality wise we were all not getting along and clearly the relationship was not functional. We went racing on Sunday on our own, and actually had the best day of racing we've had since arriving in Europe. We didn't sail brilliantly, but we didn't make any massive blunders and we felt much more calm. There was one last race on Monday, and then on Tuesday we packed up and moved to Hyeres for La Semaine Olympic Francais de Voile. We have decided to do Hyeres on our own without a coach so we can focus on our teamwork and communication and then make a decision on whethor or not to continue to Barcelona and compete in the Olympic qualifier. This whole process has been very difficult for both of us. We feel an obligation to our family and friends and financial supporters to see this campaign through to the qualifier and try our hardest. However, we also feel a responsibility to our selves to not be completely miserable and anxious and stressed throughout the process, and to be realistic about our chances of qualifying at this point with our results to date. Aside from the sailing, I should add that the trip so far has not been a complete bust! We have also had some amazing experiences and made some good friends. We greatly enjoyed touring old town Palma and the cathedral, as well as cliff diving on the other side of the island. Les Sablettes and Southern France in general is absolutely amazing. The scenery, the friendly people and the food have all been highlights of the trip! We have uploaded some photos to picassa for you to view. Whatever we decide to do in the next month, we would like to end this campaign on a positive note. We are continuing to train hard both on and off the water and we hope to come away with a positive outlook on sailing and racing after Hyeres. We have both learned an incredible amount during this trip about sailing, life and ourselves and we know this will be put to good use in the future. I hope you will all understand and support our decisions.

South France

Spain 2012