The past week has been a hectic one for the girls on tour. Day 1, we tripped down to St Mary’s College, Maryland to be met by our American host. An hour later saw us at our first party where I think we were a sad disappointment – by this time the team had been awake for 24 hours and crept off in a taxi back to bed!
The next day having had our first introduction to FJs, the team took their first proper road trip down to Old Dominion University in Virginia to participate in the Riley Cup, a short course co-ed fleet racing event. Our half day of sailing FJs compared to 20 hours training a week of some of the other teams made us feel slightly fearful but we held our own finishing in a respectable 6th place out of 18. Each member of our 6 girl team helmed some races and amongst the results were a couple of bullets and a splattering of top 3s. Consistency was improving as time was spent in the boats. The Saturday night also saw more competitive play on the table tennis table as the US students taught us their favourite game: beer pong (for more details contact any of the BUSA Ladies’ Team).
Back in St Mary’s, Monday was spent training with the BUSA Boys’ Team in preparation for the following day’s team racing trophy match. Tuesday arrived and the weather forecast was teasing. Having set out in no breeze the FJ sailing session went well. However lunchtime came and the weather turned. The wind rose and we donned team spray tops in anticipation of the tropical storm. The American Allstars team arrived and we headed for the boats for the best of 7. The wind then turned off again and turned light and shifty. Sadly this was to stay and unfortunately our lack of time in the boats saw the American Allstars persistently sailing faster and more finely tuned with their boat handling. Despite our best efforts, and fact that we were winning all the starts, the Allstars’ superior pace paid and they left victorious.
Disappointed but not giving up we set off early for the State University of New York Maritime Academy. Some siteseeing and shopping was in order and 6 girls had smiles and full bags of new clothes at the end of the day.
The following day we continued north to Tufts and sailed Larks for the first time on the Tour. We were much more at home in these boats and despite the patchy breeze gave the Tufts guys and girls a good run for their money both in the fleet and team racing. That evening their head coach, renowned in the UK for his legendary Wilson Trophy commentary, gave a talk and slideshow (including a picture of the West Kirby Marine Lake!) before we headed to our first frat party – although we were unhappy to find there was a resident snake – and played some more beer pong.
Friday was a bit more relaxing after all the driving and travelling as we wandered around Boston. Through Claire’s determination we eventually found the Abercrombie and Fitch shop which was a “must” on our list of things to do and see.
We are now at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire doing a top all girl fleet racing regatta against some of the best female sailors in the US. Again in FJs we are not completely at home but currently are lying 8th out of 18 overall with 1 win in A division and 1 win in B division. Keep your fingers crossed for some breeze tomorrow as the forecast is dire!
We’ll try and send some pictures soon!
The BUSA Ladies’ Team
USA Tour 2007