Team AYC competes in Swan 42 U.S. Nationals at NYYC

Jay Kehoe, Waterfront Director

Hello all from Newport!

Wednesday, July 13 was day 1 with the full team here! We were measured yesterday and found the boat was 15 Kg light, now this is a 20,000 boat…you do the math. Needless to say coach went looking for lead and found it in the boat yard. It is now glued to the boat in the proper spots. While coach Jay was looking for lead, Shane, Rod and Fuzz got the rig straightened out (Fuzz is our North Sails coach who also coaches Olympic team GBR). He is here for 2 days to make sure we are all set with trim and rig set up. None of this matters come Invitational Cup, but we have a very steep learning curve to bring the trophy home and I am making sure we have the odds in our favor. So knowing how and why this boat sails the way it does is critical to our success.

After a morning of weighing the crew (27 lbs to spare), getting the sails ready, making sure the rig was right, replacing and changing halyards, and putting on all our stickers and bow numbers we finally got to go sailing around noon. As you can see from the photo we had a lot of light air but all in all a great practice, lining up against the Newport Harbor and Royal Thames teams and finally joined by the Royal Bermuda team. It was a very productive session with Team AYC getting off the line better and better as the day went on. Our speed proved to be an asset we hope to use come game time tomorrow.

After a long debrief back at the house, we were treated to a great dinner sent up with team member Chip Carr (great Ziti from Kathy). The team is getting ready now for an early boat call of 0815 and a full day of racing, the forecast calls for a big front ripping through the area tonight and from the storms we see outside this may be one time the weather man may be right. So hopefully we will have some great breeze in the am.

Signing off from Newport. And Thanking everybody for their support.