Check out the press release here - http://www.sailing.org/28710.php

Greetings from das Deutschland! Yesterday was the conclusion of Kiel week, the first major part of my European sailing excursion this summer. I went into the regatta with horror stories of past Kiel weeks fresh in my mind and to my surprise (and many others) the weather was beautiful the whole time. I showed up a week early and trained for five days with three other US laser sailors in sunny, 70-degree weather with 15-20 knots every day. During the training camp we were all crossing our fingers with hopes that the incredible weather would carry through to the regatta. The sunny, warm conditions continued through the regatta but unfortunately a high-pressure system stuck over Kiel during the middle two days of the regatta and resulted in absolutely no breeze. The regatta ended up consisting of only two races on the first day and three races on the last day.

While I didn’t get nearly as much racing in as I wanted to, the races I did sail were high quality races in 8-12 knots against some of the fastest laser sailors in the world. It was a great experience and I took many valuable lessons away through sailing against all the fast Europeans and observing the top guys who have very polished games. Looking back on the regatta there are some parts of my sailing that I am very pleased with but there are also many other parts that have a lot of room for improvement.  Starting is definitely the biggest thing I need to work on. Unlike college events and laser regattas in North America, the European Laser sailors typically do their final approach to where they want to start at around two minutes. I was trying the port tack approach at around a minute and either had a very hard time finding a hole because everyone is good at defending theirs or was further off the line than the boats around me and was forced to bail or hang tough in bad air. I did the early setup for a race and was maintaining a good hole and great position on the line at the favored end but got flagged for sculling. Luckily it ended up being a general recall but this coupled with my other bad starts helped me realize that I need to rethink my approach to the line in big, international fleets and work on holding a position for a long time without calling attention to the judges. Although my starts were on the mediocre side, I was able to find a lane quickly and due to my good boat speed upwind and downwind I was able to pass a lot of boats and typically hung around the top ten in every race. The tope five usually got off the line well and leveraged to a side and because of this they would put a significant gap on the rest of the fleet making it nearly impossible to catch them. However, fifth through fifteenth were always virtually right next to each other and it made every detail stand out that much more. Any missed shift, bad tack, or slow run equated to getting passed by at least two or three boats. This made the racing very intense and I was able to learn from my losses or gains very easily after the race by gauging where I finished verse other boats that I was around. In the end I finished the regatta with a 9, 12, 15, 8, and 18 and ended up 29th. All in all I am pretty pleased with my races and where I finished in the regatta. Looking ahead, I know what I need to work on and feel that I can finish better than where I did if I put in the proper time and improve upon my weak spots.

Right now I’m hanging out and relaxing in Germany with Adam Roberts and Nick Martin and we are going to be doing some driving around and sightseeing for the next week. The next big part of my European excursion is the BUSA tour, which starts July 3rd. I’ll give another update during the BUSA tour when I can. Until then, I hope all is well with everybody back in the States, I’ll check in soon.

As one,
Charlie
 

Here is the link

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/scorecard/faces/2009/06/29/

Thanks to Mex Carey and Diana Pulupa at Gtown Sports Info for helping to get Charlie into SI.

A few weeks ago I took part in a Snipe sail test in Japan.  You can read the full report at

http://www.northsailsod.com/class/snipe/snipe_whatsnew.html#56

http://v009u07qap.maximumasp.com/uploads/Prize_Presentation_2009.pdf

Heron: 

-PHRF II 1st Place

-Blue Water Bowl NASS PHRF Fleet First (Best corrected time in fleet)

-City of Newport Trophy for Navigators

"Sailing prodigy Charlie Buckingham of Georgetown University and a member of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, has spent the last two years blazing through both international and intercollegiate Laser class competition. Last week at the ICSA National Championships in San Francisco, Charlie received the Everett B. Morris Trophy for the Men’s Collegiate Sailor of the Year as a sophomore for the Hoyas sailing team. “This is by far the biggest award I have ever won in my life,” said Charlie. “I’m still in shock from the time they said my name in the St. Francis (Yacht Club) dining room. It is truly an honor to have been chosen as the recipient for this award and right now I couldn’t be happier.”

He was also named an ICSA All-American. Charlie’s Hoyas finished third in both the Co-ed and Team Racing National Championships. At the age of 20, Charlie has excelled in every step of the way through his maturation process as an elite Laser sailor..."

Read more at: www.ussailing.org/News/sailoroftheweek/Default.aspx

My pictures and video will be on facebook shortly, but are also on http://picasaweb.google.com/trey.lord/AnnapolisToNewportJune2009?feat=directlink

Thanks for the shout out Campbell. We had a big win on Heron. The offshore game is very different, and I'd recommend all GUST give it a try. Definitely an "As One" mentality, but for 72+ hours straight.

We pushed hard, kept our focus, looked for breeze, and had a lot of help from bad coffee, the wind gods, favorable current, and a pod of dolphins that followed us for about 24 hours and I could have sworn pushed us when the breeze shut off and the fog closed in.

Only casualties were sleep, gourmet food, my camera, my back, and the forward bulkhead which had a hole punched through it when the loaded spinnaker pole shot backwards after one of our crew missed the spike trying to release the tackline while we were trying to change from the R3 to the R2 (reacher) at 3 AM the first night.

Will post a full description of the race on my blog (http://theiiirdworld.blogspot.com/) today after I nurse some wounds and get some more sleep. Also check out the on the water posts on http://heronracing.wordpress.com/

Everybody who's anybody is watching the Annapolis to Newport and Triznay is clearly GUST's best chance for offshore glory. Check out his team on board J120 Heron leading the PHRF II fleet in the home stretch to Newport inside of Block Island: http://maps.iboattrack.com/races/2009_annapolis_newport/htdocs/ 

Knock 'em in the dirt Triznay.

Congratulations, Hoyas!  You sailed great at Nationals, and your incredible season is evidenced in the avalanche of awards.  Congratulations to all of our All Americans and to our third College Sailor of the Year, Charlie!  As Andrew writes, though, any GUST success is a team succes, and As One proves once again that it works.  With such a young squad, you guys are laying the foundation for special things to come.  Way to be, and we'll see you back in DC.