It was an up and down event for team Hollerbach at the July Grade 3 Chicago Match Race Center event. In hindsight we really suffered from a lack of training prior to the event. The conditions on Friday were very difficult with big wind shifts and differences in pressure on the short race course near Belmont harbor. During the races on Friday we did a good job executing our starting plan but an awful job being on the right side of any shifts wining only 2 matches out of 7. This was a far cry from our performance in the June event where we started 11 and 0 before losing our first race.

Match Racing is even more of a mental game then fleet racing, it is so absolute you either earn the point or you don't there is no middle ground and no moral victories. That said we did a decent job of regrouping for Saturday's sailing and doing what was needed to get into the final eight teams winning our first 3 matches on Saturday. Again we were feeling good and had momentum as we geared up to face Taylor Canfield (the eventually regatta winner) in the first round. In the Matches versus Canfield we never got control in the prestart. Taylor did a nice job of never letting us get separation to the right and keeping us in a weak position. That combined with a lot of unforced penalties stacked against us lead to a 3 up 3 down elimination and our chances for a top 4 finish was history. We were able to win our next match versus Lars Hansen and then lost a close match versus Don Wilson to finish in 6th place out 12 teams.

In hindsight there were several areas where we did not execute well and the competition has continued to improve. After the last two events our team has developed a poor mindset where we focus more on not losing then on winning. In match racing like fleet racing there is a balance between sailing the course as fast as possible and positioning yourself versus the competition. Our team spent too much time focusing on what the other team was doing and not enough time sailing our boat fast and putting ourselves in a good position. This makes the game more complicated then it needs to be and usually leads to mistakes. If you have a good team behind you they will find a way to get you out of position and make gains. 

We will have to look closely at how we communicate onboard especially on the downwind legs and improve our boat handling in the dial up and prestart. I know I can do a better job explaining the situations to Nathan so he has a clear picture of why a gybe or tack is being called. It is only our 2nd match race regatta together so at this point to expect blind faith from the driver would be foolish so I need to work on building the communication and being more assertive with information.

There is an outside chance we will receive an invite to the Grade 2 scheduled for the end of August between now and then we should have time to tighten up all the areas needed to be successful.