Thinking over the past few years there have been some great sailing highlights and low points all of which I have learned from. The last three years have been great, sailing the star all around the world has been a valuable way to improve my skills and sail in the toughest one design class in the world. I have also had the opportunity to sail with some of the top US match racer in the country and against some of the best in the world thanks to the Chicago Match Race Center. In the mean time I was able to mix in the Transpac race and a couple of Mac races all with very successful results.

In October I was happy to have a break from sailing but I had a tough question to answer, what to do next? I had one event on the schedule the star North American Championships in Tampa in November. I wasn't thinking much past that but by the end of October I was looking forward to getting back out on the water. Despite some light wind we had a nice event in Tampa and I knew after the event that we needed to keep Star sailing as part of the winter program. Brian Sharp my steady crew had the time so we added the Commodores cup Finishing 3rd and the upcoming OCR regatta to the schedule. I was also invited to sail on the TP 52 Patches during the upcoming MEXORC in March with what looks to be a very accomplished team. Both events will be great opportunities.

Looking further into 2012 I am going to make an effort for the first time in 3 years to base most of my sailing in Chicago during the summer. The Chicago Match Race Center has reached a point where it is attracting some of the best match racers in the world. In 2011 I did not participate there as much as I would have liked.  CMRC presents a great opportunity to sail world class events in my own back yard. One trend that I noticed last year was I spread myself thin over a variety of different boat classes and types of racing. This has some benefits but in 2012 I will try to narrow my focus for better success in specific disciplines of the sport. Match racing will be in the forefront of the 2012 spring and summer schedule. With this in mind I have requested invites to every CMRC event in 2012 that is currently available. I'm not sure how many events Ill be invited to sail in but I look forward to putting forth the best professional team I can field. As a crew I have had a lot of success at CMRC and my goal is to have similar results moving forward.

In addition to focusing on Match Racing I will be spending more time training in Chicago and racing less events. This means I will have to look a little more carefully at what events I choose to participate in as 2012 progresses.  Prior to sailing the Star North Americans I spent four days training in the Finn Dingy I really enjoyed it and I felt it was a great benefit to my downwind sailing and upwind hiking in the Star. I enjoy the physical nature of the Finn. Splitting days in Chicago between match race training and Finn sailing will be the core of how I plan to improve my abilities over the next year. I have also found that being at home base for extended periods of time is better for my physical training since I am able to eat and train better than being away from home. Less traveling more sailing and selecting a few key events to peak at will be the goal for 2012. I think this will be a more focused approach compared to the past where in many cases I overextended myself and the results suffered.

Next week OCR starts and the Scratch sheet is looking really tough with about 10 teams competing that will all be sailing in Weymouth come the 2012 summer Olympic games. You cant ask for a tougher event to start 2012 fire up.