Friends and Supporters,

As promised, lots more of the inside stories from our win at the Olympic Trials!

Measurement:
Normally measurement is a no-brainer, as we pre-measure everything ourselves, so typically the official measurement goes smoothly. The one thing we can’t pre-measure accurately is the weight of the boat. We were shocked to find that at official measurement our boat was 1.4 kg heavy, which is about 3 pounds. Normally the boats come from the factory light, and we add weight at measurement to bring it up to the required weight of 94 kg. Our boat was heavy, meaning we would be sailing with a disadvantage if we didn’t somehow get the boat lighter. We didn’t find out the boat was heavy until 48 hours before the first race, but we went to work on the problem right away. The first thing we did was call the builder in New Zealand , and get ideas from him. He checked his records, and when he built the boat it was light and he added a 3 kg pile of lead shot and resin into the bottom of our boat next to the centerboard trunk. We were surprised to find this out, but also slightly relieved since we might be able to get some of this factory corrector weight out.

With the measurer’s approval, we took the boat off site to a boat builder who used a hole saw to drill a 6” hole in our deck. We then helped him chip, file, and drill away at the 3kg pile of lead shot until we had loosened and vacuumed out 1.4kg of shot out of the boat. He then repaired the whole in the deck, and we were ready to go again. The whole process took a fair amount of time, but we had the boat back at the club by 9pm the night before the last day of measurement. The next morning the boat measured in perfectly. We were incredibly thankful to our boat builder friend, Gary, who dropped everything to help us out, including working through a dinner party that was at his house.

Day 1: Nerves
Of course, with so much riding on a winner takes all event, it’s only natural to feel a bit nervous before the first race of the Olympic Trials. In fact, most sports psychologists say its actually good to be nervous because that means you are fully committed and ready to perform at your peak. Those of you have followed my sailing for awhile may remember that being nervous led to an error at the 2004 Olympic Trials that caused Pete and I to capsize in the first race. So, with that in mind, I was determined to sail conservatively in the first race and not make any big mistakes.

In the end, we did make a small nerve induced error, earning us a tough start to race number one, but at the first weather mark we discovered that the biggest error belonged to our rivals Morgan and Pete who were pulled out of the race for starting early (OCS), giving them 14 points in the first race. After they were pulled out, we went on to win the race. A great way to start the series!

The full results are at: https://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/regatta_scores.php?ID=1549&show_crew=1

Day 2: Tough day for Morgan and Pete
This was a solid day for us, and a very bad day for Morgan and Pete. Race 4 was a defining moment. As we approached the weather mark we had been out of phase with the wind shifts and were back in 5th. Morgan and Pete got rolled by two boats on the lay line and as they approached the weather mark they were rounding 4th, but had very little speed. We were 5th, right behind them, and gaining fast. Morgan started to jybe set, and we also started to jybe set right behind him. We managed to sneak our bow pole inside of his transom, and while still on starboard, we prevented him from jybing to port with our bow pole. We were the only boat to jybe set, and our side came in HUGE. At the leeward gate we were 1st. This situation at the weather mark turned into a 3 hour protest that evening after we got off the water. Morgan claimed that when coming in from behind, our bow pole touched the back corner of his wing. This alleged contact would have been a foul by us, and he asked the jury to disqualify us. We thought no contact had occurred. This type of “he said, she said” protest can be very tough, but lucky for us, event photographer Chris Henscheid had a rapid fire photo sequence of the mark rounding. The photos showed that no contact occurred and the protest was disallowed. Thanks Chris! http://sdsailor.smugmug.com/gallery/3597545#P-8-15 You have to look carefully to see our bow pole.

Race 5 was also a defining moment. On the second beat it was Dalton and Zack winning, us 2nd and Morgan and Pete 3rd. The wind got very unstable, and Morgan and Pete worked far to the right of the fleet trying to pass us. The wind made a massive shift left, sending us to 3rd, and Morgan and Pete to 9th. While this shift cost us one point, it cost our main rivals 6 points when they dropped from 3rd to 9th.

Race 6 Morgan and Pete continued their undoing. They started early again, getting another OCS for 14 more points. We won the race.

Day 3: Poor day for us, Morgan and Pete on fire.
The first two days of the event had been averaging around 12 knots of wind, which is slightly more than usual for San Diego . These conditions seemed to be to our liking as we had excellent boat speed. Day 3 was our first chance to race in a very light breeze that never topped 7 knots. These conditions seemed to be to the liking of Morgan and Pete who won all three races. Dalton and Zack has a pair of 2’s and an OCS. We didn’t have any disasters, but we didn’t look good with our 4,3,3 scores.

Day 4: Double snake eyes on TV day
I’m not a gambler, but I know when two dice come up 1 and 1 it is called “snake eyes”. We decided to name this day double snake eyes. We won all three of the scheduled races, and the wind was so good the committee decided to go one race ahead of schedule and sail four races. We won the extra race too. So we named our scores that day of 1-1-1-1 double snake eyes.

Day 4 was also a “TV day.” We call it a “TV” day because we had onboard video cameras for Gary Jobson’s NBC coverage, camera men filmed the race and we did interviews before and after racing with Gary . At the Olympics in Athens we also had “TV days” on which we carried live onboard cameras. We had two TV days in Athens , and both days we won a race. So, there seems to be a pattern with my sailing: TV cameras = race wins.

Another factor was that the conditions that day were again around 12 knots, and relatively steady. Our upwind boat speed, boat handling, and downwind speed did the job. It was just one of those days where those thousands of hours of preparation we have done came together to allow us to sail incredibly well.

Day 5: Lay day

Day 6: Light air, decent day
Coming back from the lay day we knew we would start to see Morgan/Pete and Dalton/Zack get more aggressive about pushing us back in the fleet. We had built up a considerable point margin on them, and time was running out. On this day we started well, winning the first race, but during the next two races we got a taste of what to expect in the future: aggressive match racing and team racing tactics used by Morgan to try and push us back in the fleet while still maintaining good scores for himself. He did a very good job of it this day, twice pushing us out of 2nd and back to 3rd, without losing his 1st place in the races.

Day 7: Light air team racing
All in all, a day I would rather forget. Morgan won all three races, but two of these races we were winning at the weather mark and made bad choices on the run to fall to 2nd. Once we fell to 2nd, Morgan would match race us until Dalton was back in the race, and once he managed to get Dalton by us. Our 2,3,2 were not a disaster, but at the same time we could have almost put the series out of reach by following through on a couple of our races and winning them. Nevertheless, we continued to keep our composure despite the pressure he was putting on us, and we didn’t succumb to any OCS’s, DSQ’s or scores outside the top 3. Twice on this day we had altercations with people, but both times we played it safe by doing 360 degree penalty turns.

Day 8: Time to take control
Only 5 races left, and we haven’t sailed a drop race yet (our drops are 3 and 4 at this point). Morgan and Pete can’t afford a drop since they already have two OCS’s, so we decide to get aggressive and attack Morgan in the pre-start. The first race of the day our attack is unsuccessful, as Morgan loses us in some traffic and starts midline. We were winning the race, but screwed up the last beat and he got by us for his 6th race win in a row. Ouch.

Next race we attack again, and this time we push him down to the pin end, and wait behind him for the right moment. At 15s we bear off and reach behind him. He sheets in as well, but is running out of space on the line. He has to bail out, and we are trying to prevent him from both tacking or jybing, by staying right behind him. At the last second he managed to jybe out, and we start clean on starboard at the pin end. After jybing out he had a poor lane right, and the left came in big time. We finish the race 2nd, and he claws back to 4th.

Last race of the day, and we attack again. We get him in the same scenario, with us behind him down near the pin end. At 15s we reach down at him again, but this time it looks like he is possibly stuck in something we call “coffin corner”, where he is too early, and too close to the pin, and will have to choose between sheeting in early and being over, or hitting the pin end. We start just to windward to him. At the gun it looks like he was over. Chris says to me “I think we were both over”. At this point in the series we have 3 races left, and 2 drops to give, so we decided not to restart unless he does. He keeps going, so we do as well. At the weather mark he is pulled out of the race for being over early! Of course, Chris was right, and we were also pulled out. Because of the drops the OCS cost us almost nothing, but the additional 14 points for Morgan mathematically eliminated him from winning the trials with two races to sail.

So, the OCS in race 22 was the defining moment that really sealed our victory. I have never been so happy after being pulled out of a race for an OCS!

Day 9: Easy Day
Only two races today, and all we needed was to finish 8th or better in the first race to ensure we beat Dalton overall and then we could sail in and skip the last race. At the start Dalton attacked, and we played the game super conservatively to make sure we didn’t foul. We started in dead last, but quickly moved through the fleet. At the weather mark we were 7th, at the gate 5th, next top mark we were 3rd, and we finished the race in 2nd. It was easy to move through the fleet because Morgan was attacking Dalton , trying to solidify second place overall. So our last race was kind of anti-climatic, more a formality than anything else. We had an awesome celebration with our fans, flipping the boat and swimming in the water. Ery and I had a great kiss on top of the centerboard while drinking champagne. Yeah!

The moment we won was almost three days ago now. It’s been a hectic 3 days, that has including plenty of celebration but we have also been packing up boats and putting them in shipping containers for upcoming events, and traveling home. During this time we have heard from many friends and supporters wishing us congratulations. My cell phone and email have been on overdrive and it has been great. Chris and I feel really lucky to have so many people out there pulling for us! Thanks.

Chris and I are incredibly aware that winning the trials was a team effort that included the support of many people. Roughly 100 private individuals have donated to our campaign, and we are very appreciative. Southwestern Yacht Club deserves congratulations for not only running a superb trials, but the club also deserves our thanks for supporting Chris and I so well. We also owe thanks to SECORA Consulting, Sailing Foundation of New York, US Olympic Committee and the Thurnersee Yacht Club who all made significant contributions to our campaign. Our equipment suppliers have been great, and we encourage you to support them: Kaenon, McLube, Gill, Harken, New England Ropes, Sailing Angles and Patagonia .

A few other people who deserve special mention: Our coach Thomas Johanson was simply outstanding, and he is an inspiration to us. Thanks to Bill and MaryAnn Fallon whom I lived with a total of almost 50 days over the last year. Finally a big thanks to SWYC Junior Program Director Jana Odou who has supported my sailing for over 20 years. She was our ground support in San Diego and this win was also a win for her and the junior program. Thanks!

Finally, we would like to thank our families for supporting us throughout this campaign, and I would like to say a special thanks to my wife Ery for encouraging me to continue chasing my Olympic dreams. This campaign would have never started, let alone succeeded, without her support, encouragement and love.

The Olympic Trials were incredibly draining--mentally, physically and emotionally. A lot of people have been asking about the future: How will we prepare for the Olympic Games in China ? What does the year ahead bring? To be honest, we haven’t really thought about it too much. We were completely focused on winning the trials. In fact, we don’t think we will be mentally prepared to think about the future for some time—at least a couple weeks. Right now we are just enjoying the victory and recovering. As our plans for the Olympic Games in China shape up we will share those plans with you.

Thanks again for all your support!
Tim and Chris

How to Help Team Wadlow/Rast:
Make a 501c3 Tax Deductible Donation
Checks Payable to: Sailing Foundation of New York – Wadlow/Rast
Mail to: Tim Wadlow, 640RR Hale St. , Beverly , MA 01915 .

Supported by
Donations from private individuals
SECORA Consulting
Southwestern Yacht Club
Thunersee Yacht Club
US Sailing and US Olympic Committee
Sailing Foundation of New York

Equipment Supporters:
· Kaenon - Sunglasses www.kaenon.com
· McLube – Marine Lubricant www.mclube.com
· Douglas Gill – Sailing Gear www.gillna.com
· Harken – Blocks and Hardware www.harken.com
· New England Ropes www.neropes.com
· Sailing Angles – Sailing Gear www.sailingangles.com
· Patagonia – www.patagonia.com

How to Contact Us:
Tim Wadlow timwadlow@gmail.com 781.413.1700 (cell)
Chris Rast chris@soapfactory.com 919.323.1073 (cell)

Photo: Chris Henscheid